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US President Donald Trump has cancelled a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Argentina, registering his disapproval of Russia’s treatment of Ukraine and casting new uncertainty over US-Russian ties. Trump said he pulled out due to tensions over Russian forces opening fire on Ukrainian navy boats and then seizing them and their crew on Sunday near Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. His decision also comes as a federal investigation into his 2016 election campaign’s ties to Russia is intensifying. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty yesterday to lying to Congress about a proposed Trump real estate project in Russia (see report on the left). “Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel my previously scheduled meeting in Argentina with President Vladimir Putin. I look forward to a meaningful Summit again as soon as this situation is resolved!” Trump tweeted. Trump’s tweet from aboard Air Force One shortly after take-off from Washington on the way to Buenos Aires for a Group of 20 summit, was a sudden turnaround. Roughly an hour earlier, he had told reporters that he would probably meet with Putin at the summit and said it was “a very good time to have the meeting”. Trump had also said he would get a final report during the flight to Argentina on the tension in the region after Russia seized Ukrainian vessels near Crimea on Sunday. Yesterday Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Putin of wanting to annex his entire country and called for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) to deploy warships to a sea shared by the two nations. While it was unclear why there was a sudden change in plans for a meeting, holding talks with Putin now could represent bad optics for the White House at a time when the president is under scrutiny over prior plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on the presidential aircraft that Trump made the decision not to meet Putin after speaking with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, White House chief of staff John Kelly, and national security adviser John Bolton. The decision appeared to catch the Kremlin by surprise. The Kremlin’s spokesman said Moscow had no official information on Trump’s decision. If the meeting at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires is cancelled, Putin will “have a couple of additional hours on the programme for useful meetings on the sidelines of the summit”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in comments carried by state news agency Tass. Differences over Ukraine, as well as Moscow’s role in the civil war in Syria, have been an irritant in US-Russian relations for years. Democratic US Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey said that Trump was missing an “opportunity to redeem himself, stand up for American values, stand up for international law, stand up for our own national security interests, and he had that opportunity and instead he’s abdicating it”. “It is ironic that this President cannot find his spine to confront Vladimir Putin but can challenge the closest allies the United States has across the globe,” Menendez said. The administration of former president Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. That in part brought ties between Washington and Moscow to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War. Since then, the United States has investigated Russia’s possible interference in the 2016 election that Trump won. Russia has denied meddling and Trump has repeatedly said there was no collusion. Russia seized three Ukrainian navy ships and their crews on Sunday near Crimea over what it said was their illegal entry into Russian waters, which Ukraine denies. Some of Ukraine’s Western allies have raised the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Russia over the episode, which could deliver a blow to the Russian economy. Kyiv is aiming to gain Western support for more economic sanctions against Moscow, secure tangible Western military help, and rally opposition to a Russian gas pipeline that threatens to deprive Ukraine of important transit revenue.

