Author: PolitCens

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday will become the first foreign leader to visit the White House since U.S. President Joe Biden took office.The meeting underscores the importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance, especially as the countries’ shared rival, China, grows in strength and aggressiveness.Since taking office last year, Suga’s government has at times taken a slightly more critical stance toward China, calling out Beijing’s human rights abuses and incursions into disputed areas of the East and South China seas.It represents a slight recalibration of Japan’s relationship with China, its longtime rival and largest trading partner. However, many analysts expect Suga to refrain from overly antagonizing Beijing during his meeting with Biden.“There is unease in some Japanese policy circles about being too forward-leaning in countering China and sacrificing the carefully orchestrated rapprochement initiated a few years ago,” said Mireya Solis, who focuses on East Asia at the Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C.-based research and analysis organization.Ahead of Suga’s visit, China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry warned Japan against “being misled by some countries holding biased views against China.” Earlier this month, China also sent a naval strike group near Okinawa, where the U.S. has troops — a signal Beijing is prepared to counter the U.S.-Japan alliance.Japan hosts approximately 55,000 U.S. troops. The two sides routinely describe their alliance as the “cornerstone” of peace and stability in Asia.Biden, who took office in January, has focused on revitalizing the U.S.-Japan alliance, as well as U.S. involvement in multilateral institutions, which were often criticized or shunned by former U.S. President Donald Trump.Koji Tomita, Japan’s ambassador to the United States, said Tokyo “fully supports President Biden‘s resolve to revert to multinationalism and to restore leadership in the international community.”In an interview with VOA, Tomita also said it is critical to take a multilateral approach toward China.“We are seeking a stable relationship with China, but at the same time, will continue to be very clear about our concerns,” he said.Specifically, Tomita mentioned Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims, its abuses against pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, and its unfair trade practices.“From Japan’s perspective, it is particularly troubling to see their maritime practices which attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the region,” he added.Japan’s new approachTaiwan — the self-ruled island that China views as its own — has emerged as another flashpoint. Some Japanese leaders have suggested cooperating more closely with the United States to discourage China’s intimidation of Taiwan.James D.J. Brown, an associate professor at Temple University in Tokyo, said Suga likely feels pressure from the parts of Japanese society and political circles that sympathize with Taiwan.“I think that if [Suga] is seen as avoiding taking a tough stance on China, he might have to worry not only about getting criticism from the United States but also potentially from within his own party,” Brown said.There’s a limit to how far Suga will go in criticizing China, though, Brown said.“So I think overall Japan is … deeply uncomfortable with being urged to take a stronger stance” against China, he said.“They’re very happy in Tokyo for the United States to do that, but they’re reluctant to do so themselves because they recognize that China both economically, militarily, has a lot of ways and a lot of leverage that they can use to make things very uncomfortable for Japan.”However, Japan’s new approach is encouraging to many U.S. lawmakers, who have become increasingly hawkish on China. Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty, who until 2019 was ambassador to Japan, said he believes U.S. allies are beginning to see the threat posed by China.“I think what’s happening is the rest of Asia is seeing this. I think the rest of Asia is going to be drawn toward our model. That’s my hope,” Hagerty told VOA.“I want to see us bring them all into the fold and demonstrate that our democratic values, and that our free-market principles are the best possible posture to undertake,” he added.Natalie Liu contributed to this report
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President Joe Biden announced his plan to withdraw all 2,500 American troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, months later than the May 1 deadline that the Trump administration and the Taliban agreed on last year. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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The U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee will hold an April 22 hearing on President Joe Biden’s three nominees to serve on the U.S. Postal Board of Governors, the panel announced Wednesday.The announcement comes after the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in March outlined a proposed 10-year strategic plan that would slow current first-class delivery standards and raise some prices to stem $160 billion in forecasted red ink over the next decade.The plan has drawn criticism from many U.S. lawmakers including some calling for the board to fire Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and others who have urged Biden to remove the existing board members.DeJoy, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, was named head of the Postal Service last year. After heavy criticism, DeJoy suspended operational changes in August ahead of the 2020 presidential election.Democrats said the service cuts were an attempt to boost Trump’s re-election chances. DeJoy denied that and in testimony before Congress noted USPS delivered more than 135 million ballots ahead of the 2020 elections and “went to extraordinary lengths” to get ballots delivered.Biden nominated Anton Hajjar, former general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union; Amber McReynolds, CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to expanding vote-by-mail systems and former elections official in Denver; and Ron Stroman, a former deputy postmaster general.The six current board members and DeJoy are all white men and the board’s lack of diversity has also come under criticism.USPS officials told Reuters last month they were optimistic Congress would pass financial reforms providing the money-losing agency with as much as $60 billion in relief. DeJoy has warned without changes USPS would need a “government bailout.”Representative Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the committee overseeing USPS, has circulated draft legislation that would eliminate a requirement USPS pre-fund retiree health benefits. It also would require postal employees to enroll in government-retiree health plan Medicare.USPS reported net losses of $86.7 billion since 2007. One reason is 2006 legislation mandating it pre-fund more than $120 billion in retiree health care and pension liabilities, a requirement labor unions have called an unfair burden not shared by other businesses.DeJoy’s revamp plan would revise existing one-to-three-day service standards for first-class mail letters to one to five days. USPS said 61% of current first-class mail volume would stay at its current standard. 
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Congressional Democrats plan to introduce legislation on Thursday to expand the U.S. Supreme Court by four justices, a proposal aimed at breaking the conservative grip on the court that promises to draw fierce opposition from Republicans.Sen. Ed Markey and House of Representatives members Jerrold Nadler, Hank Johnson and Mondaire Jones have scheduled a news conference for Thursday to announce the introduction of the legislation in both chambers. The measure would expand the number of justices from the current nine to 13, according to a copy of the Senate bill reviewed by Reuters.President Joe Biden announced last Friday the formation of a bipartisan commission to study potential Supreme Court changes including expansion or imposing term limits on the justices instead of the current lifetime appointments.The number of Supreme Court justices has remained at nine since 1869, but Congress has the power to change the number and did so several times before that. Imposing term limits would likely require a constitutional amendment, though some scholars have proposed ways to accomplish it by statute.Republicans oppose the idea of what is sometimes called “court packing.” Some Democrats and liberal activists have said all options including expansion must be considered to counter an entrenched conservative majority that could threaten abortion rights, civil rights, gun control and access to health care in the coming years.Republican former President Donald Trump was able to appoint three justices during his four years in office, giving the court a 6-3 conservative majority.Thursday’s news conference will include representatives for liberal groups including Take Back The Court, which has advocated for court expansion.Democrats accused Republicans of “stealing” a Supreme Court seat in 2016 when the Senate, then controlled by Republicans, refused to consider Democratic President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to fill a vacancy left by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Trump in 2017 was able to fill the vacancy with a conservative jurist.
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U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to give his first address to a joint session of Congress on April 28.The speech will come as Biden hits 100 days in office, an unofficial milestone upon which modern U.S. presidents have been judged for what their administrations have accomplished at the start of their four-year term.The address will take place in the House of Representatives. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited Biden to speak in a letter Tuesday, asking him to “share your vision for addressing the challenges and opportunities of this historic moment.”A White House statement said Biden accepted.It was not immediately clear how the event will be handled considering the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and health precautions.Joint sessions typically feature a packed House chamber with members of the House and Senate along with guests watching from the gallery above.Current House guidelines require lawmakers to conduct floor votes and other business in smaller groups, while everyone is required to wear masks and members of the public are not allowed to visit the chamber.
