New York Times | Trump Tower, TSA, Iraq: Your Monday Evening Briefing New York Times 1. President Trump revised his travel ban, removing Iraq but leaving six other predominantly Muslim nations on a list of those barred from entering the U.S. He also scrapped a provision that explicitly protected religious minorities. Unregulated ... |
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Trump Tower, TSA, Iraq: Your Monday Evening Briefing - New York Times
Lobbyists for the Iraqi government were in contact with Trump administration officials and lawmakers ahead of the decision to remove the country from the travel ban, new documents filed with the Justice Department show.
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, a high-powered law and lobby firm, sent letters to senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis, requesting sit-down meetings.
The lobbyists asked U.S. officials to have introductory meetings with Iraqs new ambassador, Fareed Yasseen, who assumed the post in January, and Naufel Alhassan, the deputy chief of staff to Iraqs prime minister, Haider al-Abadi.
I can confirm that [Yasseen and Alhassan] are strong advocates of U.S. interests within Iraq and understand the efforts you have undertaken to ensure Americas priorities in the region, many of the letters sent to officials read.
Both Alhassan and Ambassador Yasseen were supporters of Prime Minister Abadis decision to take no reciprocal action against the Presidents Executive Order on immigration, despite significant pressure from the Iraq parliament and citizenry to do so, the letters continued.
The letters came around the time of a call between Trump and al-Abadi on Feb. 9, and before a meeting between the prime minister and Vice President Pence and others at the Munich Security Conference.
During Trumps call with al-Abadi, the president said he wanted to underscore the support of the United States for the Iraqi people in our shared fight against the terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS].
Iraq hired Brownstein before Trumps inauguration to work on issues related to Iraq, immigration, defense, economics, and overall foreign policy, disclosure forms say.
The contract, worth $40,000 per month, runs from Jan. 15 to April 15.
Al Mottur, a shareholder at Brownstein, said Iraqi officials were the ones who persuaded the Trump administration to change course on the travel policy.
The overwhelming majority of the successful effort to have them removed was conducted by the country of Iraq itself, Mottur said. Wed love to take credit, but thats a disservice to the work that the government of Iraq did in this space.
Diplomats from Iraq and its prime minister had a series of meetings with high-level Trump administration officials at the Munich Security Conference in Germany last month, in addition to subsequent conversations in other venues.
Mattis, for example, made an unannounced visit to Iraq near the end of last month. Both he and other Trump officials, including national security adviser H. R. McMaster, have contacts in the country dating back to their time in the military. Tillerson also has ties to officials in Iraq, including the prime minister, from his time as the CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp.
There appeared to be sufficient consensus among the national security team and senior officials coming out of these meetings that the administration chose to remove them from the list, Mottur said.
The U.S. officials who received letters from R. James Nicholson, a senior counsel at Brownstein, include Tillerson, Mattis, Pence, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Tom Bossert, an assistant to Trump for homeland security and counterterrorism.
Many of the letters include identical text, with only some personal touches added.
Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn received a letter from Nicholson on Feb. 9. Flynn had met with Yasseen a week before, the letter notes. Flynn has since resigned following a controversy over communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
On Capitol Hill, the lobbyists for Iraq requested meetings with the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack ReedJack ReedSenate panel approves Trump adviser keeping his military rank Iraqs lobbyists mobilized after travel ban, documents reveal Senate Dems want Mar-a-Lago visitor records made public MORE (R.I.), and Sen. Lindsey GrahamLindsey GrahamEuropean leaders voice support for State, USAID efforts DOJ nominee declines to back special prosecutor on Russia Graham quips: I gave Trump my new cellphone number MORE (R-S.C.), a member of the committee.
Dr. Naufel is having a series of meetings with administration officials and congressional leadership in order to provide insights on the current challenges in Iraq as well as progress being made, Nicholson wrote to the senators, referring to al-Abadis deputy chief of staff, whom he refers to as Abadis right hand.
While Iraqi officials have had meetings with top Washington officials, its unclear how many stem from the letters.
On Jan. 27, Trump signed the initial executive order temporarily prohibiting citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen from coming to the United States.
Several courts blocked the orders implementation.
Following the presidents speech to a joint session of Congress, reports surfaced that Iraq would be removed from the list, citing urging from the State Department and the Pentagon. Iraq has been a key ally in the region in fighting ISIS, and many Iraqis risked their lives to serve as translators for U.S. soldiers in post-9/11 military operations.
On Monday, the White House issued a revised order with several tweaks, including removing Iraq from the list of banned countries.
The removal sends a positive message about U.S.-Iraq relations moving forward, said Iraqi government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi, according to The Associated Press, adding that it illustrates a real partnership between the two countries.
