A8
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Trump’s Golan statement draws strong regional condemnation
By ALBERT AJI
Associated Press
DAMASCUS, Syria —
From Syria to Turkey and
beyond, President Donald
Trump’s abrupt declaration
that Washington will rec-
ognize Israel’s sovereignty
over the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights drew strong
condemnation on Friday.
The Syrian government
called it “irresponsible”
and a threat to international
peace and stability, while
Iran’s foreign ministry said
it plunges the region into a
new crisis.
The Foreign Ministry
in Damascus said Trump’s
statement confirms “the
blind bias of the United
States to the Zionist entity,”
referring to Israel, and added
that it won’t change “the fact
that the Golan was and will
remain Arab and Syrian.”
The ministry also said
Damascus is now more
intent on liberating the
Golan, “using every possible
means.”
Trump’s announcement
the day before was a major
shift in American policy
and gives Israeli Prime Min-
ister Benjamin Netanyahu
a political boost a month
before what is expected to be
a close election.
The administration has
been considering recog-
nizing Israel’s sovereignty
over the strategic highlands,
which Israel captured from
Pool via AP/Amir Cohen
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, during their visit to Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem on Thursday.
Syria in 1967, for some time
and Netanyahu had pressed
the matter with visiting U.S.
Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo this week.
Israel
unilaterally
annexed the Golan Heights
in 1981. The U.N. Secu-
rity Council resolution 497,
issued after the annexation,
refers to Israel as “the occu-
pying power” and says Isra-
el’s attempt to “impose
its laws, jurisdiction and
administration in the occu-
pied Syrian Golan Heights
is null and void and without
international legal effect.”
U.S. budget deficit sets new
February record of $234B
By MARTIN
CRUTSINGER
AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON
—
The federal government
posted a record budget
deficit in February, push-
ing the overall deficit for
the first five months of the
budget year up 39 percent
from a year ago.
The Treasury Depart-
ment said Friday in its
monthly report that the
deficit hit an all-time high
for February of $234 bil-
lion. That surpasses the
old February deficit record
of $232 billion set in 2012,
the last year the deficit for
the year topped $1 trillion.
For the first five months
of this budget year that
began on Oct. 1, the defi-
cit totals $544.2 billion, up
from a deficit of $391 bil-
lion in the previous budget
year.
In its new budget sent
to Congress last week, the
administration is project-
ing that this year’s deficit
will total $1.09 trillion and
will remain above $1 tril-
lion for the next four years.
The administration’s
2019 forecast would repre-
sent a 40 percent increase
from last year’s deficit of
$779 billion.
According to the fore-
cast, this year’s deficit
will be the largest imbal-
ance since the govern-
ment had a $1.1 trillion
deficit in 2012. That was
the fourth straight year
of trillion-dollar deficits
during a period when the
Obama administration had
boosted spending to grap-
ple with the 2008 financial
crisis and lift the country
out of the deepest reces-
sion since the 1930s.
From October through
February, revenue is down
0.6 percent from the same
period a year ago. Outlays
are up 8.6 percent com-
pared to the same period
last year.
Critics of the adminis-
tration’s economic policies
blame the bigger deficits
on the $1.5 trillion tax cut
for individuals and corpo-
rations that the administra-
tion pushed through Con-
gress in December 2017.
They also cite billions of
dollars in increased spend-
ing on the military and
domestic programs that
Congress approved last
year.
For this budget year,
withheld taxes for indi-
viduals and Social Secu-
rity taxes are down 1 per-
cent. Corporate taxes have
fallen 23 percent.
Tariffs, which the
Trump administration has
increased on China and
other nations as part of the
president’s get-tough trade
policies, are up 91 percent
to $30 billion in the first
five months of this budget
year.
U.N. deputy spokesman
Farhan Haq said the United
Nations had no comment on
Trump’s tweet.
“But if you’re asking what
the U.N. policy on the Golan
Heights is, it’s very clear,” he
said. “It’s the policy reflected
in the resolutions of the
Security Council and the rel-
evant resolutions as well of
the General Assembly.”
Damascus also said
Trump’s statement “clearly
shows the U.S. disdain to
the international legitimacy
and violates its resolutions,
especially Security Council
resolution 497” while also
threatening “international
peace and stability.”
Syria’s Foreign Minis-
try later announced that a
letter was sent to the pres-
idents of the U.N. Security
Council and United Nations
over Trump’s “irresponsible
and dangerous statements
over the Golan.” The state-
ment urged the U.N. secre-
tary-general to confirm the
organization’s stance regard-
ing Israeli occupation of the
Golan.
In a Friday tweet, Iranian
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif
took aim at the U.S., saying
that if it believes that “per-
sistently violating int’l law,
bullying sovereign nations
& milking its clients projects
strength. It does not. Its reck-
lessness just displays panic
of an empire in decline.”
