15072019

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38 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, JULY 15, 2019
RECEPTION IN HONOUR OF GODWIN EMEFIELE, CBN GOV, IN LAGOS
PHOTOS. AKEEM SALAU
Alahji Aliko Dangote, President, Dangote Group (left) and Donald
Duke, former Governor Cross River State during the CBN Governor's
celebration of years of God’s Blessing, in Lagos, yesterday.
Dan Akpovwa, Publisher, Abuja Inquirer newspaper (left) and
John Momoh, Chairman, Channels Television.
Mr Mohammed Fouani, Managing Director, Fouani Nigeria Limited
(left) and Mr Kehinde Borisade, Managing Director, Zenith
Insurance
Magnus Onyibe (left) and Henry Imesekha.
Trump scrapped Iran deal to spite Obama
—Report
DONALD Trump aban
doned the Iran nuclear
deal to spite Barack
Obama, according to a
leaked memo written by the
UK’s former ambassador in
the US.
Sir Kim Darroch described
the move as an act of “diplomatic
vandalism”, according
to the Mail on Sunday.
The paper says the memo
was written after the then
Foreign Secretary Boris
Johnson appealed to the US
in 2018 to stick with the
deal.
The latest leak came despite
the Met Police warning
against publication.
The first memos criticising
President Trump’s administration,
which emerged a
week ago, prompted a furious
reaction from the US
president and resulted in Sir
Kim resigning from his role.
The Mail on Sunday reports
that Sir Kim wrote to
Mr Johnson informing him
Republican President Trump
appeared to be abandoning
the nuclear deal for “personality
reasons” - because the
pact had been agreed by his
Democrat predecessor,
Barack Obama.
Under the 2015 deal
backed by the US and five
other nations, Iran
agreed to limit its sensitive
nuclear activities
in return for the lifting
of crippling economic
sanctions.
However, President
Trump said he did not
think that the deal went
far enough in curtailing
Iran’s nuclear ambitions
and reinstated US sanctions
after withdrawing
from it in May 2018.
In a tweet from
June this year, the president
also said he objected
to Mr Obama
having given Iran
£1.8bn (£1.4bn) as part
of the deal. Commentators
later pointed out
this was related to the
settlement of an unfulfilled
military order from
the 1970s.
Tehran recently announced
it would break
a limit set on uranium
enrichment, in breach of
the deal’s conditions.
However the UK, Germany
and France say
they are still committed
to the deal.
The British ambassador’s
memo is said to
have highlighted splits
amongst US presidential
advisers; he wrote
that the White House
did not have a strategy
of how to proceed following
withdrawal from
the deal.
China holds military drills after US
approves arms sale to Taiwan
CHINA’s military has
carried out air and naval
drills along its southeast
coast, the defence ministry
has said, in an announcement
that came after
Beijing demanded the
cancellation of a potential
arms sale from the United
States to self-ruled Taiwan.
In a brief statement on
Sunday, the ministry described
the exercises as
“routine arrangements in accordance
with annual plans
for the military”.
It said they were held in
“recent days”.
On Friday, China said it
would impose sanctions on US
firms involved in a deal to sell
$2.2bn worth of tanks, missiles
and related equipment to Taiwan,
saying it harmed China’s
sovereignty and national security
Ṫhat announcement came as
Taiwanese President Tsai Ingwen
visited New York on a transit
stop to diplomatic allies in the
Caribbean, a trip that has also
infuriated Beijing, further straining
Sino-US ties already affected
by a bitter trade war.
Prior to leaving for the US, Tsai
said the island was facing
threats from “overseas forces”,
in a veiled reference to China.
China, which claims selfruled
and democratic Taiwan
as its own and views it as a wayward
province, had called on
the US not to allow Tsai to transit
there on her overseas tour.
In a statement on Sunday,
Taiwan’s Presidential Office cited
National Security Council
Deputy Secretary-General Tsai
Ming-yen as saying Tsai had
spoken by telephone with US
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
while she was in the US and
met with other senators and
members of Congress, without
naming them.
Tsai said Taipei and Washington
could forge even clos-
U.S. cities brace for raids on
undocumented immigrants
U
.S. cities are bracing for nationwide raids aimed
at deporting undocumented immigrants, in what
President Donald Trump called a “major operation”
due to take place on Sunday.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities
– known as ICE – is expected to focus on large
cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Houston
and will seek to pick up migrants who have received
final orders of removal from an immigration
judge.
Trump said the operation would focus on criminals,
such as members of the MS-13 gang, which was founded
in Los Angeles and has ties to El Salvador.
But in the cities themselves, government leaders and
local action groups ramped up efforts to make undocumented
residents aware of their rights and where they
can find help.
Sudan protester shot dead as
talks stall
A
SUDANESE protester has been shot dead by
members of a feared paramilitary group, proopposition
doctors say.
The man was shot in the head by members of
the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the south-eastern
Sinnar state, during a protest against allegations
of RSF brutality, they say.
Neither the RSF nor Sudan’s ruling military
council has commented.
The shooting comes as the signing of a powersharing
deal agreed earlier this month has once
more been delayed.
The military seized power in April following
months of street demonstrations against long-time
leader Omar al-Bashir but the protest leaders
feared that real power remained in the same
hands and continued their sit-ins.
The march in the Sinnar town of al-Suki was
called to demand that RSF fighters leave the
town, which lies 340 km (201 miles) south-east
of the capital, Khartoum.