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xtruss · 1 year

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After Five Months of Strained Ties, US Admits Chinese Balloon Did Not Collect Information

— Global Times Staff Reporters | June 30, 2023

Graphic: Global Times

After repeated hyping of the so-called Chinese spy balloon incident for nearly five months, the Pentagon on Thursday admitted the airship did not collect any information, not to mention send any data back to China. This is an objective result that should be welcomed, but it came too late, as the incident has damaged mutual trust, totally changed the environment for communication between China and the US, and caused the two sides to miss a better time to restore relations, Chinese experts said.

Analysis of debris collected from a Chinese balloon drifting into the sky over the US and shot down by the latter in February showed that "it did not collect [any information] while it was transiting the US or over flying the US" despite that it "had intelligence collection capabilities," Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder told media on Thursday.

A Chinese balloon spent a week in February flying over the US and Canada before it was shot down by a fighter jet off the Atlantic coast, on orders from President Joe Biden. Although Chinese authorities reiterated that the balloon was a civilian weather balloon, some US media and hawkish politicians continued to hype it as a spy balloon, underscoring the increasing tensions between the world's two largest economies.

In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press conference on Friday that China has reiterated on many occasions that the Chinese civilian airship drifting into the sky over the US was an unintended, unexpected and isolated event caused by force majeure. Calling the airship a "spy balloon" and claiming it is used to collect intelligence is total slandering and smearing, Mao stressed.

Citing some anonymous officials, a Wall Street Journal report on Thursday claimed that the balloon was found to be carrying some American-made equipment helping it to collect photos, videos and other information. Ryder did not confirm the report on Thursday when he announced the result of the Pentagon's analysis.

The Pentagon's brief announcement on Thursday showed that the US, or at least the US' defense department, is trying to close the chapter on the incident as it must have realized that the facts are slapping them in the face, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.

"We should welcome the move, but I have to say that it is far from enough. The US hyping damaged the basic mutual trust between China and the US and set a bad precedent in dealing with a foreign country's civilian facility by using the military to shoot down the balloon. They should express regret for the decision," Lü said.

The balloon incident fundamentally changed the atmosphere between the two countries. Blinken postponed a reported visit to Beijing. This led to a delay in the progress of China-US interactions of about five months for no good reason, which is very unfavorable given the already high tension between the two countries, Lü noted.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was said to have been planning a diplomatic trip to China before the balloon incident, but reportedly postponed the plan soon after it occurred. The trip was rescheduled and Blinken visited Beijing in June.

However, the US Department of Defense's Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Thursday approved new arms sales to Taiwan worth $440 million. The arms package is to include 30mm ammunition, spare parts for wheeled vehicles and other items, according to media reports. This is the 10th arms-sales package to Taiwan made under US President Joe Biden.

China urges the US to abide by the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiqués, stop selling weapons to Taiwan island, stop creating factors that lead to tensions in the Taiwan Straits and stop damaging the peace and stability in the region, Mao Ning said in response to the deal at the Friday press conference.

The US is building Taiwan island into a powder keg and ammunition depot. This is not "protecting" or "defending" the island but damaging and ruining it, the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council said Friday, slamming the deal.

Earlier this week, a US bipartisan congressional delegation led by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers landed in Taiwan for a three-day visit.

We must face the fact that US diplomacy will continue to show a character of being two-faced, as it views China as a main strategic opponent and will not change its strategy of containing China before it regains an absolute advantage over China, Lü said.

The Chinese central government must have become aware of this and is making adjustments in its strategy in the Taiwan Straits and the South China Sea to maintain China's practical control of the regions amid the US' provocation, Lü pointed out, citing China's firm actions in the Taiwan Straits since last year including large-scale military drills and the flying of fighter jets across the so-called median line of the Taiwan Straits, which the Chinese mainland had declared a non-existent concept.

Some experts expect more windows of opportunity in China-US relations to open after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was reported to be planning a trip to China in early July, but they also warned that the window will not be open for long, so Washington needs to make sincere moves rather than create new trouble.

When asked is there still a window of opportunity to repair China-US ties before US elections, former Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai told the Global Times on Thursday that it's never too late if there is political will. "China has shown its political commitment to improving relations."

