- Add new comment
- 499 views
The proposal by US President Donald Trump's administration to cut down aid for programs in the Africa continent has been met with opposition.
Two officials from the State Department were were put to task members of the US Congress rejected the plans by Trump's government.
It was even a blow to Trump's attempts after the Republican chairman of a US House subcommittee on Africa threw his weight behind his Democratic colleagues in rejecting the plan cut food aid and to abolish other programs benefiting sub-Saharan nations, including Kenya.
Appearing before lawmakers, Donald Yamamoto, who is the acting assistant secretary of state for Africa, and Cheryl L. Anderson, an acting administrator for Africa at the US Agency for International Development, told a subcommittee hearing that the austere Trump budget was a product of “trade-offs” and “tough choices.”
“I know you have to support this budget, and it must be very painful because it's just filled with contradictions,” Democratic Congresswoman Karen Bass told Mr Yamamoto and Ms Anderson.
“This budget does not reflect your illustrious careers, and I'm sorry you have to be put in a position to defend it,” Ms Bass added.
The California congresswoman was even more dismayed by Trump's plan to abolish all funding facilitating family-planning initiatives in Africa. She argued that such a move would see an increase in abortions, noting that the Trump team was strongly opposed to abortion.
“What's the reason for that?” Ms Bass asked the officials in regard to the proposed elimination of family planning funding. “What's the logic?”
“Policy decision,” Ms Anderson of USAid replied.
Yamamoto and Ms Anderson defended President Trump's Africa-related budget trimming terming them as efforts to enhance the cost-effectiveness of programmes by US in the continent.
Congresswoman Bass, however, noted that “the budget is cutting peacekeeping and development, so to me that's a direct contradiction.”
The Republican chair of the Africa subcommittee, Congressman Chris Smith vowed the Congress would not allow White House's attempts to reduce aid for nutrition and agriculture programs such as the Obama administration's Feed the Future programme.
Yamamoto pointed out that funds for Feed the Future would and Obama's Power Africa plan and the Young African Leaders Initiative (Yali) programs would continue to be trimmed under Trump.
Yamamoto revealed that Yali has become so popular that administrators got about 74,000 applications for 740 available fellowships, describing it as “a very good programme.”
But Yali would be cut under Mr Trump's budget proposals, Congresswoman Bass pointed out.
“Fifty percent,” Yamamoto replied.
Democratic Congressman Amerish Babulal Bera questioned the 'America First' policy that informs Trump's budget making.
“The policies the president is putting forward will make us weaker and do not reflect our values,” Congressman Bera declared.
Democratic congressman, Joaquin Castro of Texas, cautioned that a reduced US presence in Africa would diminish US influence and open chances for rival powers.
With the Trump budget proposals, Mr Castro said, “we're ceding a lot of ground to other countries, such as China.”
Comments
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says the US president is not in a position to terminate Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
Shortly after US President Donald Trump officially announced on Friday that he would not certify the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Mogherini stressed that the 2015 accord reached between Iran and Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China as well as the US "does not belong to any single country".
"To my knowledge there is not one single country in the world that can terminate a UN Security Council resolution that has been adopted, and adopted unanimously, and implemented, and verified," she said.
"It is clearly not in the hands of any president of any country in the world to terminate an agreement of this sort. The president of the United States has many powers (but) not this one," the EU foreign policy chief pointed out.
Mogherini underlined the EU’s determination to abide by the JCPOA, noting that the bloc expects the other parties to the deal to adopt the same stance.
"We cannot afford as an international community, as Europe for sure, to dismantle an agreement that is working and delivering," she said.
Apart from his refusal to certify the JCPOA, Trump also warned in his strategic review of US policy on Iran that he might ultimately terminate the deal, in defiance of other world powers and undermining a landmark victory of multilateral diplomacy.
While Trump did not pull Washington out of the nuclear deal, he gave the US Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the pact. Reimposing sanctions would put the US at odds with other signatories to the accord and the European Union.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said earlier on Friday that Tehran had a “very broad” range of options for any breach of the JCPOA and would “end all its commitments in this regard if deemed necessary.”
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, DC, on October 13, 2017. (Photo by AP)
Trump called on Congress and US allies to address “serious flaws” in the JCPOA, including the deal's "sunset clauses" that will put an end to restrictions on Iran's nuclear program after a few years as well as the agreement's “total silence on Iran's missile programs.”
The US president noted that key Congress leaders are drafting legislation to amend the 2015 Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which has given Congress some oversight on the JCPOA, prevent Iran from developing intercontinental ballistic missiles and make all restrictions on Iran's nuclear program permanent.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani slammed Trump’s speech against the Islamic Republic as nothing more than insults and delirious talk, urging the US president to brush up on his world history and geography to improve his comprehension of international obligations and global ethics, etiquette and conventions.
Read more:
US president’s anti-Iran speech pile of delusional claims: Rouhani
The Iranian president further rejected Trump's demand that the 2015 nuclear deal be revised, saying the agreement would remain intact and no article or paragraph would be added or taken away from it.
Rouhani said Iran will only respect its nuclear deal commitments so long as its rights are safeguarded, emphasizing that Tehran has cooperated and would continue its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has certified Iran’s compliance eight times.
UK, Germany, France back JCPOA
Following Trump’s speech, the leaders of Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement, expressing concern over “the possible implications" of Washington’s decision.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they "stand committed to its full implementation by all sides."