Arab
League
chief
Ahmed Aboul Gheit also
criticized the American
stance, saying it “comes out-
side the international legit-
imacy and no country, no
matter how important it is,
can make such a decision.”
Turkish President Recep
Tayyip
Erdogan
said
Trump’s “unfortunate” dec-
laration has brought the
region “to the brink of a new
crisis and new tensions.”
“We will never allow the
legitimization of the occupa-
tion of the Golan Heights,”
Erdogan added.
Egypt also issued a state-
ment, saying the Golan is
occupied Arab territory and
calling for respect for inter-
national resolutions.
Kremlin
spokesman
Dmitry Peskov told report-
ers that Trump’s comments
“can destabilize the already
fragile situation in the Mid-
dle East.”
“The very idea is not
helping the goals of the Mid-
dle East settlement, quite
the other way round,” he
said. “Right now, it’s merely
a declaration. Let’s hope it
will stay this way.”
In Germany, govern-
ment spokeswoman Ulrike
Demmer said there was no
change to Berlin’s position
on the Golan Heights, point-
ing to the 1981 U.N. reso-
lution. She said Germany
opposes “unilateral steps,”
but is well aware of the terri-
tory’s significance to Israel.
“A peace settlement
would have to take account
of Israel’s very justified secu-
rity interests and of course
stop once and for all the
potential dangers to Israel
from the Golan Heights,”
Demmer said. “But for the
present, the tensions that
already exist should not be
deepened.”
The U.S. will be the first
country to recognize Israeli
sovereignty over the Golan,
which the rest of the interna-
tional community regards as
territory occupied by Israel
whose status should be
determined by negotiations
between Israel and Syria.
Attempts to bring Israel and
Syria to the table have failed.
It was not immediately
clear how a U.N. peacekeep-
ing force that is in place in
the Golan might be affected
by the U.S. move. That
force’s mandate expires at
the end of June.
There had been sig-
nals that a U.S. decision
was coming. Last week,
in its annual human rights
report, the State Department
dropped the phrase “Israe-
li-occupied” from the Golan
Heights section, instead call-
ing it “Israeli-controlled.”
Trump says he’s bucking Treasury, reversing NKorea sanctions
By DEB RIECHMANN
and JILL COLVIN
Associated Press
PALM BEACH, Fla. —
President Donald Trump
tweeted on Friday that he
has reversed his adminis-
tration’s decision to slap
new sanctions on North
Korea, with his press sec-
retary explaining that the
president “likes” leader
Kim Jong Un and doesn’t
think they’re necessary.
It’s unclear, however,
which sanctions the presi-
dent was referencing in his
tweet, which took Treasury
officials by surprise.
“It was announced
today by the U.S. Treasury
that additional large scale
Sanctions would be added
to those already existing
Sanctions on North Korea,”
Trump wrote from his pri-
vate club in Palm Beach,
Florida.
“I have today ordered the
withdrawal of those addi-
tional Sanctions!”
The White House did
not immediately respond
to questions about which
sanctions Trump was refer-
ring to, or what large-scale
sanctions were poised to
be added to existing ones
already imposed on North
Korea.
On Thursday, his admin-
istration did sanction two
Chinese shipping com-
panies suspected of help-
ing North Korea evade
sanctions — the first tar-
geted actions taken against
Pyongyang since Trump
AP Photo/Lee Jin-man
Protesters hold signs during a rally demanding the denucle-
arization of the Korean Peninsula and a peace treaty near the
U.S. embassy in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday.
and Kim met in Hanoi,
Vietnam, last month for
negotiations about North
Korea’s nuclear weapons
program.
In addition to Trump’s
talks with North Korea, the
U.S. is knee-deep in deli-
cate trade negotiations with
China.
A person familiar with
the action told The Asso-
ciated Press that Trump’s
tweet was not a reversal of
existing sanctions, but that
the president was talking
about not going forward
with additional large-scale
sanctions on North Korea
at this time. The person was
not authorized to discuss
the president’s comments
and spoke on condition of
anonymity.
It’s unclear whether
Trump’s decision was
related to North Korea’s
move on Friday to abruptly
withdraw its staff from a
liaison office with South
Korea. The development is
likely to put a damper on
ties between the North and
South and further compli-
cate global diplomacy on
North Korea’s nuclear pro-
gram. The withdrawal also
is seen as a major setback
for South Korean Presi-
dent Moon Jae-in, who has
sought improved relations
with North Korea alongside
the nuclear negotiations
between the North and the
United States.
North Korea said it was
withdrawing its staff under
instructions from unspec-
ified “higher-level authori-
ties,” according to a Unifi-
cation Ministry statement.
It didn’t say whether the
withdrawal would be tem-
porary or permanent. South
Korea called the North’s
decision regrettable and
urged the North to return
its staff to the liaison office
soon.
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