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Iraq's lobbyists mobilized after travel ban, documents reveal | TheHill - The Hill
An anti-government rebel sits with an anti-aircraft weapon in front of an oil refinery in Ras Lanuf, eastern Libya. Photograph: Hussein Malla/AP
Ambassadors to Libya from the UK, US and France have made an appeal for calm as Libya falls back into a bloody civil war with rival sides battling for control of the hugely lucrative Libyan oil terminals.
Diplomats are concerned the fighting will severely damage the coastal oil infrastructure the economic lifeblood of the country.
The fighting was sparked by the Islamist-led Benghazi Defence Brigades surprise capture on Friday of the oil export terminals at Sidra and Ras Lanuf.
The terminals were wrested from the control of Field Marshal Khalid Haftar, the head of the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA), a force that dominates in eastern Libya and enjoys Russian and Egyptian support.
Haftar captured the oilfields in September, and the presence of the LNA appeared to have brought enough security to the oil crescent for production to rise from 200,000 barrels a day to close to 700,000.
The oil terminals had been shut for the previous two years while under the control of the rival Petroleum Facilities Guard.
The LNA was reported to be concentrating forces around the port of Brega, still under its control, in order to mount a counterattack, with Haftar willing to call up fresh airstrikes if possible from the United Arab Emirates.
The ambassadors urged all sides to recognise that the oil installations were under the control of the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) and revenues must be sent to the UN-backed government in Tripoli.
Mustafa Sharksi the commander of the BDB, a militia only formed in spring 2016, said in a press conference in Misrata his goal was to rescue Benghazi from Haftar and return displaced families to their homes. He said his militia controlled 43 miles (70km) of coast either side of Sidra and Ras Lanuf and would not press on to Benghazi until the NOC had sent another force to take over the oil ports.
The violence has also had political consequences, with Libyas eastern parliament voting to withdraw its support for a UN peace deal and the UN-backed government in Tripoli. The eastern parliament is close to Haftar and its vote suggests it believes the BDB is working with the Tripoli government.
The loss of the oilfields is also a blow for Haftars prestige and has shown the LNA is not as strong as sometimes perceived.
It was also striking that Egypt did not leap to Haftars defence. The Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, was frustrated last month when his efforts to bring about a reconciliation in Cairo between Haftar, representing the east, and Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of the Tripoli government, broke down when Haftar refused to meet him.
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Libya falls back into civil war as rival sides fight to control oil terminals - The Guardian
Published time: 7 Mar, 2017 23:38
A total of 22 migrants have been killed and some 100 injured in fighting between rival smuggler gangs in Libya so far this year. This comes at a time when seaborne migration from Africa to Italy has risen by 50 percent so far in 2017.
"This is creating all kinds of activity in the smuggling industry, and apparently that activity has reached the level of violent shootouts that left 22 killed in the last couple of days," Joel Millman, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN migration agency, said in a news briefing on Tuesday as reported Reuters.
The dead were thought to be migrants rather than smugglers because they were sub-Saharan Africans, he added. These deaths are in addition to the 140 dead bodies already found on Libyan beaches to date this year.
On October 20, 2011, the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed in his hometown of Sirte by the National Transitional Council (NTC), the UN-recognized representatives of Libya at the time, following the Libyan revolution.
With Gaddafi gone, a power vacuum developed, and Libya quickly split into two with the Tobruk-based parliament and the unity government (NTC) in Tripoli vying for control.
To further complicate matters, various militant groups, including the Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL), began carving out their own fiefdoms in violent power plays across the war-torn countryside.
Since then, Libya has become the focal point for migrant crossing from Africa to Europe via Italy. In 2016, there were over 181,000 illegal border crossings on the Central Mediterranean route, Libya to Italy, according to Frontex, the EUs border control agency.
There are concerns that Libya will remain permanently fractured as a result of tribal conflicts between the almost 2,000militias and armed groups operating in the country.
The US State Department lists Libya as both a transit and a destination country for human trafficking, with child soldiers, prostitution and forced labor common among the warring factions within the troubled state.
Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti recently met with city mayors from 10 towns in Libyas southern desert to try and persuade them to join together to prevent human trafficking through Libyan territory into Europe.
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22 migrants killed, 100 injured as smugglers battle for supremacy in Libya's power vacuum - RT
The New Arab | Libya's eastern parliament quits UN peace deal with Tripoli The San Luis Obispo Tribune Libya's eastern parliament voted Tuesday to withdraw its support for a United Nations peace deal and Government of National Accord, an escalation in the fractured country's split that stokes concerns recent violence could intensify. Abdullah Ablaihig ... Ambassadors appeal for calm after bloody Libya clashes News Roundup - Tue, Mar 07, 2017 Libya's Tobruk parliament eschews 2015 political deal |
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Libya's eastern parliament quits UN peace deal with Tripoli - The San Luis Obispo Tribune