Nikki Haley announced yesterday that she is resigning as the US ambassador to the United Nations, but the rising Republican star immediately denied that she is preparing to challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Sitting beside Trump in the Oval Office, Haley said her 18-month stint at the United Nations had been “an honour of a lifetime” and said she would stay on until the end of the year. A former governor of South Carolina who is the daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley is the highest-profile woman in Trump’s Cabinet and is often seen as a possible presidential candidate. However, she said in her resignation letter to Trump that she would “surely not be a candidate for any office in 2020” and would support his re-election bid. She told reporters in the Oval Office: “No, I am not running for 2020.” Haley said she did not have any future plans set and did not give a reason for quitting, but Trump said she had told him some six months ago that she was thinking of leaving by the end the year “to take a little time off”. Haley’s fast rise from a Southern state’s legislature to the world stage suggests the 46-year-old may have greater political ambition. Describing her UN tenure as “fantastic” and “incredible”, Trump was effusive in his praise for Haley. He accepted her resignation and said he would name her successor within two or three weeks. Haley has been the face of Trump’s “America First” policy at the United Nations, steering the US withdrawal from several UN programmes and ardently defending his hard-line policies against Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programmes. However, she has also sometimes distanced herself from Trump. “She has done an incredible job. She is a fantastic person, very importantly, but she also is somebody that gets it,” Trump said yesterday. “She’s done a fantastic job and we’ve done a fantastic job together.” Haley’s name has come up as possible Republican running mate in the last two presidential elections and she could also become a US senator if fellow South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham takes up a job in the Trump administration as if often speculated. Trump suggested the two of them jointly announce Haley’s departure in the Oval Office, an administration official said, noting that Haley is the only outgoing member of Trump’s administration to be feted in this way. Returning the favour, Haley praised Trump and his family. She described Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and aide, as “such a hidden genius that no-one understands” for his work on renegotiating the NAFTA trade deal and preparing a long-awaited Middle East peace plan that has not yet been released. Haley was seen by her counterparts at the United Nations as a voice of clarity in a US administration that often gave off mixed signals on foreign policy, diplomats say. However, she has been overshadowed in recent months by the appointments of Trump loyalist Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and hawk John Bolton as White House national security adviser. Pompeo has led policy on talks with North Korea, while Bolton has taken the lead on trying to implement Trump’s hard line against Iran. Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Haley’s resignation “yet another sign of the Trump Administration’s chaotic foreign policy”. “I am deeply concerned about the leadership vacuum she leaves and the national security impact of her departure at this time of continued disarray,” Menendez said in a statement. Haley is the latest in a long line of high-profile departures from the administration, such as former secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who was fired in March, and Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, who left in August 2017. A convert to Christianity in her 20s after being raised a Sikh, Haley is popular with religious conservatives in the South. Her status as a potential candidate for national high office was boosted in 2015 when she ordered the Confederate battle flag to be pulled down at South Carolina’s state capitol grounds after a white supremacist gunman shot dead nine black worshipers at a church. Haley has also applauded women who come forward to denounce sexual abuse or misconduct by men and said they should be heard. “Women who accuse anyone should be heard,” Haley said last December after accusations against three members of Congress. “They should be heard, and they should be dealt with.” Referring to women whose accusations brought down powerful men, like movie producer Harvey Weinstein, Haley said: “I’m proud of their strength. I’m proud of their courage.” Haley has long taken a tougher public stance on Russia than Trump, who has sought better relations with President Vladimir Putin. Haley raised eyebrows within the administration when she announced in April that Washington was going to impose sanctions on Moscow over its support of Syria’s government. Trump then decided not to go ahead with the move.

