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IOL News
2 days ago
- Politics
- IOL News
US-SA relations strained as leaks unveil mistrust within governments, warns expert
US President Donald Trump's February executive order in February establishing the program specified that it was for "Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination," referring to an ethnic group descended mostly from Dutch settlers. Image: AFP US foreign policy expert Michael Walsh has warned that the recent 'leaks' between the US and the South African governments were indications of deep mistrust between the two administrations. Reuters reported on Saturday that US embassy Charge d'Affaires in South Africa, David Greene, reached out to Washington asking for clarification whether non-whites such as "coloured" South Africans who speak Afrikaans qualify for the refugee program for South Africans under the contentious US policy. US President Donald Trump's February executive order in February establishing the program specified that it was for "Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination," referring to an ethnic group descended mostly from Dutch settlers. Walsh - a non-resident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, an American think tank based in Pennsylvania - said on Sunday that the US leak suggested that there was unease with the Trump Administration's policy stance on South Africa within the US. Department of State. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. 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Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ Walsh said since reports indicate that the question was asked in an official diplomatic cable from the US Embassy in South Africa, it means there was someone within the US Government who had access to that confidential cable who was willing to violate information handling protocols in order to throw the Trump Administration under the bus. 'No one should take that lightly. Whoever leaked the information in that cable would have known that it would play right into the hands of the Trump Administration's critics in the United States and abroad,' Walsh said. 'In other words, they would have known that it would have led to the characterization of Trump - and by extension the US Government - as racist. That makes it an extraordinary leak. It suggests that there are elements within the US Government who want to undermine the policy platform of the administration.' However, Walsh said what was not clear was whether their underlying motivation was to undercut the refugee program for Afrikaners or the president himself. Either way, he said this leak is likely to elicit a response from the White House and that would be bad news for the US-South Africa relations. This comes as the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs last week passed a bill which seeks to re-evaluate the bilateral relationship between the United States and South Africa, and identify government leaders who should be subject to sanctions. South Africa is also hoping for the US to extend the 1 August deadline for the implementation of the 30% import tariffs on South African products such as agricultural products, metals and vehicles. Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Parks Tau, last week told Parliament that South Africa has signed a key agreement with the US trade representative, days before new import tariffs are set to take effect. South Africa has no representative in Washington to whom the US government can speak after the expulsion of Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool and the stymied assumption of office by the Presidential Envoy, Mcebisi Jonas. Democratic Alliance MP Emma Powell recently issued a statement alleging that Jonas had been denied entry to the US and that the country refused to accept his credentials. Walsh said this leak suggested that there was something rotten in the Government of National Unity. He said the DA has made the US Government and other international actors aware of potential threats to Powell, adding that these threats were being taken seriously in Washington. 'When you consider these leaks, I would argue that it becomes clear that there is a latent parallel that can be drawn between what is happening in the United States and South Africa,' Walsh said. 'It revolves around the internal disagreements that are being waged within the governments over the official foreign policy of the country with respect to the other. 'In the US, that battle is being waged between President Trump and his bureaucrats. In South Africa, it is between the ANC and DA. The leaks manifest those conflicts in a particularly visceral way.' BUSINESS REPORT
IOL News
10-07-2025
- Business
- IOL News
SA faces new foreign policy, trade challenges under Trump's administration, warns US expert
US President Donald Trump this week slapped South Africa with 30% tariffs on 'any and all South African products sent into the United States' from August 1 'to correct the unsustainable trade deficits' against the US. Image: GCIS US foreign policy expert Michael Walsh has warned that the 30% tariff imposed on South African imports by the United States was likely the first in a series of actions that will be taken against South Africa by the Trump Administration over the next year. This comes as US President Donald Trump this week slapped South Africa with 30% tariffs on 'any and all South African products sent into the United States' from August 1 'to correct the unsustainable trade deficits' against the US. Walsh - a non-resident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, an American think tank based in Pennsylvania - said on Wednesday that Trump was going to take more retaliatory actions against South Africa for misalignment with US national security and foreign policy interests before the end of the year. These actions, according to Walsh, could even include economic sanctions, travel restrictions, visa bans, and counterterrorism investigations. Walsh said the Trump Administration has made a public commitment to promoting prosperity through reciprocal trade and using economic coercion against those undermining US national security and foreign policy interests. He said the imposition of an additional ad valorem rate of duty was entirely consistent with following through on those commitments. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading 'In all likelihood, the Trump Administration is going to take more retaliatory actions against South Africa for misalignment with US national security and foreign policy interests before the end of the year,' Walsh said. 'It will not stop with the new duty, as it did not stop with the foreign assistance ban. It will continue to take such actions until US relations with South Africa mirror US relations with malicious actors. That is the reality. 'Under the Trump Administration, South Africa cannot be friends with Iran and work to undermine the world order with China and expect the US Government to give it a pass. It is not going to happen. This is not the Biden Administration. The Trump Administration is going to put South Africa in the box with adversaries and rivals.' This comes as Trump has also threatened to charge a 10% tariff on imports from BRICS countries 'pretty soon' over the bloc's 'anti-American policies of BRICS' and its persistent push to diminish the US dollar's dominance as a reserve currency. "Anybody that's in BRICS is getting a 10% charge pretty soon ... If they're a member of BRICS, they're going to have to pay a 10% tariff ... and they won't be a member long," Trump said. 'BRICS was set up to hurt us, BRICS was set up to degenerate our dollar and take our dollar, take it off as the standard.' Walsh said what South Africans desperately needed to understand was that the Trump Administration has an internally coherent strategic stance on South Africa that marks a major departure from the last administration. He said that for the sake of the US-South Africa relations, there needs to be a moment of national reflection in South Africa and that an important lesson therefore needs to be drawn from the foreign assistance and reciprocal trade decisions. 'South Africans may want to think hard about whether their national interests are best served by having their government continue to pursue policies and partnerships that undermine US national security and foreign policy interests. If so, then South Africans should expect the Trump Administration to impose a steep price on South Africans for governmental decisions that undermine US national security and foreign policy interests,' Walsh said. 'We have entered a new era in US-South Africa relations. There is no more business as usual. The status quo is permanently out the window. That should be factored into the South African expectations around Agoa renewal and G20 participation. It should also be factored into the expectations of South African political elites about economic sanctions, travel restrictions, visa bans, and counterterrorism investigations.'
08-07-2025
- Business
ExxonMobil and partner Qatar Energy find new natural gas deposit off Cyprus
NICOSIA, Cyprus -- A consortium made up of ExxonMobil and partner Qatar Energy International has made a second natural gas discovery beneath the seabed south of Cyprus, the government said Monday, a find that bolsters the region's potential as an energy exporter. New natural gas discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean could help Europe lessen its dependence on Russian hydrocarbons by diversifying its energy supply and help buttress a budding energy partnership between Cyprus, Greece and Israel, said John Sitilides, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and geopolitical strategist at Trilogy Advisors in Washington. 'Washington and Brussels would be wise to support this hydrocarbon network to develop a greater measure of critical energy independence for Europe's hopeful re-industrialization,' Sitilides said. Cypriot government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said in a written statement that the ExxonMobil's vice president, John Ardill, briefed Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides about the discovery at the Pegasus-1 well during a teleconference. The well was discovered about 190 kilometers (118 miles) southwest of Cyprus at a depth of 1,921 meters (6,302 feet) of water. No estimates of the quantity of natural gas were given. The statement said more assessments will be conducted in the coming months to evaluate the results. The ExxonMobil-Qatar Energy consortium holds exploration licenses for two areas — or blocks — inside Cyprus' exclusive economic zone. In 2019, the consortium discovered the Glaucus-1 well inside the same Block 10 where the Pegasus-1 well is located. Cypriot authorities say Glaucus-1 is estimated to contain 3.7 trillion cubic feet of gas. Overall, Pegasus-1 is the sixth natural gas deposit to be discovered inside Cyprus' economic zone in the last 14 years. Other deposits include the Zeus, Cronos and Calypso wells, which lie inside Block 6 that is operated by a consortium made up of Italy's Eni and Total of France. Cronos is estimated to hold 3.1 trillion cubic feet of gas and Zeus 2.5 trillion cubic feet. Calypso is still being evaluated. The Eni-Total consortium holds exploration licenses for four blocks. The earliest field to be discovered, Aphrodite, is estimated to hold 5.6 trillion cubic feet of gas. The field is inside Block 12, which is operated by a consortium made up of Chevron, NewMed Energy and Shell. Agreements with Egypt foresee gas from the Cronos and Aphrodite fields to be sent to Egypt via a pipeline for either domestic use or to be processed at Egyptian facilities for export to Europe and other markets.
