US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the media in Washington. Reuters

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned the incoming Biden administration against warming relations with Iran, during an opening address at a Bahrain security summit on Friday.

President-elect Joe Biden has signaled an interest in re-engaging with Iran by returning to the 2015 nuclear agreement that President Donald Trump withdrew from.

“I think it’s fundamentally the wrong direction,” said Mr Pompeo.

The move would be a significant pivot from Mr Trump’s Iran policy, which has created a “maximum pressure campaign” to isolate Iran diplomatically militarily, and economically.

Mr. Pompeo made the remarks at the Manama Dialogue, organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. The annual gathering brings together policymakers in the Gulf region and beyond to tackle the most prevalent security challenges in the Middle East.

Amos Yadlin, who used to head Israeli military intelligence, was in attendance and questioned Mr Pompeo on whether the maximum pressure campaign has been successful considering that Iran has “more enriched uranium and more centrifuges,” putting it closer to the threshold needed to build a nuclear weapon.

Mr Pompeo said “turning off a few centrifuges,” wasn’t a significant enough reason to remain in the nuclear agreement as he downplayed the recent escalations in Iran’s nuclear programme.

“The Iranians are desperately signalling their willingness to return to the negotiating table to get sanctions relief,” Mr Pompeo said. He did not elaborate on what signals Washington has seen.

The Manama Dialogue is being held at Bahrain’s Ritz Carlton hotel, but many sessions will be broadcast virtually. In-person attendance will be limited, in line with the government’s Covid-19 safety measures.

Officials from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other countries are expected to deliver addresses during the three-day summit.

The event comes on the heels of recent trips to Israel and the Gulf region from both Mr Pompeo and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.

The Trump administration is using its final weeks in power trying to strengthen the president’s Middle East policy initiatives.

The crown jewel of Mr Trump’s Middle East policy is the Abraham Accord, which normalised relations between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain.

“We think that’s important for peace throughout the Middle East,” said Mr Pompeo.

Mediator nation Kuwait has signalled progress in recent days on talks over the decision by the Arab Coalition to freeze ties with Qatar. “We’re going to keep working to do what we can to facilitate conversations and dialogue,” said the US secretary of state.

“We are very hopeful that the dispute between the Saudis and the Qataris can be resolved.”

In the waning days of his administration, Mr Trump has also been pushing for other countries in the region to establish ties with Israel.

Mr Pompeo said he was confident more countries will move to normalise ties with Israel.

“A lot of influential people in the world would have said that even hoping for these achievements was pure fantasy,” said Mr Pompeo about the Abraham Accord signing.

“We show that the real fantasy was the bankrupt conventional wisdom that said there couldn’t be progress until the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians was solved,” he added.

Source: https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/gcc/pompeo-warns-biden-against-warming-relations-with-iran-1.1123011

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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, left, speaks to his father, King Salman, at a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh, December 9, 2018. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

A senior defense official on Thursday predicted Saudi Arabia would soon move to normalize ties with Israel.

The comments by the official, who spoke to reporters as Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited America, came amid reports that Sudan was poised to follow the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in normalizing diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

“Soon Sudan and later Saudi Arabia will come out of the closet,” the official was quoted saying by Hebrew media, without further elaborating.

Saudi leaders have publicly ruled out forging ties with Israel before a Palestinian state is created, even as they have welcomed the normalization deals between the Jewish state and Gulf Arab states signed in Washington last month.

Last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo encouraged Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, listens to Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud during their meeting at the State Department, October 14, 2020, in Washington. (Manuel Balce Cenate/Pool/AFP)

“We hope Saudi Arabia will consider normalizing its relationships as well. We want to thank them for the assistance they’ve had in the success of the Abraham Accords so far,” said Pompeo, while hosting Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in Washington.

When the White House announced in August that the United Arab Emirates and Israel had agreed to establish full diplomatic ties — a move matched by Bahrain weeks later — Saudi Arabia refrained from criticizing the deal or hosting summits condemning the decision, despite Palestinian requests to do so. The Palestinians have slammed the agreements as a “betrayal of Jerusalem, al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian cause,” but government-controlled Saudi media hailed them as historic and good for regional peace.