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U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday invited President Joe Biden to address a joint session of Congress on April 28.”I am writing to invite you to address a Joint Session of Congress on Wednesday, April 28, to share your vision for addressing the challenges and opportunities of this historic moment,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to Biden that was released by her office.The speech will give Biden an opportunity to give a sales pitch to millions of viewers for his $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal, which is the subject of a partisan debate in Congress.It comes as he faces several daunting challenges, both domestic and international, such as his battle to persuade more Americans to take the coronavirus vaccine, a growing number of migrants crossing the border with Mexico, and confrontations with Russia over Ukraine, China over Taiwan and Iran over its nuclear program.In February, Pelosi said she would invite Biden to deliver the speech after Congress passed his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill. Biden signed the legislation on March 11. 
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President Joe Biden and U.S. lawmakers Tuesday paid tribute at a ceremony in the Capitol rotunda to the U.S. Capitol Police officer killed when a motorist rammed a car into two police officers and brandished a knife earlier this month.William Evans, an 18-year veteran of the Capitol Police force and father of two young children, died in a hospital after he was struck by the vehicle on April 2.His flag-draped casket sat in the middle of the rotunda surrounded by appropriately spaced rings of attendees, including members of Evans’ family.Biden told them: “You are going to make it by holding each other together,” referencing his own grief after losing members of his own family. “My prayer for all of you is that a day will come when you have that memory that will make you smile. I promise you it will come.”Immediately following the remarks, Biden walked over to members of Evans’ family and gave what appeared to be a large coin or medallion to Evans’ son.A military choral quartet then sang an a cappella rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water, during which time Shannon Terranova, the mother of Evans’ children, cried while Evans’ daughter Abigail, 7, appeared to comfort her.Lying in honor — the public viewing of a person’s casket — is one of the highest possible honors Congress has for a civilian. Only five other people have received the distinction since the honor was created in 1998.Three of those people were Capitol Police officers who died in attacks on the Capitol, including Brian Sicknick, the officer who died from injuries suffered on January 6, when hundreds of supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the institution.A second police officer who was hit by the car was also injured.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday named Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley as the State Department’s first chief diversity officer, a position created to make the U.S. diplomatic corps more representative. The appointment is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to put diversity, equity and racial justice at the top of the national agenda after nationwide protests against police brutality and racial bias last year. Introducing Abercrombie-Winstanley, Blinken said the department and the country were at a “moment of reckoning” on racial equality, referring to the Black Lives Matter movement and attacks against Asian Americans. Abercrombie-Winstanley, a career diplomat since 1985 who served as U.S. ambassador to Malta, will report directly to Blinken, he said. Promoting diversity inclusion was the job of every department official, but the new officer would hold department leadership accountable on that score, Blinken said. The lack of diversity at the highest levels of the department was alarming, he added, but could be traced through its history and seen in the portraits of former secretaries that line the corridor to his office. “It’s hard not to notice that almost every one of the secretaries along the hallway is a white man,” Blinken said. With 76,000 employees globally, racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented at the department, particularly in senior ranks, according to an independent federal watchdog report released last year. Abercrombie-Winstanley is Black. “The truth is this problem is as old as the department itself. It’s systemic,” Blinken said. “It goes deeper than any one institution or any one administration, and it’s perpetuated by policies, practices and people to this day.”  