Politico
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Halted military aid for Ukraine may start flowing again
Trump discussed the aid pause on a call Friday with Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy, and also addressed a potential ceasefire agreement with Russia. The Ukrainian president said it was 'probably the best conversation we have had during this whole time, the most productive.' That call came a day after Trump spoke with Putin, a conversation the president indicated did not go well. He was 'very unhappy' with the Putin call , he told reporters over the weekend. 'It just seems like he wants to go all the way and just keep killing people. It's not good. I wasn't happy with it.' In contrast, he indicated that the call with Zelenskyy was more productive, and suggested that more weapons could soon be on the way. When asked about supplying more Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine — which were stopped under orders from the Pentagon — Trump replied, 'Yeah, we might … they're going to need something because they're being hit pretty hard.' On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated that the aid stoppage wasn't permanent, portraying it as 'a pause, to review, to ensure that everything the Pentagon is pushing out there is in the best interests of our military and our men and women in uniform.' Some of the weapons denied to Ukraine included 8,400 155mm artillery rounds, 142 Hellfire missiles, and 252 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System missiles, which can precisely hit targets up to 50 miles away. Most significantly, the halted shipment also included 30 Patriot missiles used for shooting down Russian missiles and drones, which have been pounding apartment buildings and other civilian infrastructure in Kyiv. 'The air defense munitions — the Patriots — are obviously the big one because Russia is producing so many UAVs that are becoming harder to hit with Ukraine's mobile air defenses,' said Rob Lee, who studies the Russia-Ukraine war for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. 'Russia is actually targeting the defense industry, and sometimes they have success and they destroy factories, so providing air defense systems is important because it also helps Ukraine produce its own munitions so it can sustain the fight itself,' Lee added. The stepped-up Russian attacks killed at least 11 civilians and injured more than 80 others, including children, Ukrainian officials said Monday. Over the past week, Russia launched at least 1,270 drones, 39 missiles and 1,000 glide bombs at different areas of Ukraine, Zelenskyy said Monday. Eli Stoklos contributed reporting.
27-06-2025
- Politics
Trump heralds US-brokered peace deal between DRC, Rwanda
Trump administration officials on Friday oversaw the signing of a U.S.-brokered peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, a deal President Donald Trump said would end "one of the worst wars anyone's ever seen." He hosted the top diplomats from both countries in the Oval Office, where he declared "today the violence and destruction comes to an end." "The entire region begins a new chapter of hope and opportunity, harmony, prosperity and peace," he said. "That's been a long time waiting." The official signing of the peace agreement took place earlier Friday at the State Department and was witnessed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Senior Adviser for Africa Massad Boulos, whom Trump has largely credited with bringing about the deal. "This is an important moment after 30 years of war. President Trump is a president of peace. He really does want peace. He prioritizes it above all else," Rubio said at the event. The president has previously touted the agreement on his online platform while lamenting that he wouldn't receive enough accolades for his role in bringing it about. "This is a Great Day for Africa and, quite frankly, a Great Day for the World! I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize for this," he posted last week. "No, I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that's all that matters to me!" Members of the Trump administration have praised the deal as an important step toward bringing an end to a decadeslong conflict in Central Africa, which stems back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. According to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, violence perpetrated by dozens of armed groups in the eastern DRC has cost more than 6 million lives since 1996. The conflict surged in 2022, when Rwandan military forces entered the DRC to provide support to the March 23 Movement, a rebel group also known as M23, and its insurgency against the Congolese military. The terms of the peace deal signed on Friday call for both countries to end support for non-state groups, the return of refugees, and the creation of a joint security coordination mechanism aimed at resolving disputes. But Trump has signaled there's more to gain from the agreement than just putting a stop to the fighting between the DRC and Rwanda. On Friday, he said the U.S. would also be getting "a lot of mineral rights" from the DRC as part of the arrangement. The deal paves for the way for American investment in the mineral-rich region by directing both countries to launch an economic framework aimed at expanding "foreign trade and investment derived from regional critical mineral supply chains and introduce greater transparency." Critics of the agreement say it could lead the way to resource exploitation and overlooks critical areas of discord. "It risks reducing peace to a transactional exchange. Minerals are only one driver of conflict," said Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, a senior associate with the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The United States and its allies must support a robust legal and reconciliation framework, including reparations for victims, disarmament and reintegration programs, and accountability for war crimes," he said. "Without these elements, the deal will not live up to its promises," he said.