The kingdom also approved the use of Saudi airspace for Israeli flights to the UAE, a decision announced the day after Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh. Kushner has been pushing Arab states to normalize ties with Israel and has said that the Jewish state could eventually enjoy fully normalized relations with Saudi Arabia.

Covert ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia are believed to have been growing in recent years. The shift in policy has reportedly been led by the crown prince, who sees Israel as a strategic partner in the fight against Iranian influence in the region.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, meets with presidential adviser Jared Kushner in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, September 1, 2020. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

Some Saudi officials have also stepped up criticism of the Palestinians.

In a recent interview, the former Saudi ambassador to the US and former intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan called Palestinian leaders “failures” who squandered opportunities for peace over decades.

“The Palestinian cause is a just cause, but its advocates are failures. The Israeli cause is unjust, but its advocates are successful. That sums up the events of the last 70 or 75 years,” bin Sultan said.

Agencies contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/saudi-arabia-will-soon-move-to-normalize-ties-with-israel-official-predicts/

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The post Trump and Melania test positive for coronavirus first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Friday that President Trump is experiencing “mild symptoms” of COVID-19 after the president and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

“As all of you know the president and the first lady tested positive for COVID-19,” Meadows told reporters at the White House Friday. “They remain in good spirits.”

PRESIDENT TRUMP, FIRST LADY TEST POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS, SET TO QUARANTINE AT WHITE HOUSE

“The president does have mild symptoms, and as we look to try to make sure that not only his health and safety and welfare is good, we continue to look at that for all of the American people,” Meadows continued.

Meadows said that the president “continues, not only to be in good spirits, but very energetic.”

Still, Trump has not made any public appearances Friday. The president was scheduled to host a phone call on COVID-19 support to vulnerable seniors. But Fox News is told Vice President Mike Pence took over the call.

Meadows did not elaborate on the types of symptoms the president was experiencing, or any potential treatments the president’s medical team was reviewing. Meadows also did not share whether the first lady was experiencing symptoms.

Meadows said that he spoke to the president “a number of times” Friday morning and that he received “the normal five or six things he tells me to do every morning.”

“He is certainly wanting to make sure that we stay engaged,” Meadows said, adding that “it is critically important” for the doctors “to continue to monitor his health and the health of the first lady.”

“They’ll be glad to provide some updates later today as we look at this,” Meadows said, adding that the White House has “a number of contingency plans in place for this.”

WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS ADVISER DR. SCOTT ATLAS SAYS ‘ZERO REASON TO PANIC’ OVER TRUMP POSITIVE COVID19 TEST

The chief of staff went on to tout the president for “staying committed to working very hard on behalf of the American people.”

“His first question to me this morning was, ‘How is the economy doing?’ ‘How are stimulus talks going on Capitol Hill?’” Meadows said.

Meadows added: “He is going to remain on the job and I am optimistic he will have a very speedy recovery.”

Meanwhile, Meadows said that the White House thought it was “important” to share the news of the president’s positive COVID-19 test as soon as possible.

“In the early hours of the morning, the minute we got a confirmatory test on the president, we felt it was important to get the news out there at that time,” Meadows said. “That’s why we sent out the tweet early this morning.”

The president, just before 1 a.m. Friday, tweeted: “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately.”

He added: “We will get through this TOGETHER!”

The post White House: Trump experiencing ‘mild symptoms’ after positive coronavirus test, ‘in good spirits’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

“There are many more unpublicized meetings with Arab and Muslim leaders to normalize relations with the state of Israel,” he said on the eve of Israel’s first commercial flight to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The historic flight follows the August 13 announcement of a US-brokered agreement to normalize relations between the two countries, making the UAE the first Gulf country and only the third Arab state to establish relations with Israel after Egypt and Jordan.

The Monday morning flight will carry a US-Israeli delegation led on the American side by White House advisor Jared Kushner, who stood next to Netanyahu during the Israeli premier’s remarks.

The agreement on normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE is scheduled to be signed in Washington D.C. in September.

Source: https://news.am/eng/news/599508.html

The post Israel holding secret talks with some Arab states, says Netanyahu first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering press statements before an official dinner in Jerusalem on May 22, 2017. Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP

Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached a historic peace deal on Thursday that will lead to a full normalization of diplomatic relations between the two Middle Eastern nations in an agreement that U.S. President Donald Trump helped broker.