* Remark about Pence was ‘last straw’ * Trump cites ‘missed opportunity’ * North Korea blows up nuclear test tunnel US President Donald Trump on Thursday called off a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un scheduled for next month, even after North Korea followed through on a pledge to blow up tunnels at its nuclear test site. Trump announced his abrupt withdrawal from what would have been a first-ever meeting between a serving US president and a North Korean leader in Singapore on June 12 in a letter to Kim. A White House official said a North Korean official's condemnation of US Vice President Mike Pence as a ‘political dummy’ was ‘the last straw’ that led to cancelling the summit. ‘Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it would be inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,’ Trump wrote to Kim. ‘Please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place.’ Trump called it ‘a missed opportunity’ and said he still hoped to meet Kim someday. However, the chances for a quick rescheduling appear remote and cancellation of the summit will renew fears of a return to conflict on the Korean peninsula. The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s cancellation of the summit. US stocks dropped sharply on the news, with the benchmark S&P 500 Index falling more than half a percent in about 10 minutes. Investors turned to US Treasury debt as a safe alternative, driving the yield on the 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, down to a 10-day low and back below the psychologically important 3 percent level. The US dollar also weakened broadly, particularly against the Japanese yen, which climbed to a two-week high against the greenback. ‘You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God that they will never have to be used,’ he said. Earlier on Thursday, North Korea had repeated a threat to pull out of the summit with Trump next month and warned it was prepared for a nuclear showdown with Washington if necessary. DECADES OF TENSION North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons has been a source of tension on the Korean peninsula for decades, as well as antagonism with Washington, but escalated into fears of war last year after North Korea said it had tested an H-bomb and developed a missile capable of hitting the United States. The rhetoric reached war-like heights under Trump as he mocked Kim as ‘little rocket man’ and in address at the United Nations threatened to ‘totally destroy’ North Korea if necessary. Kim had called Trump mentally deranged and threatened to ‘tame’ him with fire. Kim rarely leaves North Korea and his willingness to meet and Trump's acceptance sparked hope but it had faded in recent days. Trump's letter to Kim also referred to the possibility of war. ‘You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God that they will never have to be used,’ he said. The reference to Pence that offended the White House came in a statement released by North Korean media and citing Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui. She had called Pence a ‘political dummy’ for comparing North Korea - a ‘nuclear weapons state’ - to Libya, where Muammar Gaddafi gave up his unfinished nuclear development programme, only to be later killed by NATO-backed fighters. ‘Whether the US will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States,’ Choe said. US national security adviser John Bolton first advocated a Libya as a model of disarmament. That incensed North Korea, which said the reason it had its nuclear arms was to ensure it did not end up like Libya and its then-leader. Gaddafi gave up his unfinished nuclear program only to be later killed by NATO-backed fighters. The White House official said back channels for discussions with North Korea remained open and there still was hope for peace but Pyongyang must first change its rhetoric. SOUTH KOREA SURPRISED South Korea's presidential Blue House appeared taken off guard by Trump's letter and an official said it was ‘trying to figure out what President Trump exactly meant.’ South Korean President Moon Jae-in had met with Trump at the White House on Tuesday to urge him to follow through on the summit and not let a rare opportunity with reclusive North Korea slip away. A few hours before Trump announced the cancellation, a small group of international media selected by North Korea witnessed the demolition of tunnels at the Punggye-ri site on Thursday, which Pyongyang said was proof of its commitment to end nuclear testing. The apparent destruction of what North Korea said was its only nuclear test site has been widely welcomed as a positive, if largely symbolic, step toward resolving tension over its weapons. Kim has declared his nuclear force complete, amid speculation the site was obsolete anyway. Cancellation of the summit denies Trump what supporters hoped could have been the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency, and one worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize. Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he had not had a sense that the administration had engaged in the detailed preparations necessary for a successful summit with Kim. He also suggested that recent rhetoric from top administration officials might not have been appropriate ahead of the meeting. ‘I'm not sure that constantly quoting the Libya model is the diplomatic way to try to get to the results that we try to seek in North Korea,’ Menendez said at the start of a committee hearing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The outlook for the Trump-Kim meeting had suffered a setback this month after North Korea angrily rejected the notion that would agree to unilateral nuclear disarmament as the United States has demanded. Trump responded by raising his own doubts as to whether the summit would go forward but seeking to placate Kim by pledging that on Thursday that Kim’s security would be guaranteed in any deal. At the same time, Trump insisted on concrete steps before any easing of sanctions and warned that failure to reach a denuclearization agreement could lead to ‘decimation’ of Kim's rule. Defense stocks got a lift from Trump's announcement, and the NYSE Arca Defense Index rose nearly 1 percent to near a record high. The advance was led by a 3 percent gain in military drone maker AeroVironment Inc, and major US defense contractors such as Raytheon Co, Lockheed Martin Corp , General Dynamics Corp and Northrop Grumman Corp all moved higher.