 
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U.S. President Joe Biden is linking his $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan to alleviating a critical shortage of semiconductors.  “Chips, like the one I have here — these chips, these wafers are batteries, broadband —it’s all infrastructure,” Biden said in the White House Roosevelt Room on Monday during a virtual meeting with leaders of some of the country’s biggest companies hurt by a global shortage of semiconductors.   The goal of the meeting, according to the president, was to figure out how to “strengthen our domestic semiconductor industry and secure the American supply chain.”  Earlier, White House press secretary Jen Psaki, speaking to reporters, said, “This isn’t a meeting where we expect a decision or an announcement to come out of, but part of our ongoing engagement and discussion about how to best address this issue over the long term, but also over the short term.”  A shortage of semiconductors, commonly known as chips, has significantly slowed U.S. auto manufacturing, with General Motors, Ford and other carmakers temporarily shuttering some factories or reducing production. President Joe Biden participates virtually in the CEO Summit on Semiconductor and Supply Chain Resilience in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, April 12, 2021.The White House meeting on “semiconductor and supply chain resilience,” was led by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Among the 19 executives participating were the bosses of Alphabet/Google, aircraft maker Northrup Grumman and automakers General Motors and Ford, as well as Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, key companies in the semiconductor industry.  The coronavirus pandemic had prompted automakers to cancel their chip contracts, meaning when they wanted to ramp up production again, they did not have adequate supplies.  “When it looked like the economy was going into a great depression these automakers thought sales were going to be bad for the year and they cut their contracts. But the problem is when they did that, they freed up a ton of capacity at the semiconductor labs to produce other chips,” said Scott Lincicome, Cato Institute senior fellow in economic studies.  The chip shortage, while quite serious, is thus only temporary, Lincicome said. The White House, in its infrastructure plan, wants lawmakers to approve $50 billion for a new Commerce Department office to support production of critical goods and another $50 billion to boost semiconductor manufacturing and research. “I’m very concerned that it’s just a slush fund for corporate welfare,” said Lincicome, who suggests the U.S. government, instead, “should invest in bleeding edge research and development.” The short-term issue of a shortage of semiconductors for the automotive industry should not be confused with the “larger, existential problem that the United States does not produce enough of its own chips,” according to Roslyn Layton, the co-founder of China Tech Threat. The United States should aim to produce domestically at least half of its own chips in the major categories, said Layton, explaining there should also be greater scrutiny of American companies selling high-end semiconductor manufacturing equipment to Chinese military-linked fabricators, which “violates U.S. and international law.”    The United States “has accelerated its decline in manufacturing and advanced technology with weak enforcement of export controls. This is something that the next leader of Bureau of Industry and Security at the Department of Commerce needs to tighten,” Layton said.   During the virtual meeting, Biden told the corporate executives he had received a letter on Monday from a bipartisan group of 23 senators and 42 House members expressing support of the “Chips for America” program.  The letter, said the president, notes China’s communist party “aggressively plans to reorient and dominate the semiconductor supply chain” and how much money Beijing is pouring into being able to achieve that. “But I’ve been saying for some time now, China, and the rest of the world is not waiting. And there’s no reason why Americans should wait,” Biden said. 
 
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Lawmakers return to Washington this week, with U.S. President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure package topping their agenda. Michelle Quinn reports.
Video editor: Mary Cieslak