Under the agreement, Israel has agreed to suspend applying sovereignty to areas of the West Bank that it has been discussing annexing, a joint statement by all three parties to the agreement said.

Trump, in a tweet, called the agreement a “HUGE breakthrough,” describing it as a “historic peace agreement between our two GREAT friends.”

Benjamin Netanyahu@netanyahu

Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump

HUGE breakthrough today! Historic Peace Agreement between our two GREAT friends, Israel and the United Arab Emirates!

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The joint statement said the three leaders had “agreed to the full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.”

“This historic diplomatic breakthrough will advance peace in the Middle East region and is a testament to the bold diplomacy and vision of the three leaders and the courage of the United Arab Emirates and Israel to chart a new path that will unlock the great potential in the region,” the statement said.

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Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

Joint Statement of the United States, the State of Israel, and the United Arab Emirates

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The peace deal was the product of lengthy discussions between Israel, the UAE, and the United States that accelerated recently, White House officials said.

The agreement was sealed in a phone call on Thursday between Trump, Netanyahu, and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

• UAE Says ‘Israeli Annexation Talk Must Stop,’ Warns of ‘Serious Setback for Peace’
• Israeli Defense Contractors Partner With UAE Tech Firm to Fight Coronavirus
• UAE Says Netanyahu-touted Collaboration With Israel Against Coronavirus Is a Private Deal

The officials described the agreement, to be known as the Abraham Accords, as the first of its kind since Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994. It also gives Trump a foreign policy success as he seeks re-election on November 3.

Annexation on hold

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised speech Thursday night that “Today marks a new era in Israel’s relations with the Arab world” and that the two countries agreed on “a full, formal peace.”

“For years, Israel has been portrayed as an enemy…now more countries will join us in this circle of peace,” the prime minister said.

He added that annexation is “still on the table,” and that it is a promise Netanyahu said he is “committed to.”

Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a press briefing in Jerusalem, August 13, 2020. Credit: Jonathan Zindel/Pool via Flash 90

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“Extending sovereignty will be done only alongside the United States,” Netanyahu said. “Without coordination, in the best case, will do nothing, and in the worst case, will harm relations between us. The United States asked that Israel temporarily postpone annexation.”

The joint statement by the three leaders said that as “a result of this diplomatic breakthrough and at the request of President Trump with the support of the United Arab Emirates, Israel will suspend declaring sovereignty” over areas of the West Bank that were envisioned in the U.S. Middle East plan unveiled by Trump in January.

“Israel for the foreseeable future will be focused on building this relationship and pursuing all the advantages that can come from having this new relationship with this country, and we also breaks the ice for doing more normalizations and peace agreements with other regional players as well,” one White House official told Reuters.

A senior political source told Haaretz that annexation is still on the agenda and that Israel is committed to it. “The Trump administration asked that we temporarily postpone declaring [sovereignty over parts of the West Bank] in order to achieve the beginning of this historic peace agreement with the Emirates.”

A senior Likud official praised the agreement, saying: “The Israeli and international left always said that it is impossible to bring peace with Arab nations without peace with the Palestinian people. That there is no other way except from withdrawing from the ’67 borders, clearing out the settlements, dividing Jerusalem, and establishing a Palestinian state. This is the first time in History that Prime Minister Netanyahu broke the paradigm of ‘land for peace’ and brought ‘peace in exchange for peace.'”

Sources involved said that Netanyahu discussed the agreement with Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi only after the agreement was formally announced by Washington. Both Gantz and Ashkenazi deny that they were previously unaware of the agreement.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he “rejects and denounces the surprising announcement by Israel, the United States, and the UAE,” and called it a “betrayal of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian cause.” A senior adviser to Abbas read the statement from outside the PA president’s Ramallah headquarters.

PLO Executive Committee member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi condemned the agreement and its terms on Twitter. “Israel got rewarded for not declaring openly what it’s been doing to Palestine illegally and persistently since the beginning of the occupation,” she wrote, referring to the annexation agreement. “The UAE has come out in the open on its secret dealings/normalization with Israel. Please don’t do us a favor. We are nobody’s fig leaf!”

