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☆ Blinken Arrives in Ukraine Amid Russian Military Gains
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Biden and Mr. Blinken had warned for months that Congress’s delay in approving critically needed U.S. arms would leave Ukraine’s military vulnerable along an eastern battlefront that has been stalemated for months. The U.S. official declined to draw a direct connection between the delayed aid and Russia’s gains near the city of Kharkiv. Mr. Blinken plans to meet with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and other top officials. Mr. Blinken is the first senior Biden official to visit Ukraine since the passage of the congressional aid package. The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, met with Mr. Zelensky in Kyiv in late March, before the aid passed.

Persons: Biden, Blinken, Volodymyr Zelensky, Blinken’s, Jake Sullivan, Zelensky, Sullivan Organizations: U.S, Biden, White House, The Financial Locations: Kharkiv, Ukraine, Russia, Kyiv, “

☆ U.S. Designates the Houthis a Terror Group
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The State Department on Friday designated the Houthis as a terrorist organization, following through on a mid-January warning to crack down on the Yemen-based militant group. The action officially labels the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group, a step that gives the United States new powers to crack down on the Iran-backed Houthis’ access to the global financial system. It restores a designation given to the group late in the Trump administration, which Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken reversed soon after taking office in 2021, partly to facilitate peace talks for Yemen’s civil war. Last month, Mr. Blinken announced the State Department’s intent to return the Houthis to its terrorism list, but delayed the action for 30 days. Some aid groups have warned that their work will inevitably be constrained in a country with dire humanitarian needs.

Persons: Trump, Antony J, Blinken Organizations: State Department, United Locations: Yemen, United States, Iran, Houthi

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and top Western diplomats vowed on Wednesday to sustain support for Ukraine and its bid to join NATO despite dwindling military supplies and competing crises. Mr. Blinken’s remarks came at the tail end of a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, where he and other Western diplomats sought to assuage doubts about Western resolve to help Kyiv amid Russia’s full-scale invasion. A White House proposal to send Ukraine additional emergency aid has stalled in the Republican-led House, and the war in Gaza has consumed global attention. “But the answer here today at NATO is clear, and it’s unwavering. We must and we will continue to support ensuring that Russia’s war of aggression remains a strategic failure.”He added that he expected that President Biden’s request for $61.4 billion in additional military and economic support for Ukraine would be approved by Congress.

Persons: Antony J, Blinken, Blinken’s, ” Mr, Vladimir V, Putin, Biden’s Organizations: NATO, Republican, Congress Locations: Ukraine, Brussels, Gaza, United States, Russia

Israel continues to dismiss calls for a longer-term cease-fire accompanied by political negotiations, despite growing U.S. and international concern about the humanitarian toll in Gaza. As it pummeled Gaza City in the north, the Israeli government told residents to go to southern Gaza, and many did so. But Israel has continued to carry out airstrikes across the south with large munitions: 1,000- to 2,000-pound bombs. U.S. officials say their top goals include maintaining electricity supplies to Gaza’s hospitals and providing fuel for water desalinization. It’s not that they expect the pause will turn into a cease-fire” lasting weeks or longer.

Persons: Biden, Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, ” Matthew Miller, Miller, David Satterfield, Brett McGurk, Mr, McGurk, ”, —, they’re, ” Martin, Antony J Organizations: Qatari, Hamas, State Department, United Nations, U.S, U.S . Agency for International Development, National Public Radio, Wednesday Locations: Gaza, Gaza —, United States, Israel, Egypt, East, North Africa, Qatar, U.S

More than 400 political appointees and staff members representing some 40 government agencies sent a letter to President Biden on Tuesday protesting his support of Israel in its war in Gaza. The letter, part of growing internal dissent over the administration’s support of the war, calls on the president to seek an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and to push Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the territory. Two political appointees who helped organize the letter to Mr. Biden said the majority of the signatories are political appointees of various faiths who work throughout government, from the National Security Council to the F.B.I. Some of the signatories helped Mr. Biden get elected in 2020 and said in interviews they were concerned that the administration’s support of Israel’s war in Gaza clashed with Democratic voters’ stance on the issue. So far, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Persons: Biden, Antony J, Blinken, Mr, Israel Organizations: State Department, U.S . Agency for International Development, USAID, Department, U.S ., The New York Times, National Security Council, Justice Department, Democratic Locations: Israel, Gaza, U.S, United States