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U.S. President Joe Biden is meeting Monday with a bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers to push for adoption of his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan to repair the country’s aging and deteriorating roads and bridges, add to its broadband internet system and revitalize several sectors of the American economy.There appears to be wide support for Biden’s plan for traditional infrastructure spending, fixing the country’s crumbling roads and bridges. But Republican lawmakers are balking at his description of infrastructure to include spending for in-home care for older people, child care, health care facilities for veterans and other programs throughout the country.In addition, Republicans have taken aim at Biden’s call for a 33% tax increase on corporations to pay for the plan, from 21% to 28% on pretax profits. Biden Budget Proposal Would Dramatically Shift US Spending PrioritiesEducation, jobs, environment and health care get big boosts while defense spending remains steadyThe White House is beginning an all-out campaign to try to show lawmakers and voters the extent of the country’s infrastructure needs.It released a state-by-state breakdown of the extent of the disrepair, saying, for example, 1,703 bridges need repair in New York state and 11,700 kilometers in highways are in poor condition.The analysis showed that California’s drinking water infrastructure needs $51 billion in repairs over the next 20 years, while in the largely rural western state of Wyoming, more than a quarter of the population live in areas without minimally acceptable broadband internet connections.  There is a roughly four-in-10 chance that a public transit vehicle in the midwestern state of Indiana might be ready for the scrapyard, while schools in the eastern state of Pennsylvania need $1.4 billion for maintenance and upgrades.The Biden administration is hoping that the list will resonate with ordinary Americans in what they encounter in their lives. The White House is painting a picture of dire needs for one of the world’s wealthiest countries, suggesting that too many roadways and bridges are unsafe, while noting that increasingly extreme weather events have contributed to the deterioration.  WATCH: Michelle Quinn’s video report Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 7 MB480p | 10 MB540p | 13 MB720p | 28 MB1080p | 55 MBOriginal | 67 MB Embed” />Copy Download Audio”We don’t have a lot of work to do to persuade the American people that U.S. infrastructure needs major improvement,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Fox News Channel’s “Fox News Sunday” show. “The American people already know it.”Overall, Biden’s plan would modernize more than 32,000 kilometers in roadways.Among those meeting with Biden Monday is one of the critics of his infrastructure plan, Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker.”This is a massive social welfare spending program combined with a massive tax increase on small business job creators,” Wicker said on ABC’s “This Week” show on Sunday. “I can’t think of a worse thing to do.”  Three other Republicans are joining the White House meeting — Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska, and Congressmen Garret Graves of Louisiana and Don Young of Alaska. Democrats on the list are Senators Maria Cantwell of Washington and Alex Padilla of California, along with Congressmen Donald Payne of New Jersey and David Price of North Carolina.
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Lawmakers return to Washington this week, with U.S. President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure package topping their agenda. Michelle Quinn reports.
Video editor: Mary Cieslak
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Lawmakers return to Washington this week, with U.S. President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure package topping their agenda. Michelle Quinn reports.
Video editor: Mary Cieslak
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U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will travel to Israel, Germany, NATO headquarters in Belgium and Britain starting on Saturday, the Pentagon said in a statement.“Secretary Austin will meet with his counterparts and other senior officials to discuss the importance of international defense relationships and reinforce the United States’ commitment to deterrence and defense, burden sharing, and enduring trans-Atlantic security,” said the statement released on Thursday.
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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani oversaw on live television Saturday the launch of advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium, a key component for nuclear weapons, while reiterating his country’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation.Rouhani’s conflicting messages came as the country observed National Nuclear Technology Day, during which he was seen on state television ordering the injection of uranium gas into nearly 200 centrifuges and tests on other devices at the underground Natanz nuclear plant.“Once again, I stress that all our nuclear activities are peaceful and for non-military purposes,” Rouhani said during the ceremony at which more than 130 advances in its nuclear industry over the past year were unveiled, primarily in medicine, energy and agriculture.Rouhani’s actions may have been Iran’s latest in a series of breaches of the 2015 nuclear deal Iran reached with world powers.