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Hanan Ashrawi@DrHananAshrawi

Israel got rewarded for not declaring openly what it’s been doing to Palestine illegally & persistently since the beginning of the occupation. The UAE has come out in the open on its secret dealings/normalization with Israel. Please don’t do us a favor. We are nobody’s fig leaf!

Sarah Leah Whitson@sarahleah1

BREAKING: #UAE and #Israel “normalize” relations. The trade? Israel won’t formally annex and exercise sovereignty over the land it has for all intents and purposes already annexed and exercises sovereignty over… ZERO for the rights of Palestinians

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‘A win for diplomacy’

UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba released a statement calling the agreement “a win for diplomacy and for the region” and “a significant advance in Arab-Israeli relations that lowers tensions and creates new energy for positive change.”

He added that the move “immediately stops annexation and the potential for violent escalation. It maintains the viability of a two-state solution as endorsed by the Arab League and international community. It creates new dynamics and possibilities in the peace process.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a phone call with Washington and Dubai, August 13, 2020.Credit: Kobi Gideon / GPO

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MohamedBinZayed@MohamedBinZayed

During a call with President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, an agreement was reached to stop further Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories. The UAE and Israel also agreed to cooperate and setting a roadmap towards establishing a bilateral relationship.

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Al Otaiba’s statement concludes with a reassurance that “The UAE will remain a strong supporter of the Palestinian people – for their dignity, their rights, and their own sovereign state.  They must benefit from normalization.  We will forcefully advocate for these ends, now directly and bolstered with stronger incentives, policy options, and diplomatic tools.”

Next steps

White House officials said Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz were deeply involved in negotiating the deal, as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien.

Pompeo congratulated Israel and the UAE in both Arabic and Hebrew in a tweet, calling the agreement “a significant step forward for peace in the Middle East.”

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Secretary Pompeo@SecPompeo

US government account

Today is an historic day. After vigorous diplomatic outreach by President @realDonaldTrump, Israeli Prime Minister @netanyahu and Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed have signed an agreement to fully normalize relations between their two great nations.

Secretary Pompeo@SecPompeo

US government account

The United States congratulates Israel and the Emirates for this remarkable achievement, which is a significant step forward for peace in the Middle East. Blessed are the peacemakers. Mabruk and Mazal Tov.

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In a statement, the U.S. secretary of state called the agreement “a remarkable achievement for two of the world’s most forward-leaning, technologically advanced states, and reflects their shared regional vision of an economically integrated region. It also illustrates their commitment to confronting common threats, as small – but strong – nations.

The United States hopes that this brave step will be the first in a series of agreements that end 72 years of hostilities in the region. Although the peace treaties between Israel and Egypt and Jordan have not yet fulfilled their full potential, since the 1978 Camp David Accords and the 1994 Wadi Arava Agreement, we have witnessed significant economic development in Egypt and Jordan, an unmistakable dividend of peace.”

Delegations from Israel and the United Arab Emirates will meet in the coming weeks to sign bilateral agreements regarding investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, and other issues, the statement said.

The two countries are expected soon to exchange ambassadors and embassies.

The agreement envisions giving Muslims greater access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem by allowing them to fly from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv, White House officials said.

The joint statement said the United Arab Emirates and Israel will immediately expand and accelerate cooperation regarding the treatment of and the development of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus amid the pandemic.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/with-trump-s-help-israel-and-the-uae-reach-historic-deal-to-normalize-relations-1.9070687

The post Israel Suspends West Bank Annexation in Deal to Normalize Relations With the UAE first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Kushner holds biweekly meetings and “questions an array of government officials about progress on the wall, including updates on contractor data, precisely where it will be built and how funding is being spent,” The Washington Post reports.

Trump is trying to speed things up so that he can build 400 miles of border wall by Election Day 2020. At the same time, the administration is grappling with the problem of migrant caravans from Central America and Latin America that have attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

In recent months, he has enlisted the aid of Mexico’s armed forces in keeping more of these would-be immigrants on the Mexican side of the border.

His administration has also reportedly begun deporting asylum-seekers from Honduras and El Salvador — not by returning them to their native lands, but by shipping them off to Guatemala, which hardly seems like a haven from oppression. It is a poor nation with one of the world’s highest rates for homicide and malnutrition.