AFP/Washington President Barack Obama faced criticism from foes and allies on Sunday after his decision to delay immigration reform until after November's midterm elections. Republicans and Democrats both condemned Obama's decision, announced on Saturday, to delay using his executive power to break the deadlock until after this year's polls. The decision was widely interpreted as a political move designed to protect Democratic Party lawmakers battling to cling to seats in the elections. Obama told NBC's Meet The Press in an interview aired on Sunday that the crisis over migrant children flooding into the US had altered the political climate. "The truth of the matter is that the politics did shift midsummer because of that problem," Obama acknowledged, saying more time was needed to explain the proposed reforms to voters. "I want to spend some time, even as we're getting all our ducks in a row for the executive action, I also want to make sure that the public understands why we're doing this, why it's the right thing for the American people, why it's the right thing for the American economy," Obama said. But Obama's decision on reforms, which would address the fate of some 11mn undocumented migrants in the US, was attacked by Republicans, who are opposed to any possibility of an amnesty. "He doesn't want to be held accountable by the electorate in the mid-term elections for an action that he knows is unpopular," said Republican Senator Marco Rubio on CBS television. "Because the American people don't want to do anything on immigration until they know that the border, and the illegal immigration system, is secure," added Rubio, seen as a potential Republican candidate for the White House in 2016. Democratic Senator Robert Menendez meanwhile told Fox News he was "deeply disappointed that the President hasn't acted." Menendez was one of the architects of a historic reform bill passed by the Senate in 2013, which provided millions of migrants with a route towards citizenship. The Republican-dominated House of Representatives has never considered the bill, leaving the legislation in limbo.

Reuters/CaracasVenezuela’s government said it was temporarily occupying the local subsidiary of multinational packaging company Smurfit Kappa, accusing the company of using its dominant position in the market to inflate prices.In the run-up to December 8 municipal elections, President Nicolas Maduro’s government has launched an “economic offensive” to try to win over voters fed up with chronic shortages of basic goods and annual inflation of 54%.This week, Maduro said inspections of businesses would be stepped up and called for tough punishments for those accused of price gouging.The opposition says his statist policies, and a decade of strict currency controls, are the problem.Industry Minister Ricardo Menendez said the local subsidiary of Irish packaging group Smurfit Kappa had hiked prices for some food-related products by 372% in the last year.“This company is being occupied temporarily to guarantee the provision of raw material for the food chain, everything related to the packaging, to guarantee the food produced in our country,” Menendez said on state TV from the company’s factory in the west-central state of Carabobo.He said the government was not taking over the day-to-day running of the facility. “The owners are responsible, before the country, to guarantee the maximum increase in production from this plant ... but the state will be here, vigilant, to make sure that no one sabotages our economy.”There was no immediate response to requests for comments by Smurfit Kappa. It is not the company’s first collision with Venezuela’s socialist government.In 2009, president Hugo Chavez seized 3,700 acres of forestry land owned by Smurfit Kappa, vowing to clear the trees and use the land for crops. At the time, analysts said the company had some 74,000 acres in Venezuela, representing 35% of the group’s Latin American landholdings, which represented 15% of Smurfit Kappa’s revenues.Maduro, who has staked his leadership on preserving the legacy of his late mentor Chavez, alleged on Friday that price irregularities had been found at almost 99% of 1,705 businesses inspected so far this month.Maduro’s administration accuses companies of marking up prices by as much as 1,000% over cost, though many retailers say they have been forced to increase prices due to lack of access to foreign currency at the official rate.The president asserts that “capitalist parasites” are trying to wreck the Opec nation’s economy and drive him from office.He blames speculators for a black market rate for dollars that is now some 10 times the official level of 6.3 bolivars.The opposition denounces his latest theatrical economic moves as short-term populism and says they are coupled with incompetence that will only make things worse in the long run.

