Lifting sanctions on Syria ‘gives them a chance of greatness’, Donald Trump says
Donald Trump has said that lifting sanctions on Syria “gives them a chance of greatness”.
“The sanctions were really crippling, very powerful,” he added. He said the US will drop “all of the sanctions on Syria, which I think will be a good thing.”
He said that he is looking to normalise relations with Syria.
Key events
Trump touches down in Qatar for day two in Middle East amid furore back home over gift of $400m luxury jet
Here are some photos from Trump’s arrival in Qatar, the second stop on his four-day tour of the Middle East aimed at drumming up investment and economic deals.
And, for those interested in revisiting just why Donald Trump’s acceptance of the Qatari plane has proved so controversial, here is Ed Pilkington’s analysis of the scandal.
Accepting a ‘gift’ of a luxury jet from Qatar is just the most eye-catching of the president’s ethically questionable acts, he writes.
See the full piece here:
With Donald Trump in Doha for his Qatari state visit, attention will turn to his acceptance of a $400m ‘palace in the sky’ airplane.
The gift has proven highly controversial not just among his political opponents – the Democrats are flying a protest banner over Mar-a-Lago today – but also his Maga allies.
Ben Shapiro, the prominent rightwing commentator, led the charge on his daily podcast. “President Trump promised to drain the swamp – this is not, in fact, draining the swamp,” he said.
Linking Qatar to the militant Palestinian group Hamas and Al Jazeera, the media network that is widely detested on the right and is partly funded by the Qatari government, he added: “Taking sacks of goodies from people who support Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Jazeera, all the rest, that’s not America First … If you want President Trump to succeed this kind of skeezy stuff would be stopped.”
The planned gift of the 13-year-old Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet, which Trump would inherit personally after he leaves the White House, has achieved the seemingly impossible: it has united the president’s most fervent fans with his most ardent opponents. Laura Loomer, the far-right Maga activist, warned that the proposed gift would put “such a stain on the administration”.
Loomer said she loved Trump and would “take a bullet for him. But I have to call a spade a spade. We cannot accept a $400m ‘gift’ from jihadists in suits.”
The conservative New York Post, meanwhile, published an editorial headlined: “Qatar’s ‘Palace in the Sky’ jet is NOT a ‘free gift’ – and Trump shouldn’t accept it as one.”
Sam Levine
Justice department officials have asked civil rights division attorneys to reconsider their decision to leave the department in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign that the agency may have been caught off-guard by the wave of personnel leaving.
Officials have also asked attorneys, including career managers, who were involuntarily detailed to low-level offices last month, if they would consider returning to their sections to handle civil rights work, the people said. The attorneys were removed in late April in what was widely understood as an effort to force them to accept a paid offer to leave the department.
Leadership had also encouraged employees to accept the paid offer to leave. As a 28 April deadline approached for accepting the paid leave offer, Michael Gates, a political appointee in the civil rights division, told section chiefs there would be a “tightening of the belt” moving forward, a person familiar with the matter said.
More than 250 civil rights division attorneys have left since January or are planning to leave, an approximate 70% reduction in the division’s personnel.
It’s unclear how many attorneys were asked to stay and how many, if any, accepted. The Guardian has confirmed that the request was made at least of attorneys in the educational opportunities section, which enforces anti-discrimination law in schools. Many of the Trump administration’s priorities, including challenging DEI programs, investigating allegations of antisemitism on campuses and limiting the rights of transgender people, fall under the purview of the section.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Israel was not sidelined by his trip to the Gulf and that good US relations with those countries is good for Israel.
“This is good for Israel,” Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One. “Having a relationship like I have with these countries … I think it’s very good for Israel.”
The Syrian foreign minister said in a statement on Wednesday that the meeting between Donald Trump and the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, included discussions about combating terrorism and cooperation in eliminating the influence of non-state actors and armed groups that threaten Syrian stability, including the Islamic State.
This meeting will be followed by another between the Syrian foreign minister and his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, Reuters reported.
In a statement, the foreign ministry said the meeting also addressed ways to “enhance Syrian-American partnership in the field of counter-terrorism and cooperation in eliminating the influence of non-state actors and non-Syrian armed groups that hinder stability, including Islamic State and other threats”.
Democrats fly ‘Qatar-a-Lago’ banner over Trump’s Florida resort
With president Donald Trump looking to accept a $4o0 million luxury plane for his personal use from the Qatari government, the Democrats are planning a protest today.
Democrats have arranged to fly a sky banner over Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida that reads: ‘Qatar-a-Lago’.
DNC chair Ken Martin said:
Donald Trump is using the presidency to personally enrich himself while he bankrupts working families. His corruption is a slap in the face to the millions of Americans who are struggling to get by and put food on the table.
Today, the DNC is highlighting what foreign autocracies around the world already know: Trump has no loyalty to the American people, national security, or the constitution – his only allegiance is to his bank account and his billionaire buddies.