From the perspective of the United States, the southern border has become an exploding crisis. According to the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. apprehensions of those crossing the border without first going through the legal process have soared to 977,509, way above the 521,090 figure for 2018.

Mexicans themselves are becoming frustrated with Central American migrants. A survey in July by the Washington Post and Mexico’s Reforma found that “more than 6 in 10 Mexicans say migrants are a burden on their country,” and 55% support their deportation from Mexico.

But the problem could soon become much worse for everyone.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Nov. 21 that horrific violence from cartels in Mexico has metastasized from illegal drugs and weapons to the “multibillion-dollar avocado industry.”

According to the Times, “more than a dozen criminal groups are battling for control of the avocado trade in and around the city of Uruapan,” which is located in the Michoacan state. These organizations are “preying on wealthy orchard owners, the laborers who pick the fruit and the drivers who truck it north to the United States.”

That has immigration experts worrying about what happens next.

Could this rapidly growing violence send massive numbers of people north to the United States, as brutality in Central America has done? Could hundreds of thousands of Mexican families fleeing violence seek asylum in this country?

Already, the United States has been sorely pressed — both during the Trump and Obama administrations — to deal with the refugee problem. It has too few judges ruling on cases, and inadequate holding facilities to handle the existing problem. That is why the United States has often looked the other way as those crossing the border melted into America’s cities and towns, without vetting or provision.

What happens if a new onslaught makes those numbers seem minor by comparison?

All this is a reminder that, while the Washington insiders obsess over partisan politics, there are serious national issues that cry out for attention.

This editorial first appeared in the Providence (R.I.) Journal.

Source: https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/opinion/20191223/editorial-meanwhile-on-southern-border-

The post Meanwhile, on the southern border … first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser is pressing U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite the process of taking over private land needed for the project as the government seeks to meet Trump’s goal of erecting 450 miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of 2020. More than 800 filings to seize private property will need to be made in the coming months if the government is going to succeed, officials aid.

Kushner has told other West Wing officials that he is in charge of the wall, according to aides, and that it is paramount to Trump that at least 400 miles be built by Election Day.

“The point is to get as much built in the next year or so, so the president can say in the face of intense, almost demented opposition he has made reasonable progress,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that seeks to restrict immigration and supports many of Trump’s policies.

Trump campaigned on a promise to construct a wall along the southern border and to make Mexico pay for the project as part of his plan to limit illegal immigration. But Mexico scoffed at paying for a barrier it opposes, and Trump has not been able to get Congress to provide the funding he has requested because of Democratic opposition over what they have called the symbol of the president’s anti-immigrant agenda. The result is that, while some existing barriers have been replaced with sturdier structures, only limited areas of new wall have been built.

Now Trump is banking on his son-in-law to turn what has been an in­trac­table problem for his administration into a success.

Mark Morgan, the acting CBP commissioner, said Kushner had expedited decisions on land acquisitions and construction issues and was key to bringing everyone together in the same room.

“He doesn’t need to know the intricacies of the wall. He understands building stuff. He understands timelines,” Morgan said.

President Trump wants a border wall. He wants it black. And he wants it by Election Day.

But Kushner has clashed with the career officials who have questioned some of his ideas, such as installing web cameras to live-stream construction. He has blamed former chief of staff John F. Kelly and former homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen for not focusing enough on the wall, senior administration officials said. For their part, former officials have said Kushner displays a lack of knowledge of the policy issues and politics involved in the immigration debate.

The wall adds to Kushner’s growing portfolio of responsibilities, which some of his critics have said border on comical. Since the start of the Trump presidency, Kushner has been entrusted with striking a Middle East peace deal, taking a lead role on trade policy, overseeing criminal justice reform and modernizing the government, with mixed results. Kushner is also seeking to again push an overhaul of the legal immigration system after his first attempt failed to gain much support in Congress, and he has taken on a leadership role in the 2020 presidential campaign.

Some of Kushner’s critics say he can be tone-deaf when it comes to politics and does not understand or respect the value of having multiple agencies work through an official process on a project. And they snidely joke that it is ironic that an aide Trump occasionally mocks as a Democrat is in charge of the project, which has attracted significant criticism. But he remains the most influential adviser in the West Wing and enjoys a level of trust from the president that makes him unique within the administration, according to current and former administration officials.

