Donald Trump appears to back Saudi Arabia in Qatar stand off with Gulf states - Independent

Donald Trump appears to back Saudi Arabia in Qatar stand off with Gulf states

US president weighs in on escalating diplomatic crisis with tweet suggesting support for allies in Riyadh's decision 

Donald Trump has appeared to 

side with Saudi Arabia in its diplomatic stand-off with Qatar, referencing his recent trip to the Saudi capital of Riyadh in which he vowed to end support for Islamic extremism. 

"During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar - look!" the US president tweeted on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia, along with Gulf neighbours the UAE and Bahrain as well as Egypt, moved to isolate the tiny kingdom on Monday in a coordinated severing of diplomatic ties. The row could have manifold economic and political effects for the Middle East, as well as alter the course of the region's many conflicts. 

On Tuesday, supermarket shelves across the country were empty after panic buying and Doha's Hamad International Airport was eerily quiet as the first concrete effects of the rift were felt. 

A statement from Monday carried on SPA, the Saudi state news agency, accused Doha of harbouring "terrorist and sectarian groups that aim to destabilise the region including the Muslim Brotherhood, Isis and Al-Qaeda," as well as alleged Iranian-backed Shia militia activity in east Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. 

The suggestion that Qatar is aiding and abetting Shia Iran - the majority Sunni Gulf's arch-rival - is particularly sensitive. Doha has called the claims "baseless".

“The Qatari Government will take all necessary measures... to thwart attempts to influence and harm the Qatari society and economy,” a statement from the foreign ministry said.

It went on to describe the crisis as being fuelled by “absolute fabrications” stemming from last month's hacking of Qatar’s state-run news agency.

The row has been caused in part by backlash over Qatar’s decision to rescue 24 members of the royal family, as well as two Saudi nationals, who were kidnapped by Shia paramilitaries while on a hunting trip in southern Iraq - a deal exclusively revealed by The Independent in April.

Doha’s agreement to pay the extraordinary $500m (£389m) ransom greatly angered its Gulf neighbours, who have long accused it of funding or otherwise supporting controversial groups and meddling in regional affairs, particularly through state-owned broadcaster al-Jazeera. 

Iran, which Mr Trump singled out as a key source of funding and support for extremist groups during his two-day trip to Riyadh last month, is a secondary target of the decision by Saudi Arabia and its allies.

Nikki Haley warns US may pull out of UN Human Rights Council over 'anti-Israel bias' - Independent

Nikki Haley warns US may pull out of UN Human Rights Council over 'anti-Israel bias'

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the US is "reviewing its participation" in the Human Rights Council over what said is the group's "chronic anti-Israel bias".

The Geneva-based Council made up of 47 member countries is beginning a three-week session and Ms Haley said the US "sees some areas for significant strengthening" in the group. 

The Council's critical stance of Israel has long been a contentious issue for the US, Israel's main ally. Ms Haley has said in the past that Israel is the “only country permanently on the body’s calendar.”

Despite remaining allies, former President Obama had an icy relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In fact, in late December 2016 during the waning moments of the Obama administration, the UN Security Council passed a resolution condemning Israel's settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  Then-UN Ambassador Samantha Power chose not to veto the resolution as was normal procedure. 

The Council's members have taken a strong position against Israel's continued occupation of territory seized in the 1967 Middle East war, its treatment of Palestinians, and its building of Jewish settlements.

Most countries in the UN system and international bodies consider the settlements illegal since they are built in areas Palestinians consider part of an eventual independent state. 

Ms Haley used Venezuela's alleged human rights violations as an example of anti-Israel bias. She noted the Council pursued five resolutions against Israel in its March session but none against the government of President Nicolas Maduro. 

"If Venezuela cannot, it should voluntarily step down from its seat on the Human Rights Council until it can get its own house in order. Being a member of this council is a privilege, and no country who is a human rights violator should be allowed a seat at the table," she said.

Ms Haley is set to host a side event in Geneva specifically regarding the South American nation, where at least 65 people have died and hundreds have been injured in continued anti-government protests since the end of March. 

Venezuela responded to Ms Haley's comments saying "needs to be free of politicisation and double standards".

The US Ambassador also called on the Council to vote on resolutions against Syria, Eritrea, Belarus, Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Some activists urged Washington to focus on abuses at home. "It's hard to take Ambassador Haley seriously on US support for human rights in light of Trump administration actions like the Muslim ban and immigration crackdowns," Jamil Dakwar, director of the human rights program at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told Reuters. 

The US "must get its own house in order and make human rights at home a priority - then, it can begin to credibly demand the same of other countries abroad."

A New U.S. Environmental Alliance Is Trying to Take Trump's Place on the World Stage - TIME

A New U.S. Environmental Alliance Is Trying to Take Trump's Place on the World Stage

A New U.S. Environmental Alliance Is Trying to Take Trump's Place on the World Stage

Justin Worland

Updated: 5:59 PM ET | Originally published: 5:43 PM ET

President Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change put a nail in the coffin of formal American leadership on global warming. Once the move is official, the U.S. will play no role in the international process of setting targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reporting progress to the global community.

Rather than let that happen, a large coalition of American cities, states, businesses and educational institutions are launching something akin to a shadow government, intended to take America's place on the global climate stage. The group We Are Still In, which was announced Monday, could submit their own targets to the United Nations and report on their progress alongside the formal commitment from the U.S. federal government.

"The current executive branch... can, and will, speak to its own willingness to move forward on climate action in the United States," former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the UN special envoy for cities and climate change and an organizer of the effort, wrote in a letter to the UN climate change body announcing the new group. "It cannot, however, determine the pace of progress achieved by U.S. cities, states, the private sector, and civil society. That freedom to lead is part-and-parcel of our federal system."

Bloomberg has also committed to paying the U.S. contribution to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the body that oversees international talks on global warming.

The U.S. committed under President Obama to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 28% by 2025, but researchers now predict they will fall no more than 12.6% with Trump's rollback of environmental regulations. Officials from the more than 1,000 groups represented in the new coalition believe they make up a substantial portion of that difference. Among the signatories are hundreds of cities, the most populous states including New York and California and Fortune 500 corporations like Microsoft and Target.

Many of the group's members sought to show their commitment to greenhouse gas emissions reductions since the months leading up to the Paris Agreement, but those efforts tended not to involve the full cross-section of local governments, corporations and nonprofit institutions. The new coalition aims to advance that work on a far larger scale.

"The existence of these coalitions of the willing is nothing new," says Paul Bodnar, who served as senior director for energy and climate change at the National Security Council under Obama and is now with the Rocky Mountain Institute. "What’s new is working together and the second is aggregating and projecting the importance of that action to the international community."

The group faces significant challenges before it can formally report on its progress to the U.N. Such measurements can be difficult to tabulate, a challenge complicated by the overlapping nature of many of the entities. It also remains to be seen how the large group will deal with competing personalities all of whom may want to be seen as the face of U.S. efforts to address climate change.

Still, the effort has potential to repair some of the nation's standing among those fighting against global warming around the world. "I am so moved and enthused that so many states and enterprises in the United States of America want to travel this path with us,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to the New York Times, after Trump's announcement. “We will travel it together.”