The U.S. and Iran have agreed to a second round of indirect talks in Vienna next week to try to bring each other back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, but Iran has insisted that all U.S. sanctions against it be lifted and the U.S. warned that such a demand may lead to an impasse.A senior U.S. State Department official who spoke to reporters on Friday said the indirect talks would resume in the middle of next week in the Austrian capital. U.S. and Iranian diplomats concluded an initial round of meetings earlier in the day, with mediators from the European Union delivering messages between the two sides. The talks began Tuesday with Iran meeting Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, the five other remaining signatories of the 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and those five world powers meeting separately with the U.S. delegation nearby.The JCPOA called for Iran to freeze nuclear activities that could be weaponized in return for sanctions relief from world powers. The U.S. withdrew in 2018 and began unilaterally ratcheting up sanctions on Iran under then-President Donald Trump, who criticized the deal negotiated by his predecessor as not doing enough to stop objectionable Iranian behavior. Iran retaliated a year later by exceeding the JCPOA’s nuclear activity limits.The U.S. official described this week’s talks as productive, businesslike and constructive. The official said, however, that EU mediators going back and forth between two hotels carrying messages between the U.S. and Iranian teams was cumbersome.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 16 MB540p | 22 MB720p | 45 MB1080p | 86 MBOriginal | 97 MB Embed” />Copy Download Audio“We exchanged ideas about the principles that would guide any sanctions lifting on the U.S. side,” the official said. The U.S. side did not present a list of specific sanctions that could be lifted, and the Iranian side did not present a list of nuclear steps it would be willing to take to reverse JCPOA violations, the official added.“All sanctions that are inconsistent with the JCPOA and are inconsistent with the benefits that Iran expects from the JCPOA, we are prepared to lift,” the official said, adding that a question remained about whether Iran is serious about reciprocating the U.S. offer.Iran’s lead delegate to the talks, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, was quoted on Friday by Iranian state news site Press TV as saying Tehran will “only come back to full compliance with the agreement after the U.S. lifts sanctions imposed, reimposed or relabeled following the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA.” He said Iran also will want to verify the lifting of those sanctions.The U.S. official rejected that demand, saying the Biden administration sees at least some of Trump’s sanctions as “legitimate.”“Under the [2015] deal, the U.S. retains the right to impose sanctions for non-nuclear reasons whether it is terrorism or human rights violations or interference with our elections et cetera,” the official said. If Iran insists that all sanctions be removed in order to reach a deal it will lead to an impasse, the official added.Despite the U.S. and Iran appearing to remain far apart, Press TV said Tehran views the talks as moving in the right direction and said the next Vienna meeting will take place Wednesday.Iran observers interviewed by VOA Persian in recent days expressed a mixture of optimism and pessimism about the prospects for an eventual deal to revive the JCPOA and ease long running U.S.-Iran tensions.Speaking in the Austrian capital on Wednesday, University of Vienna politics professor Heinz Gärtner said the U.S. feels a sense of urgency to get an agreement before Iran holds a June presidential election whose winner could take a tougher stance toward the U.S., albeit only with the permission of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in key decision-making.Gärtner said Iran’s outgoing President Hassan Rouhani, whose government negotiated and entered the JCPOA in 2015, also has an incentive to bring sanctions relief to his people again and thereby avoid leaving office with his reputation marred by a failed agreement.“The main bulk of the relief will have to go to the population, otherwise there will be unrest. And that’s not what the Iranian government will want,” he said.However, a U.S.-Iranian agreement that leads only to the lifting of some U.S. sanctions on Iranian energy exports is unlikely to give Iran the economic relief that it wants, said Farhad Alavi, an Iranian American attorney specializing in international sanctions.In a Tuesday appearance on a TV program about the Vienna talks, Alavi said that if the U.S. maintains sanctions on Iran’s financial sector and Tehran remains blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force — a global financial watchdog — the practical impact of sanctions relief will be “minimal.”Foundation for Defense of Democracies analyst Bradley Bowman said in a Monday interview that it would be a mistake for the U.S. to provide sanctions relief to Iran as part of a mutual return to compliance with what he said was a flawed original deal that enabled Iran to continue perceived malign activities.”Tehran remains the world’s leading state sponsor and exporter of terrorism. They have the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. They continue to target via proxies Americans in the region and our partners and allies,” Bowman said. “I see no evidence of a strategic decision by Tehran to change course and live at peace with its neighbors.”This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service.