"The nuclear deal was the culmination of 13 years of diplomacy and was a major step towards ensuring that Iran's nuclear program is not diverted for military purposes," said the statement released by May's Downing Street office.
"We encourage the US administration and Congress to consider the implications to the security of the US and its allies before taking any steps that might undermine the JCPOA, such as re-imposing sanctions on Iran lifted under the agreement.
"Our governments are committed to ensuring the JCPOA is maintained,” the statement pointed out.
The file photo shows French President Emmanuel Macron (L), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (C) and British Prime Minister Theresa May at a European Union leaders summit in Brussels. (Photo by AFP)
While both the US and the IAEA confirm that Iran is meeting the technical requirements of the nuclear deal, Trump claims that Tehran is in breach of the "spirit" of the agreement because of its expanding influence in the Middle East and the country’s achievements in its conventional missile program.
The three European leaders also expressed concern over Iran's ballistic missile program, noting that they "stand ready to take further appropriate measures to address these issues."
The nuclear agreement is solely about Iran’s nuclear activities and it does not incorporate non-nuclear issues.
Russia slams Trump’s policy
In reaction to Trump’s speech, Russia's Foreign Ministry denounced his Iran strategy as one using "aggressive and threatening rhetoric" but said it expected the JCPOA to stay intact.
The ministry’s statement said it expected Trump's decision "would not have a direct impact on the implementation of the deal" but was "an element of (US) domestic debate."
Trump’s threat to terminate the nuclear deal comes as the US has a history of quitting international pacts and organizations.
This is not the first time that the international community witnesses efforts by the Trump administration to renege on a multilateral agreement.
Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Agreement in June and has ordered the US to withdraw from UNESCO next year.
PressTV-Can US be trusted anymore if Trump scraps Iran deal?
Is the US a reliable partner anymore if Washington scraps Iran’s nuclear deal?
Read more:
US to withdraw from UNESCO over 'anti-Israel
The US decisions to abandon multilateral agreements is not limited to the Trump administration. In 2002, the administration of former US President George W. Bush withdrew from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), which it had signed with the Soviet Union in 1972.
Oops Imara are you Kenyan or you want to bring your political agendas to Mwakilishi? We have our own probs to deal with and for your information Israel was the first rescue team to come to Kenya's rescue after the terroristic attack of 1998 where 224 people died. Read your history before starting propagandas here. Be knowledgeable of what you are talking about.
@ Njeri:
You are lucky that when the British offered my Jewish brothers and sisters the current land of Kenya in 1902, they turned the offer down. Had they accepted, you would be now experiencing what the Palestinians are going through. I agree with you that Israelis came to help the people of Kenya after the attack of the US embassy in 1988. We all appreciated their kind gesture of their immediate assistance to the people of Kenya. However, that does not excuse them from their bad treatment of the Palestinians, their occupation of their land, and their annexation of the Golan heights of the state of Syria.
You are the one in need of reading your history before you make your emotionally charged opinions against me! My argument was an examination of the current president of the USA, his challenging language in public and its influence in the current negative political climate in the Kenyan politics, and his double standards he uses in his biases when approaching complex and historic issues in the Middle East. I pointed out that, his nuclear weapons stand against Iran while Israel currently possesses nuclear weapons is unfair!
Finally, the inappropriate way he treated Barack Obama when he was the president of the USA. I don't see how the issue of my nationality has to do with my comments about Donald Trump!
Correction: The USA embassy was attacked in 1998, but not in 1988.
We may fault Donald Trump but we should ask ourselves: Why should US give aid to Africa (read Kenya) when all they do is waste 12+ billion on unnecessary elections and crazy salaries for a few misguided politicians?
Ben. You're right. Now we're talking.
Austerity would be a missed investment.
Foreign aid is a direct investment into creating a more stable, prosperous, and sustainable world. The goals of foreign aid are moral too, but for all those hard-nosed, hard-souled people who apparently dominate American policy today, I ask: why do we keep cutting? Austerity hasn't helped Greece, it hasn't helped Spain. Investing in these regions before they devolve into horrific civil wars like in Syria or Niger should be obvious.
Donald's Trump legacy in Kenya: On September 22, he used the American insulting and inappropriate language to call the mothers of the players of NFL words that I cannot repeat here. It has always been my stand that human beings are unique and each has special qualities as a replica of the universe. It is okay to disagree. But it is not okay to use inappropriate lexical items to respond in a disagreement.
On Monday September 25, Ndugu Babu Owino used the same language that Donald had used and was arrested. Now in NASA political rallies, when the speaker says, "Harambee," the response is what Donald had said on September 22, 2017. This is Donald's legacy in Kenya. The second legacy is when he deliberately lied to the American people that Barack was born in Kenya! His third negative legacy is when he demanded that Barack show him his Harvard University academic transcript.
Thank you democratic Congresswoman Karen Bass and Republican Congresswoman Chris Smith for standing tall and opposing Ndugu Donald Trump negative aid stand directed against Africa. For your information Donald, there are more African Americans in the US than the Jewish Americans and Ndugu Donald is ready to side with Israel when even the Israelis have not asked him for his support. He (Donald) is quick to condemn the Iranian nuclear agreement and yet he would not dare mention the nuclear weapons that Israel posseses and the occupation of the Golan Heights in Syria let alone the occupation of Palestinians territory after the war of 1967. Why doesn't he ask Israel to observe and respect the UN resolutions 338 and 242!