#USA 🇺🇸#China 🇨🇳#Chinese Balloons 🎈#US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen #House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers #Secretary of State Antony Blinken #Taiwan 🇹🇼#Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning

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dadsinsuits · 6 months

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Antony Blinken

#suitdaddy #suiteddaddy #suit and tie #men in suits #suited daddy #suited grandpa #suitedman #daddy #suit daddy #silverfox #suitfetish #buisness suit #suited men #suited man #suitedmen #americans #secretary of state #biden administration #Antony Blinken

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4ft10tvlandfangirl · 9 months

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Not Blinken saying the genocide case against Israel is meritless in one breath then offering deep condolences to Wael Al-Dahdouh for the unimaginable losses he has suffered in another.

And how did Uncle Wael come to suffer these unimaginable losses I wonder? I mean, his family wasn't targeted by the same state with a 'meritless' genocide case against it or anything...right?

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head-post · 1 month

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Blinken: Israel agreed to terms of withdrawal from Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that despite reported comments from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel agreed to withdraw IDF (Israel Defence Forces) troops from Gaza, according to CNN.

The agreement is very clear on the schedule and the locations of IDF withdrawals from Gaza, and Israel has agreed to that.

Blinken was responding to Israeli media reports that Netanyahu told a group of families of victims and hostages that Israel would not leave the Philadelphi corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border and the Netzarim corridor, which crosses into Gaza, “regardless of the pressure to do so.” They were “strategic military and political assets,” Netanyahu added, according to reports.

The ceasefire agreement comprises three phases and will eventually include a full IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. However, Israeli officials have repeatedly insisted that a solution must be found to better control the border between Egypt and Gaza, which has long been used for smuggling.

The US Secretary of State claimed that Netanyahu told him directly at their meeting that Israel had agreed to “the bridging proposal and thus the detailed plan” for withdrawal. According to Blinken, once Hamas agrees to the proposal, it will be “very important that everyone does what’s necessary to bring the flexibility to the table to make sure that we can get the implementation agreed to.”

Blinken referred to the so-called Tokyo Principles stating that the US will not allow “any long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel.”

The top US diplomat wrapped up his Middle East trip on Tuesday with stops in Egypt and Qatar. Blinken said he had “very productive” meetings with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, and intel chief Abbas Kamel.

He was also due to meet Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani in Doha on Tuesday night, but the meeting was cancelled due to the Qatari leader’s malaise. Instead, Blinken met with Minister of State Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi.

Earlier on Monday, he met in Israel with Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and President Isaac Herzog.

(This is) probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security.

Read more: https://bit.ly/48M866s

#Ivory Coast #Blinken #U.S. Secretary of State Antony #IvoryCoast #Trade #Africa #Business #Economy #emeriobanque

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defensenow · 1 month

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paulthepoke · 2 years

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This Week in Prophecy: Iran Under Attack, Iran & Turkey Quake, Russian Navy Goes West

On This Week in Prophecy: Over the weekend, Iran has been under a coordinated attack. According to various outlets, Israel and the United States are suspected. To sum up an eventful evening in #Iran, some mysterious incidents at:1⃣ Esfahan in a MODAFL facility (confirmed)2⃣ Azarshahr in East Azerbaijan Province (massive fire)3⃣ Karaj and Tehran (footage circulating, unclear)4⃣ Hamedan & Dezful…

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xtruss · 3 days

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The White House’s Defense of “The Fascist, War Criminal, Genocidal and The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗s’ Illegal Regime of Isra-hell” Is Undermining International Law

The United States tends to hail the ICC when it prosecutes American enemies, but assails the court when it goes after U.S. allies.

— By Sarah Leah Whitson | September 18, 2024 | Foreign Policy

Two War Criminal, Corrupt and Genocidals: U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Fascist, Zionist 🐖 and Prime Minister of the Illegal Regimeof Isra-hell Benjamin Satan-Yahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 25, 2024 Andrew Harnike/Getty Images

The United States’ U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield struck an aggressive blow against the rules-based international order at a Council on Foreign Relations talk last week. In response to my question about whether the U.S. government would comply with the orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to cease assistance to Israel for its illegal occupation and expected International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for Isra-helli Prime Minister Benjamin Satan-Yahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—both of whom have been indicted by the ICC—the U.N. ambassador was definitive: The U.S. government would not comply with any warrant because it has a “problem with the court’s ruling.”