President Biden and his aides have been careful not to even hint in public that Israel could be violating any laws of war. And the State Department continues to approve sales of weapons to Israel while refraining from making any assessments of the legality of Israel’s actions. Israel says it is impossible to defeat its enemy without killing innocents — a lesson that Americans and their allies should understand. Mr. Netanyahu added that the attack “was a legitimate act of war with tragic consequences that accompany such legitimate action. And during Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s visits to Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, Israeli officials privately invoked the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Persons: Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Mr, Netanyahu, “, ‘, ’, Antony J, Blinken’s, Mark Regev, Regev, ” Organizations: State Department, Royal Air Force, ”, Islamic State, “, ISIS, PBS Locations: Israel, Copenhagen, Iraqi, Falluja, Iraq, Mosul, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, United States

☆ Biden Found Even Modest Israel-Palestinian Peace Steps Impossible
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Even as President Biden presses Israel to define clearly the goals of its war against Hamas in Gaza, he is turning his eyes to a much larger endgame: the ever-elusive hope for a lasting peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. The question is how hard Mr. Biden intends to work for that outcome. Biden administration officials also doubted whether Israel’s increasingly hawkish leadership was interested in any plausible deal. Unlike his recent predecessors, Mr. Biden did not appoint a special envoy for Middle East peace or task his secretary of state with trying to forge an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. “It was not a tier-one policy objective to solve this conflict,” said David Makovsky, a former peace process negotiator in the Obama administration.

Persons: Biden, Israel, —, Israel’s, Mahmoud Abbas, ”, David Makovsky, Obama, “ Organizations: Trump, Palestinian Locations: Gaza, Israel, Palestinian, China, Ukraine, United States, Middle, Saudi Arabia

☆ Biden Hosts China’s Top Diplomat Ahead of Expected Xi Meeting
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden met with China’s top diplomat on Friday to prepare for Mr. Biden’s planned meeting with President Xi Jinping next month as relations remain strained between Washington and Beijing. Amid cordial talk of cooperation between the United States and China, the official, Wang Yi, wrapped up a visit to Washington. During the three-day trip, the diplomat also met twice with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and with Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. Those relations have recently been defined by tensions over matters like Chinese espionage and American restrictions on technology exports to China. And they were severely tested in February when a Chinese spy balloon crossed over the United States before a U.S. fighter jet downed it off the coast of North Carolina.

Persons: Biden, Biden’s, Xi Jinping, Wang Yi, Antony J, Jake Sullivan, scrambles Locations: Washington, Beijing, United States, China, U.S, North Carolina

The United States on Tuesday rejected growing calls to support a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas because such a move would only benefit Hamas, a White House spokesman said. But he said civilian casualties were all but inevitable as Israel tries to vanquish Hamas in Gaza. “We’re going to continue to make sure Israel has the tools and the capabilities that they need to defend themselves,” Mr. Kirby said. U.S. and Israeli officials have consistently rejected calls for a cease-fire, insisting that Israel must be given time to eradicate Hamas. On Tuesday, the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, called for a humanitarian cease-fire in an address to the U.N. Security Council.

Persons: John F, Kirby, Israel, “ We’re, ” Mr, Mr, ”, António Guterres, Guterres, “, Biden, Antony J, Blinken Organizations: . Security, Capitol, Hamas, Gaza Health Ministry, Security Council, “, UNRWA Locations: States, Israel, Gaza, United States, “ Israel

☆ Biden Hosts Pacific Islands, With a Rising China in Mind
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-25 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But Mr. Biden also announced that he was working with Congress to invest $40 million in infrastructure spending for the islands, and he said that the United States would establish diplomatic relations for the first time with the Cook Islands and Niue. But they are two of many recent moves the Biden administration has made to strengthen America’s presence in a region east and northeast of Australia. Over the past year, the United States has opened embassies in the Solomon Islands and Tonga, and plans to open one early next year in Vanuatu. When Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken landed in Fiji in February 2022, it was the first visit there by an American secretary of state in 36 years. Those steps are in no small part chess moves in response to growing Chinese influence in the region, which became particularly vivid last year when the Solomon Islands surprised U.S. officials by signing a sweeping security pact with Beijing.