 
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The U.S. and Iran have agreed to a second round of indirect talks in Vienna next week to try to bring each other back into compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal, but Iran has insisted that all U.S. sanctions against it be lifted and the U.S. warned that such a demand may lead to an impasse.A senior U.S. State Department official who spoke to reporters on Friday said the indirect talks would resume in the middle of next week in the Austrian capital. U.S. and Iranian diplomats concluded an initial round of meetings earlier in the day, with mediators from the European Union delivering messages between the two sides. The talks began Tuesday with Iran meeting Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, the five other remaining signatories of the 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and those five world powers meeting separately with the U.S. delegation nearby.The JCPOA called for Iran to freeze nuclear activities that could be weaponized in return for sanctions relief from world powers. The U.S. withdrew in 2018 and began unilaterally ratcheting up sanctions on Iran under then-President Donald Trump, who criticized the deal negotiated by his predecessor as not doing enough to stop objectionable Iranian behavior. Iran retaliated a year later by exceeding the JCPOA’s nuclear activity limits.The U.S. official described this week’s talks as productive, businesslike and constructive. The official said, however, that EU mediators going back and forth between two hotels carrying messages between the U.S. and Iranian teams was cumbersome.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 11 MB480p | 16 MB540p | 22 MB720p | 45 MB1080p | 86 MBOriginal | 97 MB Embed” />Copy Download Audio“We exchanged ideas about the principles that would guide any sanctions lifting on the U.S. side,” the official said. The U.S. side did not present a list of specific sanctions that could be lifted, and the Iranian side did not present a list of nuclear steps it would be willing to take to reverse JCPOA violations, the official added.“All sanctions that are inconsistent with the JCPOA and are inconsistent with the benefits that Iran expects from the JCPOA, we are prepared to lift,” the official said, adding that a question remained about whether Iran is serious about reciprocating the U.S. offer.Iran’s lead delegate to the talks, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, was quoted on Friday by Iranian state news site Press TV as saying Tehran will “only come back to full compliance with the agreement after the U.S. lifts sanctions imposed, reimposed or relabeled following the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA.” He said Iran also will want to verify the lifting of those sanctions.The U.S. official rejected that demand, saying the Biden administration sees at least some of Trump’s sanctions as “legitimate.”“Under the [2015] deal, the U.S. retains the right to impose sanctions for non-nuclear reasons whether it is terrorism or human rights violations or interference with our elections et cetera,” the official said. If Iran insists that all sanctions be removed in order to reach a deal it will lead to an impasse, the official added.Despite the U.S. and Iran appearing to remain far apart, Press TV said Tehran views the talks as moving in the right direction and said the next Vienna meeting will take place Wednesday.Iran observers interviewed by VOA Persian in recent days expressed a mixture of optimism and pessimism about the prospects for an eventual deal to revive the JCPOA and ease long running U.S.-Iran tensions.Speaking in the Austrian capital on Wednesday, University of Vienna politics professor Heinz Gärtner said the U.S. feels a sense of urgency to get an agreement before Iran holds a June presidential election whose winner could take a tougher stance toward the U.S., albeit only with the permission of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in key decision-making.Gärtner said Iran’s outgoing President Hassan Rouhani, whose government negotiated and entered the JCPOA in 2015, also has an incentive to bring sanctions relief to his people again and thereby avoid leaving office with his reputation marred by a failed agreement.“The main bulk of the relief will have to go to the population, otherwise there will be unrest. And that’s not what the Iranian government will want,” he said.However, a U.S.-Iranian agreement that leads only to the lifting of some U.S. sanctions on Iranian energy exports is unlikely to give Iran the economic relief that it wants, said Farhad Alavi, an Iranian American attorney specializing in international sanctions.In a Tuesday appearance on a TV program about the Vienna talks, Alavi said that if the U.S. maintains sanctions on Iran’s financial sector and Tehran remains blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force — a global financial watchdog — the practical impact of sanctions relief will be “minimal.”Foundation for Defense of Democracies analyst Bradley Bowman said in a Monday interview that it would be a mistake for the U.S. to provide sanctions relief to Iran as part of a mutual return to compliance with what he said was a flawed original deal that enabled Iran to continue perceived malign activities.”Tehran remains the world’s leading state sponsor and exporter of terrorism. They have the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. They continue to target via proxies Americans in the region and our partners and allies,” Bowman said. “I see no evidence of a strategic decision by Tehran to change course and live at peace with its neighbors.”This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service.