“Let Be Be Clear,” she said. “We Would Not Arrest [Satan-Yahu].”

While the “Hypocrite, War Criminal, Genocidal, Corrupt and Morally Bankrupted United States” is not a member of the ICC and is therefore not obligated to comply with the court’s arrest warrants, Washington has cooperated when the ICC has targeted U.S. adversaries. Indeed, when the ICC issued arrest warrants against officials of other Non-ICC Member States, like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the U.S. government celebrated those decisions and urged cooperation with the court. Indeed, U.S. President Genocidal Joe Biden “Welcomed” the ICC’s arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes in Ukraine and ordered the U.S. government to start sharing information about possible Russian war crimes with the court.

Congress went so far as to revoke provisions in U.S. laws that prohibited cooperating with an ICC investigation at least insofar as they pertain to Ukraine, and issued a resolution commending the prosecutor for securing the warrant. Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham chimed in, saying that “this arrest warrant is extremely significant because it’s an action of an international evidence-based body that will stand the test of history.”

Graham took a markedly different tone when the court indicted Israeli officials however, calling them “outrageous actions by the ICC against the State of Israel and I will feverishly work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle in both chambers to levy damning sanctions against the ICC…” He attacked the very same prosecutor who had indicted Putin as “drunk with self-importance.”

This is not the first instance of states refusing to cooperate with the ICC. Even some member states have failed to execute arrest warrants the court has issued, like Mongolia’s refusal to arrest Putin earlier this month when he visited, or Jordan’s and South Africa’s failure to arrest Bashir.

Thomas-Greenfield’s declaration means that the United States, the supposed enforcer of the international rules-based order, is now keeping company with states that ignore the court’s orders. This sort of rhetoric from leading U.S. officials further erodes the standing of all international courts and will be used as a justification by authoritarian governments who will copy the U.S. playbook to reject international law and ignore those seeking to enforce it.

The War Criminal and Genocidal Biden Administration has made no secret of its disdain for the International Criminal Court’s decision to prosecute Isra-helli officials and members of Palestinian armed groups for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other violations of the Rome Statute since 2014, following the State of Palestine’s 2018 referral.

On June 4, the U.S. House of Representatives once again passed a bill to sanction the prosecutor, and twelve U.S. senators responded to the prosecutor’s request for warrants by threatening, “Target Israel and we will target you. If you move forward … we will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States. You have been warned.”

While both War Criminal and Genocidal Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Joe Biden complained that the ICC had “Equated” Hamas and Israel, presumably because he requested arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas officials, Thomas-Greenfield’s comments are the first time that a senior U.S. official has baldly declared that Washington will defy an ICC arrest warrant.

To justify this stance, Thomas-Greenfield explained that the U.S. “has questions” about the court’s exercise of jurisdiction over Israel, presumably referring to the Biden administration’s rejection of the court’s jurisdiction over Israeli nationals. (She also incorrectly asserted that the U.S. had already reflected its unwillingness to arrest Netanyahu when he visited Washington in July, suggesting that the court had issued the arrest warrants, although it has not).

The question of territorial jurisdiction, however, is a matter that the court ruled on in 2021, refusing Israel’s arguments challenging jurisdiction, recognizing Palestine as a member state of the court with legal capacity to refer a case in its territory to the court, and reiterating the court’s authority to exercise jurisdiction over non-member state nationals who commit crimes in such a territory.

The fact that Netanyahu is the head of government in Israel does not immunize him from international criminal prosecution. The ICC has previously held that such domestic immunities do not trump an ICC arrest warrant because they would undermine the ICC’s purpose, including Article 27 of the Rome Statute, which provides that “all people are subject to the statute without distinction based on official capacity.”

The court furthermore clarified that complying with an arrest warrant does not mean subjecting a head of state to domestic prosecution—something that domestic immunity statutes prohibit —but merely transferring them to the The Hague for international criminal prosecution.