Relatives fixing mechanical limbs to Rebeka Khatun, one of the survivors of the Rana Plaza building collapse, at the BRAC Limb and Brace Centre (BLBC) in Dhaka yesterday. According to reports, BRAC has distributed mechanical prosthetic limbs to 11 Rana Plaza survivors who lost their arms and legs during the building collapse with the support of National Institute of Traumatology, Orthopaedics Rehabilitation (NITOR). Rana Plaza, a building that housed five garment factories in Savar, collapsed on April 24, killing 1,134 people and causing many others lose limbs.   AFP/Washington A US Senate report has urged Walmart, Gap and other retailers to respect labour unions in Bangladesh, saying workers desperately needed greater rights after hundreds died in fires. The staff report from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Democratic Party majority came as Bangladesh’s government and foreign retailers agreed to start safety inspections on the 3,500 factories in the world’s largest garment maker after China. Senator Robert Menendez, the chairman of the committee, vowed to help give workers “the tools they need to protect themselves” after a factory fire in April killed 1,135 people and a similar disaster in November 2012 left 111 workers dead. “No consumer will want to wear clothing if it’s stained by the blood of innocent workers,” Menendez said in a statement late on Friday. Following the tragedies, more than 100 companies, mostly from Europe, entered an accord on fire safety that includes union representation. Major US companies including Gap and Walmart, which is known for its opposition to organised labour, set up a separate initiative that also covers safety standards but does not bring in unions. The staff report urged US companies to “launch long-term, well-resourced programmes to educate their suppliers in Bangladesh of their expectation for compliance with laws allowing the right to organise unions and bargain collectively.” “They should also collectively develop and implement a policy of zero-tolerance for suppliers who consistently engage in anti-union activity,” it said. The report called on the United States to step up funding to support workers’ rights in Bangladesh and to keep high standards as it considers lifting the South Asian country’s suspension from duty-free access for many of its exports. Bangladeshi authorities recently cracked down on unions that have led street protests against a new $68-a-month minimum wage, which represents a 76% hike but is still below salaries in other major garment exporters such as Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. According to top UN official last week, measures by top Western retailers to improve safety in Bangladesh’s garment factories should be adopted worldwide. “It’s clear we shouldn’t make a double standard,” said Gilbert Houngbo, deputy director general of the International Labour Organisation had said. “In Bangladesh, yes, but we have to make sure that the other countries, in the region and also in other regions, have it,” the former prime minister of Togo told reporters in Geneva last week. The garment sector was spurred into action by April’s collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex near the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, which claimed 1,135 lives in one of the world’s worst ever industrial disasters. “Unfortunately this is always what makes the whole international community, and national communities, move,” Houngbo said as he launched an ILO report on the Bangladeshi economy. “My only hope is that, at least, for Bangladesh, there will be no repeat,” he added. Houngbo said he feared politics could distort efforts to improve labour standards. “I really hope to be wrong, but after the election, depending on how it goes, and if the international and media attention is a bit off, if this is off-radar, what will be the impact? This is really the danger,” he said.      

AFP/Doha Lekhwiya will have to work hard against Guangzhou Evergrande today to have any chance of advancing to the AFC Champions League semi-finals. The Chinese champions, who are looking to zero in on a famous treble under super-coach Marcello Lippi, hold a 2-0 lead over the Qatari club. Guangzhou were toppled by Saudi Arabia’s two-time winners Al Ittihad a year ago but they have returned stronger in their first full season under Lippi, whose coaching honours include the 2006 World Cup with Italy and 1996 European Champions League with Juventus. Lippi’s men hold a 14-point lead in the Chinese Super League and have reached the domestic cup semi-finals—as defending champions in both competitions—as they also bid to secure China’s first Asian title since 1990. Inspired by Argentine maestro Dario Conca, deep-pocketed Guangzhou have established themselves as the favourites in this year’s AFC Champions League, winning six of their nine games and scoring a tournament-leading 21 goals. Brazilian target man Elkeson has successfully replaced departed Paraguayan star Lucas Barrios, scoring against Lekhwiya on his tournament debut last month in what was his 21st goal of the season. “Lekhwiya are a strong team and as it’s the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League it’s always going to be difficult to win games,” Elkeson said ahead of the second leg. “We managed to play really well in the first game at home and now we want to achieve another one of our goals and qualify for the semi-finals.” Lekhwiya are unbeaten at home in this year’s AFC Champions League but their task has been complicated by the suspension of three players including captain Madjid Bougherra for accumulating two yellow cards. In Thailand, former Racing Santander manager Alejandro Menendez will become the third coach to lead Buriram United in this year’s competition as the Thai FA Cup-holders attempt to recover from a 1-0 deficit against Iranian champions Esteghlal. Menendez was appointed last week following the resignation of Englishman Scott Cooper, and the Spaniard enjoyed a good start as Buriram beat BEC Tero Sasana 2-0 for their fifth consecutive league win last Saturday. Buriram were unfortunate not to get more from their visit to Tehran last month, and a victory in front of their passionate fans in north-eastern Thailand could help them to become the first Thai club to reach the semi-finals in a decade. The remaining two quarter-finals are both intriguingly poised after 1-1 draws in the first legs. South Korean champions FC Seoul will be seeking to make it third time lucky in the quarter-finals, after crashing out at this stage in 2009 and 2011, when they entertain last year’s runners-up Al Ahli of Saudi Arabia. And another Saudi side, Al Shabab, will look to build on their away-goal advantage when they host Japanese Emperor’s Cup-holders Kashiwa Reysol in Riyadh. The winners of the Al Shabab-Kashiwa tie will face either Guangzhou or Lekhwiya in the two-legged semi-finals, while FC Seoul or Al Ahli will meet either Buriram or Esteghlal.      

