Today at a closed door meeting of the UN Security Council, President Trump's Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt, defended Israel's decision to withhold Palestinian tax revenues over the Palestinian Authority's payments to families of terrorists, U.S. officials told me.
"The time has come to make it clear that the Palestinian Authority, if it aspires to the status of a government, it must behave like one. It is unacceptable for the Palestinian Authority to pay these terrorists and their families a reward for criminal acts."
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a press conference at the National People's Congress Friday to discuss China's diplomatic work.
Details: Xinhua English's lead story reports on Wang's comments...
The establishment of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy as the fundamental guideline for China's diplomatic work is an epoch-making milestone in the diplomatic theory of New China, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday...
At the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs in 2018, the guiding status of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy was established, setting a fundamental guideline for China's diplomatic work and point the way for navigating through the complex array of issues in today's world, Wang said.
I have been hearing throughout this week that a U.S.-China trade deal may not be as close as some expected, and that the mooted March summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping is in jeopardy.
What's new: Two articles in the last 24 hours confirm the chatter.
North Korea’s Sohae rocket launch site is back to “normal operational status” just 1 week after the Hanoi summit ended in “no deal,” according to an analysis of satellite images by 38 North.
Backstory: North Korea has in recent days been repairing the site, which it partially destroyed following the Singapore summit last year. Joel Wit of 38 North said at a Stimson Center event this week that the regime had poured a lot of money and effort into Sohae, viewed its partial destruction as "above and beyond the call of duty," and felt the U.S. was refusing to make any concessions in return.
The Trump administration on Tuesday sanctioned — for the first time — an Arab, Iran-backed Shiite militia operating in both Iraq and Syria.
Why it matters: Since unveiling its Iran strategy in October 2017, the administration has struggled to implement regional elements of the policy. Washington has been reluctant to sanction Iran-backed forces, but now appears willing to do so to name, shame and penalize Iran’s agents of influence in the Middle East.
The U.S. and China may be on the verge of resolving — or at least cooling — a heavyweight trade fight that's already seen them slap tariffs on $360 billion worth of each other's goods. If all goes according to plan, a deal will be in place ahead of a summit later this month between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The big picture: That won't spell the end of the Trump administration's aggressive bid to remake the global trading order. Emboldened by their apparent successes in renegotiating NAFTA as well as the China trade relationship, Mr. Trump and his hardline trade czar Robert Lighthizer are now going to train their sights on a whole slew of other countries where they think they can win terms more favorable to U.S. industry.