Whether it’s billionaires at home or governments abroad, Trump won’t hesitate to sell out America’s working families to the highest bidder.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he does not know if Russian president Vladimir Putin will show up for talks on the war in Ukraine planned for Thursday in Turkey.
“He’d like me to be there, and that’s a possibility … I don’t know that he would be there if I’m not there. We’re going to find out,” Trump told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One en route to Qatar.
He has said he may visit Turkey for the talks as part of his trip to the Middle East this week.
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday expressed his thanks to US president Donald Trump for the US announcement that it would lift all sanctions on the Syrian government.
In a speech to lawmakers from his AK Party in parliament, Erdogan also said he had trust in the support of “my friend Trump” for Turkey’s efforts to end the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza.
Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said there will be many investment opportunities in Syria after the US lifts sanctions, a day after a surprise US announcement it would lift all sanctions on the Islamist-led government.
Bin Farhan added that there will be a breakthrough in the kingdom’s support to Syria after the lifting of US sanctions.
Americans worry about president Donald Trump’s administration’s ability to contain an ongoing outbreak of measles, while the vast majority of them believe that vaccines for the disease are safe, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Just 31% of respondents in the two-day poll, which closed on Tuesday, agreed with a statement that the current administration is handling the measles outbreak responsibly, while 40% disagreed and the rest were unsure or did not answer the question.
The US is now facing its largest single outbreak of measles in 25 years, with the number of cases crossing the 1,000 mark last week, Reuters reports.
The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine prevents 97% of cases after two doses and high adoption of the MMR vaccine resulted in the disease being declared eliminated in 2000 by the World Health Organization. Nonetheless, vaccination rates among US children have fallen in recent years, which experts attribute to vaccine skepticism and misinformation.
The vast majority of Americans still see the MMR vaccine as safe. Some 86% of respondents in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll said it was safe for children, a marginally higher share than the 84% who said the same in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in May 2020, in the early months of the COVID pandemic. Some 13% of respondents in the latest poll said the vaccine was not safe for kids, up marginally from 10% five years earlier.
The latest poll, which surveyed 1,163 US adults nationwide, had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Helena Horton
Brooke Rollins, US agriculture secretary, has been visiting London to finalise the details of the US-UK trade deal agreed last week.
She told reporters, as she visited the new Whole Foods supermarket in Chelsea, that she had convinced energy Secretary Ed Miliband to take more wood pellets from America.
These are used to power the Drax power station, which environmental experts have said is unsustainable because burning wood emits carbon and the pellets used to power it are shipped across the ocean.
The drax plant accounts for about 6% of the UK’s electricity supply but it had its subsidies halved last year, and was directed by government to only use sustainable wood.
Last year, Drax was forced to pay £25m to the energy regulator Ofgem after it was found to have submitted inaccurate data on the sourcing of its wood pellets. There have been reports some of the pellets used in the power station have been from rare forests.
Rollins said:
We are 100% confident that [the wood pellets] does meet your sustainability requirements here in this country yesterday, that was one of the key things that I spoke to, Secretary Miliband and Under Secretary [Michael] Shanks about, is the one who’s leading that specific issue for the Energy Department here.
And they agreed, I don’t want to get ahead of them, but in that meeting, they felt fully assured that what we are doing in America does meet your sustainability requirements, and in fact, we could potentially be opening up more markets for our wood pellets into the UK, as other countries that you’re importing here into this country are clearly not meeting those marks.
What are the Abraham Accords Trump has urged Syria to agree?
It was reported earlier today that Donald Trump urged Syria to sign onto the Abraham Accords with Israel (see post here).
The Abraham Accords are bilateral agreements that established formal diplomatic relations between Israel and two Arab nations – the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain – both of which officially recognized Israel’s sovereignty as part of the accords.
These agreements were signed on 15 September 2020, and were mediated by the United States.
The first deal, announced on 13 August 2020, involved Israel and the UAE, followed by a similar agreement with Bahrain on 11 September 2020.
The accord with the UAE marked the first time Israel had normalized relations with an Arab country since the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan.
The name ‘Abraham Accords’ was chosen to reflect the shared religious heritage of Judaism and Islam through the figure of the prophet Abraham.
Trump on way to Qatar amid controversy over $400m plane gift
President Donald Trump continues his visit to the Middle East with a Qatari state visit later today.
According to a schedule released by the White House, the president will arrive at Doha’s Hamad International Airport within the next hour, before stopping off to visit Amiri Diwan.
He will then arrive at St Regis Doha for the state visit shortly before 4pm local time.
Trump is also scheduled to attend a state dinner at the Lusail Palace this evening at 8pm.
The visit comes amid growing controversy over Trump’s plans to accept a luxury $400m aircraft from Qatar for presidential use.
Democrats and Republicans have criticized the US president accepting the gift amid concerns over the security implications and ethics of the deal.
Chuck Schumer, Senate Democrat leader, has called the proposed arrangement “not just naked corruption”, likening it to something so corrupt “that even [Russian president Vladimir] Putin would give a double take”.
In pictures: Trump’s meeting with Gulf leaders