Republican Senator from Arizona John McCain (left) talking with Democratic Senator from New Jersey Robert Menendez (right) shortly before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the resolution giving President Obama authority to use force in Syria in Washington yesterday. Reuters/Washington   The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday approved a resolution authorising a limited US military intervention in Syria, setting the stage for a debate in the full Senate next week on the use of military force. The committee voted 10-7 in favour of a compromise resolution that sets a 60-day limit on any engagement in Syria and bars the use of US troops on the ground for combat operations. The compromise is more limited than President Barack Obama’s original proposal but meets the administration’s goal of punishing Syria for what the US government says is the use of chemical weapons on Syrian civilians, killing more than 1,400 people. The authorisation still faces significant resistance in Congress, where many lawmakers fear it could lead to a prolonged US military involvement in Syria’s civil war and spark an escalation of regional violence. The full Senate is expected to vote on the resolution next week. The House of Representatives also must approve the measure. Obama and administration officials have pushed Congress to act quickly, saying US national security and international credibility is at stake in the decision whether to use force in Syria to punish President Bashar al-Assad’s government for chemical weapons use. “If we don’t take a stand here today, I guarantee you, we are more likely to face far greater risks to our security and a far greater likelihood of conflict that demands our action in the future,” Secretary of State John Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee at a separate meeting yesterday. “Assad will read our silence, our unwillingness to act, as a signal that he can use his weapons with impunity,” Kerry said. The committee vote came after the two panel leaders - Democratic chairman Robert Menendez and senior Republican Bob Corker - crafted a compromise to meet concerns from some lawmakers that Obama’s resolution was too open-ended. Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona had objected to the more narrow wording. But the committee adopted amendments proposed by McCain with policy goals of degrading Assad’s ability to use chemical weapons, increasing support for rebel forces and reversing battlefield momentum to create conditions for Assad’s removal. Many lawmakers have said they are worried the resolution could lead to US ground troops, or “boots on the ground”, in Syria - which administration officials said would not happen. “It’s very clear on the House side there is no support for boots on the ground,” House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce told Kerry at yesterday’s hearing, which also featured testimony from Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Kerry answered flatly: “There will be no boots on the ground. The president has said it again and again.” Earlier yesterday, President Obama issued a blunt challenge to sceptical US lawmakers, saying inaction would put America’s prestige and their own credibility at risk. Using a visit to Sweden to build his case for military action, Obama insisted that the world could not remain silent after the “barbarism” of the August 21 chemical weapons attack by Assad’s forces. “My credibility is not on the line. The international community’s credibility is on the line,” Obama told a news conference in Stockholm. “And America and Congress’ credibility is on the line, because (otherwise) we give lip service to the notion that these international norms are important.”    

