Haley: U.S. "locked and loaded" if Assad uses chemical weapons again
Nikki Haley. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley said at a U.N. Security Council meeting Saturday that President Trump told her the U.S. is "locked and loaded" if Syria uses chemical weapons again.
What's happening: Russia called a meeting on Saturday morning to discuss Friday night's coordinated strikes on Syria. Russia was pushing for a vote to condemn the strikes, carried out by the U.S., U.K., and France. It failed.
What they're saying: António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, said: "I urge all Member States to show restraint in these dangerous circumstances and to avoid any acts that could escalate the situation and worsen the suffering of the Syrian people.”
Russia's U.N. envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, told the council that Russia "condemns in the strongest possible terms" the strike, and that the U.S. and its allies "continue to show blatant disregard of international law.”
Haley said the U.S. gave diplomacy "chance after chance" with Russia and Syria before deciding to launch the strikes, but on Friday "the time to talk ended."
Karen Pierce, U.K. Ambassador to the U.N., added she "will take no lessons on international law from Russia."
France's U.N. envoy, Francois Delattre, explained the strikes were "a necessary response."
North Korea says it is stopping nuclear and missile testing
Kim Jong-un. Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has announced the country will stop conducting nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles starting April 21, and shut down a nuclear test site in the north side of the country, through a broadcast on the state news agency KCNA reports, and President Trump announced in a tweet, later adding quotes from the message.
The details: Kim Jong-un explained, “[t]he nuclear test site has done its job,” via a statement broadcasted by North Korea’s state media, per the New York Times. The statement added the country plans to “shut down a nuclear test site in the country’s northern side to guarantee transparency in suspending nuclear tests.”
What it means: This confirms North Korea is not only open to freezing nuclear weapons tests, as it has said before, but that it is planning on doing it. It leaves denuclearization on the table and will, in theory, prevent escalation and proliferation.
State Department report cuts references to Israeli "occupation"
A Palestinian demonstrator at a protest today near the Gaza-Israel border. Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The State Department dropped almost all uses of the term "occupation" from its latest annual report on the human rights situation in Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Between the lines: This is a significant change, because the public language used by the State Department usually communicates a policy. The U.N., the E.U., Russia, China and almost all the countries in the world see the Israeli control of the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights since 1967 as "military occupation." But Israel doesn't, and now the U.S. might not see it that way either.
What's new: In previous years, the headline of the report was: "Human rights practices in Israel and the occupied territories." The headline of today's report: "Human rights practices in Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza."
The term was nearly eliminated from the report, too. In last year's report, the word "occupation" appeared 43 times. In this year's report, it appears only six times.
Behind the scenes: The main U.S. official pushing for this change was David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel. In December 2017, The Forward reported that Friedman asked the State Department to stop using the word “occupation” when referring to Israel’s presence in the West Bank. According to the Forward, Friedman suggested using the term "West Bank" instead of the term "the occupied territories."
A State Department official told me the report "is retitled to refer to commonly used geographic names and is in line with our practices generally. We also believe it's clearer and more useful for readers looking for information on human rights in those specific areas. The term may not be found as frequently but still there."
The official added: "Our policy on "occupation" has not changed."
The bottom line: This move will probably further infuriate the Palestinians and deepen the crisis between the U.S. and the Palestinian Authority over Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