Persons: Biden, Antony J, Blinken, Solomon Locations: United States, Cook Islands, Niue, Australia, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, Fiji, American, Pacific, Papua New Guinea, Beijing

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, denouncing Russia’s “unprovoked aggression,” told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that if it did not break the grip of Russian veto power, it would be powerless to resolve conflicts around the world, adding his voice to the rising calls to reform how the body works. “Ukrainian soldiers are doing with their blood what the U.N. Security Council should do by its voting,” Mr. Zelensky said on Wednesday, arguing that “veto power in the hands of the aggressor is what has pushed the U.N. into deadlock.”Mr. Zelensky’s appearance before the council helped make it the highest-level direct confrontation over the invasion of Ukraine, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia and his American counterpart, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, taking the seats normally occupied by their ambassadors and stating their countries’ cases. Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Zelensky did not cross paths — the Russian did not enter the hall until after the Ukrainian had spoken and left — in a bit of choreography that reflected a session in which the two talked past each other.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia’s, ”, ” Mr, Zelensky, Mr, Sergey Lavrov, Russia, Antony J, Blinken, Lavrov Organizations: . Security Locations: Ukraine

Prioritizing U.S. national security interests over human rights, the Biden administration has approved $235 million in military aid for Egypt that it had withheld for the past two years because of the country’s repressive policies. The decision means that the United States will withhold just a small fraction — $85 million — of the $1.3 billion in military aid earmarked annually for Egypt. Explaining the decision on Thursday, State Department officials said the United States continued to have serious concerns about human rights in Egypt, which has been ruled by a repressive military government for a decade. The officials insisted that the approval of the $235 million does not reflect any less emphasis by the Biden administration on human rights. They noted that Mr. Blinken raised the cases of political prisoners and other abuses with Egyptian leaders during a visit to Cairo in January and will continue to press those issues.

Persons: Biden, Antony J, Blinken Organizations: State Locations: Egypt, United States, Washington, Cairo

☆ Biden Taps Penny Pritzker to Drive Ukraine’s Economic Revival
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The appointment comes as attention in the United States and Europe increasingly turns toward Ukraine’s survival in economic as well as military terms. Her brother, J.B. Pritzker, is the Democratic governor of Illinois. Ms. Pritzker started several business ventures of her own, and as President Barack Obama’s commerce secretary from 2013-17, she was known for her close relationships with business leaders across the United States. She played an important role in Mr. Obama’s rise through Illinois and national politics, using her contacts to help raise hundreds of millions of dollars for his campaigns. In a January 2020 endorsement of Mr. Biden’s presidential candidacy, she noted that she had known Mr. Biden for more than 20 years.

Persons: Blinken, Pritzker, ”, Ms, J.B, Donald, Barack Obama’s, Biden’s, Biden Organizations: World Bank, Russian, Democratic Party, Democratic, Hyatt, Microsoft, Carnegie Endowment, International Locations: United States, Europe, Ukraine, Chicago, Illinois

☆ With Aid on the Line, Biden Officials Debate ‘Coup’ Finding for Niger
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For more than a month in Niger’s capital, Niamey, the democratically elected president has been a prisoner in his own home. To many people, the military takeover in Niger in late July was obviously a coup. And yet, in a prime example of contorted diplomatic-speak, Biden administration officials have so far carefully danced around the word. That, they say, is because the word “coup” has major policy implications: Congress has mandated that the United States must halt all economic and military aid to any government deemed to have been installed by a military coup until democracy is restored in that country. But U.S. officials worry it could also reduce America’s leverage over Niger’s future, jeopardize military operations against militants in the region, invite Russian influence and exacerbate humanitarian suffering in one of the world’s poorest countries.