AFP/Washington   The United States has said it will soon decide whether to suspend Bangladesh from a duty-free accord as it urged action by Dhaka to improve labour rights following a massive factory collapse. After a call by US unions, President Barack Obama’s administration in January launched a review on whether to keep Bangladesh in the Generalized System of Preferences, or GSP, which provides duty-free access for thousands of goods. The review was under way when Rana Plaza, a nine-story garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, crumbled on April 24 and killed 1,129 people despite concerns expressed previously by workers over the building’s integrity. “The administration will announce a decision on next steps in the GSP review of Bangladesh by the end of June,” said Lewis Karesh on Thursday, who handles labour issues for the US Trade Representative’s office. “All options remain under consideration, including possible suspension, limitation or withdrawal of GSP benefits,” he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the committee, sounded supportive on the suspension of Bangladesh. He noted that the GSP does not cover textiles, which are by far the South Asian nation’s largest export to the United States. “While only a small fraction of Bangladesh’s exports would be affected, given ongoing violations of the GSP workers’ right criteria, GSP suspension would send a strong signal that the United States is serious about protecting workers and improving workplace safety,” Menendez said. But Robert Blake, the assistant secretary of state for South Asia, said that Bangladesh has been responsive to appeals by the United States, saying that the country has allowed the registration of 27 trade unions since September. “Our hope is that Bangladesh will seize the current moment to strengthen labor rights and improve working conditions. This administration wants to see Bangladesh succeed,” Blake said. Since the Rana Plaza disaster, more than 40 companies — most from Europe — have signed on to an agreement that would include independent monitoring of factory conditions and a stronger role for labour unions. But only three US companies have joined, with US retail giants Walmart and Gap opposed. Blake said that the decision to enter the accord was up to each company but that the US government has asked firms “to carefully examine what they can do to support improved working conditions in Bangladesh.”

Reuters/Washington   US Secretary of State John Kerry is likely to renew waivers on Iran oil sanctions for India, China and several other countries as soon as today, in exchange for their reducing purchases of crude from the Islamic Republic, two government sources said. The 180-day exceptions to the oil sanctions would be the third round since President Barack Obama signed the bill in late 2011. The Obama administration issued waivers on the sanctions to Japan and 10 European Union countries in March. US and EU sanctions last year helped to cut Iran’s oil exports in half, depriving the government of revenues worth billions of dollars, helping to devalue the Iranian rial, the country’s currency, and driving up inflation. Critics of the sanctions say that more diplomatic efforts are necessary to avoid pushing Iran’s leaders to continue funding the nuclear programme. India has led reductions in Iranian oil purchases, cutting imports by nearly a fifth since December. China’s reductions have been more modest. China’s cuts could end up being about 5% to 10% for all of this year, according to trade officials familiar with China’s state refiner. The State Department delayed granting China an exception in June last year for a few weeks, but that is not expected this round. The government sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said all of the countries, including China, India, South Korea Turkey and Singapore are expected to get exceptions today. At a hearing yesterday Robert Menendez, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pushed Wendy Sherman, undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department, to say which countries would get an exception this week. Sherman would not be drawn on the prospects of waivers for individual countries, saying Kerry was still reviewing final documents.  “I can assure you that every country that gets an exception tomorrow, they will have made a significant reduction, because that is what is required by law,” she said. While Menendez and other sanctions backers in Congress have pushed for even stronger oil sanctions on Tehran, Sherman said Iranian oil has to be withdrawn from the market in phases that do not spike global oil prices or risk hurting the economies of oil consuming countries. Obama will meet with China’s President Xi Jinping later this week in California, and is likely to talk about ways to help China quickly move away from oil “so that they can further reduce their dependence on Iranian oil,” Sherman said. Mark Dubowitz, the director of Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a proponent of stronger sanctions on Iran, said he expected China to get a waiver. But the modest cuts by China could push Congress to intensify pressure in coming weeks and months to make sure Iran’s exports keep falling, he added. Asian consuming countries have mainly turned to Iraq, Libya and Central and South American exporters as the sanctions have forced down Iran’s oil sales. The oil sanctions are one of the main tools Washington has for its strategy of trying to choke off funding to Tehran’s nuclear programme. Countries in the West suspect its purpose is to seek the capability to make nuclear weapons. Iran says the programme is for generating power and medical devices.