“My hope is Jared can put a more laser focus on the project and the process. Maybe he can light a fire under the responsible agencies, but if recent history is any indication, he will get frustrated before he gets results,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican who has frequently talked with Trump about the project.

Officials closely involved with the border wall project said Kushner has become increasingly involved in the details related to acquiring needed properties and pushing government attorneys to gain control of the parcels as quickly as possible, acting on Trump’s directive to “take the land.”

The White House declined to comment, but Kushner’s defenders in the administration said he is bringing a private-sector approach to the project.

How President Trump came to declare a national emergency to fund his border wall

Army Corps leaders have expressed concerns about Kushner’s aggressive view of the government’s eminent domain authorities, which allow it to take over private land for public use, telling him they are committed to following established legal procedures.

During a recent meeting with officials at the border, Army Corps Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite told them to follow the law and not worry about politics, a person with knowledge of the meeting said.

One person involved in the construction of the wall, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly, said Kushner has annoyed officials involved in the process because they said he displayed a lack of knowledge about the government procurement process and the “realities” of the project.

“So he took a much more hands-on role in figuring out, mile by mile, how to get more wall up,” this person said. “It didn’t help put wall up faster and cheaper. His interventions actually just created more inefficiency in the process.”

The Trump administration has completed 83 miles of new barriers so far, according to the latest CBP figures, but nearly all of that is classified as “replacement wall,” typically swapping out older, smaller structures for a row of steel bars 18 to 30 feet in height.

Kushner insists the administration remains on target to meet the president’s goal of 450 miles by the end of next year, a pace that will require construction to accelerate at least fourfold, according to government data reviewed by The Washington Post. The president’s son-in-law has set a goal of 30 to 35 miles of new barriers per month by spring, requiring crews to average a new linear mile of fencing every day.

In recent months, the project has picked up momentum in Western states where crews are able to build on remote desert land already controlled by the government.

Administration officials acknowledge that building in those areas amounts to the lowest-hanging fruit for the border wall project. In Texas, the project is significantly more complex.

There, the border runs more than 1,200 miles along the sinuous course of the Rio Grande, and nearly all of the land where the government needs to build is privately owned.

The Trump administration’s plan includes 166 miles of new barriers in Texas, and nearly all of that will have to be built on private land. For Kushner to meet Trump’s timeline, the government will have to obtain hundreds of privately owned parcels and complete construction in the next 13 months.

The area presents engineering challenges to the administration, as well as real estate ones because the Rio Grande flood plain requires much of the structure to be installed along river levees, at a significantly higher cost.

Former officials closely involved with the project disputed that Kushner will have an easier time making progress than past officials who ran point on the issue and disputed the claim that Nielsen and Kelly lacked focus or urgency, insisting that the pace of construction has been determined by the availability of funding and the acquisition of private land.

One former Department of Homeland Security official said the administration, to date, has been careful to follow established guidelines for the use of eminent domain. “We weren’t taking people’s land willy-nilly,” said the official.

Lawmakers reach deal on spending levels, skirting — for now — fight over Trump’s border wall demand

Another official who defended Nielsen said she struggled to get former defense secretary Jim Mattis to view the wall project as a priority, and his frustration with the president’s plans to use military funding contributed to a lack of urgency at the Pentagon and the Army Corps.

The president’s frequently shifting design requests also sapped momentum, former officials said, and it usually fell to Nielsen to explain why some of his ideas were not feasible. Trump grew irritated at Nielsen’s naysaying and he fired her in April.

Trump regularly changes his mind about the project, according to current and former aides. Growing frustrated with contractors, he has at times encouraged aides to eschew the traditional contracting process — and just go with a firm he knows from New York — which has drawn resistance, these aides said.

Trump has called for irregular requests, like building large ditches, using pointy spikes or painting the wall matte black so it will be hot to the touch.

After Kushner took control of the project, he elevated the regular meetings to executive-level gatherings at the White House requiring the attendance of Cabinet-level officials. He also demanded a new project plan with timetables and construction targets. Kushner has talked with other officials about securing money for the wall — even mentioning using military construction funds again, a notion that is likely to attract resistance from Capitol Hill.