More significantly, Thomas-Greenfield’s suggestion that compliance with a court’s rulings is optional depending on whether or not a government agrees with a ruling further undermines the very basis of the ICC’s capacity to act as an international court with the power to issue binding decisions. Basically, Washington’s message to the world is that it loves the ICC when it prosecutes America’s enemies and hates the court when it prosecutes its friends.

While the Biden administration in 2021 canceled U.S. sanctions against the Previous ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, her staff, and their families that the Trump administration imposed on them for pursuing the prosecution of Israelis and Americans, it has not stopped pressuring the New Prosecutor, Karim Khan, to back off; Khan said that “some elected leaders” even told him, that the ICC “was built for Africa” and for “thugs like Putin” but not Western or Western-backed leaders.

Israeli officials have continued their nine-year campaign to spy on, harass, pressure, smear and threaten both the current and former prosecutors in an attempt to derail the investigation. It is exactly such attacks on the court in the face of the first prosecution of a U.S. ally that have led a number of African states to threaten to withdraw from the court, seeing it as mere cudgel with which to beat African abusers, while never allowing it to move against U.S. allies.

A related question Thomas-Greenfield refused to answer was whether the United States would comply with the orders issued by the International Court of Justice, which hears disputes between states. In a recent advisory opinion ruling, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and that it must remove its forces and settlers from there and reverse its illegal annexations.

The court ordered states not to recognize any illegal Israeli acts, such as annexations (The Trump administration recognized Israel’s annexations of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, but the Biden administration has not reversed these.) More significantly, the court said that states are under obligation “not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

This is a problem for the U.S government, if it is to obey the directives of a court of which it is a founding member, by virtue of Washington’s ratification of the United Nations Charter. That’s because the United States is Isra-hell’s largest aid provider, with over $20 billion in military aid provided in 2024, and more than that in arms sales authorizations.

As a result, such aid not only violates U.S. laws prohibiting arms to states that violate human rights, but a direct order from the ICJ. The U.S. Mission to the United Nation’s tweet this week stating that it will vote against a pending U.N. General Assembly resolution to enforce the advisory opinion is a pretty clear indication that the U.S. has no intention of complying with the ICJ.

The continued transfer of U.S. weapons to Israel may well become the source of charges against the U.S. government in the ICJ occupation case (as well as the separate case South Africa initiated concerning genocide claims against Israel), but also against individual U.S. officials in the ICC case, for aiding and abetting the crimes with which Israel is charged.

During Her Talk, Thomas-Greenfield made a point of remembering her “Friend and Mentor” Madeleine Albright (Now The Witch is Staying, Resting, Rotting and Burning 🔥 in Hell Forever). I suspect Thomas-Greenfield’s remarks last week may go down as her very own Albright moment.

In 1996, then-Secretary of State Albright infamously responded to 60 Minutes host Lesley Stahl’s question about Whether the “Price” of U.S. Sanctions in Iraq, Which had Caused “Half a Million Dead Iraqi Children… More Children Than Died in Hiroshima” was “Worth It,” by saying “I Think It’s a Very Hard Choice, But the Price—We Think the Price is Worth It.”

It’s sad and somewhat ironic to have solicited an equally damning response from Thomas-Greenfield, highlighting, 30 years later, the persistence of the United States’ highly selective use of international law as a political cudgel against opponents, but never against itself or U.S. allies.

The downside of this approach, of course, is that International Law—and the courts responsible for upholding it—cannot survive the World’s leading Superpower’s continued assaults, and will continue to crumble, to the detriment of all those international legal institutions are meant to serve, Americans included.

— Sarah Leah Whitson is the Executive Director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). She was Formerly the Executive Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.

#Foreign Policy #The War Criminal | Genocidal | Corrupt | United States 🇺🇸#“The Fascist War Criminal Genocidal and The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗s’ Illegal Regime of Isra-hell”#International Law #International Court of Justice (ICJ)#International Criminal Court (ICC)#Non-ICC Member States #Russian 🇷🇺 President Vladimir Putin | Former Sudanese 🇸🇩 President Omar al-Bashir #War Criminal Secretary of State Antony Blinken #Former ICC Prosecutor | Fatou Bensouda #Present Prosecutor | Karim Khan

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