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U.S. President Joe Biden has ordered a study on overhauling the Supreme Court, creating a bipartisan commission Friday that will spend the next six months examining the politically incendiary issues of expanding the court and instituting term limits for justices, among other issues.In launching the review, Biden fulfilled a campaign promise made amid pressure from activists and Democrats to realign the Supreme Court after its composition tilted sharply to the right during President Donald Trump’s term. Trump nominated three justices to the high court, including conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed to replace the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just days before last year’s presidential election. That gave conservatives a 6-3 split with liberals on the court.During the campaign, Biden repeatedly sidestepped questions on expanding the court. A former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden has asserted that the system of judicial nominations is “getting out of whack,” but has not said if he supports adding seats or making other changes to the current system of lifetime appointments, such as imposing term limits.The 36-member commission, composed largely of academics, was instructed to spend 180 days (about 6 months) studying proposed changes, holding public meetings and completing a report. But it was not charged with making a recommendation under the White House order that created it.The panel will be led by Bob Bauer, who served as White House counsel for former President Barack Obama, and Cristina Rodriguez, a Yale Law School professor who served in the Office of Legal Counsel for Obama. Other prominent members include Walter Dellinger, a former top Supreme Court lawyer for the government during the Clinton administration; Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe, who has supported the idea of expanding the court and Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.Conflict over courtThe makeup of the Supreme Court, always a hot-button issue, ignited again in 2016 when Democrats declared that Republicans gained an unfair advantage by blocking Obama’s nomination of then-Judge Merrick Garland, now Biden’s attorney general, to fill the seat left empty by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, refused to even hold hearings on filling the vacancy, even though it was more than six months until the next presidential election.In the wake of McConnell’s power play, some progressives have viewed adding seats to the court or setting term limits as a way to offset the influence of any one president on its makeup. Conservatives, in turn, have denounced such ideas as “court-packing” similar to the failed effort by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s.Biden pledged to create the commission during an October television interview. Its launch comes amid speculation as to whether he will be able to put his own stamp on the court if liberal Justice Stephen Breyer retires. If that were to happen, Biden has promised to nominate the first Black woman to the court.The 82-year-old Breyer is the court’s oldest member and the senior member of its three-justice liberal wing. A number of progressive groups have urged Breyer to retire while Democrats still control the Senate and the confirmation process.Earlier this week, Breyer himself warned liberal advocates of making substantial changes to the court, including expanding the number of justices. Breyer said in a speech Tuesday that advocates should think “long and hard” about what they are proposing. Politically driven change could diminish the trust Americans place in the court, Breyer said.White House press secretary Jen Psaki, asked Friday what the president makes of the call for Breyer to step aside, said that Biden “believes that is a decision for Justice Breyer to make.” And she said the president will wait for the commission to finish its work before weighing in about the size of the court.The Supreme Court has had nine members since just after the Civil War. Any effort to alter it would be explosive, particularly at a moment when Congress is nearly evenly divided. Changing the number of justices would require congressional approval.Some on the left slammed the commission’s creation. Brian Fallon, executive director of Demand Justice, a liberal advocacy group that supports expanding the court and term limits for justices, said in a statement that: “A commission made up mostly of academics, that includes far-right voices and is not tasked with making formal recommendations, is unlikely to meaningfully advance the ball on Court reform.”But others seemed willing to give it a chance. “With five justices appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote, it’s crucial that we consider every option for wresting back political control of the Supreme Court,” said Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, a liberal judicial advocacy group. “President Biden’s commission demonstrates a strong commitment to studying this situation and taking action.”There was concern among some conservatives. Mike Davis of the conservative Article III Project called the news of the commission’s creation “alarming” in a statement, adding that “there is real danger in President Biden giving credibility to the idea of court packing; he is playing with fire and threatening the constitutional foundation of this country.”
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