Morgan said Kushner asked detailed questions and “nitty-gritty details” about specific parts of the project in the meetings, which often stretch more than an hour.

“There are very real concerns,” Morgan said. “We’re being sued on a regular basis on multiple fronts. Land acquisition is a very, very challenging process. We’re trying to become more efficient and get more done. There are real challenges.”

In early January, Kushner asked then-acting CBP commissioner Kevin McAleenan whether closing border loopholes or building the wall would do the most to curb illegal immigration, and McAleenan said closing loopholes would do far more to curb immigration.

Still, Kushner has told others that a wall has to be built because his father-in-law promised it would be.

“Kushner said something to the effect of, ‘We’ve basically wasted two years,’ ” said a person with knowledge of the meeting with McAleenan.

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Josh Dawsey

Josh Dawsey is a White House reporter for The Washington Post. He joined the paper in 2017. He previously covered the White House for Politico, and New York City Hall and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for the Wall Street Journal. Follow

Nick Miroff

Nick Miroff covers immigration enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security for The Washington Post. He was a Post foreign correspondent in Latin America from 2010 to 2017 and has been a staff writer since 2006. Follow

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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/jared-kushners-new-assignment-overseeing-the-construction-of-trumps-border-wall/2019/11/25/b175cad4-0d63-11ea-a49f-9066f51640f6_story.html

[Disclaimer]

The post Jared Kushner’s new assignment: Overseeing the construction of Trump’s border wall first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Around 60 delegations confirmed participation at the conference. The level of participation was unexpectedly low and Turkey, Iran, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority did not participate. Considering the fact that the announced aim of the Warsaw Conference was to mobilize regional states and the international community in the U.S.-led counter-Iran campaign and the genuine goal of the conference was to improve and facilitate the normalization of Arab-Israeli relations, the absence of these states in the conference had a negative impact.

Trump’s pro-Israeli Middle East team and the Netanyahu government used this conference to facilitate Israel’s normalization with the Arab states as preparatory steps for the so-called “Deal of the Century.” As an indication of this goal, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that the conference provided an “opportunity” to work with the Arab states on a “mutual interest” in fighting against Iran.

Although the Palestinian Authority encouraged Arab states to boycott the conference, this did not prevent them from attending and eventually, 10 Arab states attended. On the other hand, 10 days before the conference, some Arab states including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan and Kuwait held a meeting in order to take a common position at the Warsaw Conference.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has declared that he could not imagine this level of cooperation between the Arab states and Israel. The de facto ruler of the UAE, Muhammad Bin Zayed (MBZ), is the pioneer of this cooperation. He led some Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain to enter into an actually existing, if largely unacknowledged, regional alliance with Israel, while some remaining Arab states are now falling over each other to recognize the Israeli state.

On the one hand, Netanyahu met with Oman’s foreign minister during the conference and held a friendly meeting. On the other hand, the former Saudi intelligence head Prince Turki al-Faisal gave an interview to Israeli television. This was the first appearance of a member of the Saudi royal family on Israeli television. During the interview, he asserted that Netanyahu sees establishing bilateral relations with Israel as a precondition of reaching peace in the Israeli-Palestinian issue. However, al-Faisal emphasized that the Saudi/Arab view was the other way around.

Considering the low level of participation, the conference failed to reach its goals in terms of mobilizing the international community against Iran. Nevertheless, it can be considered a limited success for the normalization of Arab-Israeli relations. Many Arab countries continue to cooperate with Israel in creating an Israeli-led regional system.

Furthermore, the conference was used by Netanyahu to show his “success” in foreign relations amid an electoral campaign. This was criticized by Israeli politicians, among them the leading figure of the opposition Tzipi Livni.

Following the developments at the Conference, it can be said that American preparations for a so-called “Deal of the Century” will be intensified. As Jared Kushner, U.S. President Trump’s senior adviser, is expected to travel to five Gulf countries at the end of the month to discuss the specifics of the peace deal, it seems like Trump will try to leave at least a legacy in regard to the most important conflict in world history – before the upcoming 2020 presidential elections.

Source: https://www.dailysabah.com/columns/ataman-muhittin/2019/02/20/israel-dives-into-the-arab-world

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