Persons: Biden, ” Locations: Niger’s, Niamey, Niger, United States

☆ Bill Richardson Reveled in Role of Freelance Envoy to Dictators
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-02 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was days before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and the U.S. government was urging Americans to stay away from Russia. That’s when Bill Richardson boarded a plane to Moscow. The former New Mexico congressman, governor and cabinet member was pursuing his passion: freelance diplomacy with a dangerous foreign government. In a call to Mr. Reed’s parents, an aide to Mr. Richardson said his boss was on a “guerrilla mission,” they would later recall. Either way, the Russian mission was classic Bill Richardson.

Persons: That’s, Bill Richardson, Richardson, Trevor Reed, Reed’s, ”, Reed, Richardson’s, Biden, — Organizations: U.S, New, U.S . Marine, State Department Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, New Mexico, U.S, Russian

☆ Two Years After Afghanistan Exit, Biden Resists Calls for More Taliban Contact
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When the last American soldier flew out of Afghanistan on Aug. 30, 2021, leaving the country to Taliban rule, the world braced for a human rights nightmare. In that sense, the Taliban have met expectations. The country’s extremist rulers, who seized power from an American-backed government of 20 years, have carried out revenge killings, torture and abductions, according to international observers. They have also imposed the world’s most radical gender policies, denying education and employment to millions of Afghan women and girls — even shutting down beauty parlors. On Aug. 14, a group of United Nations officials issued a report saying the Taliban had engaged in “a continuous, systematic and shocking rescinding of a multitude of human rights, including the rights to education, work, and freedoms of expression, assembly and association.”Some analysts and U.S. officials had clung to the hope that the Taliban had moderated since they last controlled the country in the 1990s, or that they would at least make concessions to Western demands on human rights to win diplomatic recognition or economic aid as the country suffers a deepening humanitarian crisis.

Organizations: American, United Nations, ” Locations: Afghanistan, American

☆ Blinken’s Toughest Challenge Might Not Be Coups but Passport Delays
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has a crisis on his hands. But unlike the foreign coups, hostage-takings and military threats that the nation’s top diplomat routinely faces, this one comes from within the vast bureaucracy he commands — and may be even more difficult to solve. The problem is a huge backlog of passport applications that is creating summer travel nightmares for Americans who find that getting a new passport or renewing an expired one can take months, forcing them into panicked races against their planned travel date through an often bewildering bureaucratic maze. Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, has called the situation a “crisis.” Senator Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, has said it is “an unacceptable failure.” And Utah’s entire congressional delegation told Mr. Blinken in a letter this spring that their offices were “struggling to handle all incoming emergency requests due to the sheer volume” of pleas from their constituents. “While running a competent passport application process may not make a panel at Davos, this is an important function of the federal government that directly affects the lives and plans of millions of Americans,” Senator Eric Schmitt, Republican of Missouri, said in a letter to Mr. Blinken, referring to the elite economic forum held annually in the Swiss Alps.

Persons: Antony J, Blinken, —, Mark Warner, Rick Scott, Eric Schmitt Organizations: Democrat, Republican Locations: Virginia, Florida, Davos, Missouri, Swiss

☆ For Ukraine, Many Antiwar Activists in the U.S. Make an Exception
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Russia’s invasion flips the script,” he added. “On top of that, the country the U.S. is sending arms to here is engaging in actual self-defense. The peace movement needs to resist the urge to simply replay our ‘greatest hits’ about U.S. imperialism when we talk about Ukraine,” he said, adding that his group strongly supports intensive diplomacy to resolve the conflict. First is the obvious fact that Mr. Biden has not committed the U.S. military to the conflict, making for a cost in treasure but not American troops. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Walzer said that “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is illegal under international law, and it is unjust according to every version of just war theory.”The view is common among defenders of Mr. Biden’s policies.

Persons: ”, Benjamin, Biden, Donald J, Trump, Tucker Carlson, Michael Walzer, Vladimir V, Putin, Walzer Organizations: Democratic, Fox News, Street Locations: U.S, Ukraine, Russia

U.S. officials have repeatedly denied that they reached any nuclear “deal” with Iran after indirect talks held in Oman earlier this year. Two senior Israeli defense officials said the deal involving the prisoners and the frozen funds is part of the broader understandings reached in Oman. Mr. Rome said the Biden administration likely hopes that formal nuclear talks organized by the European Union could restart later this year. The negotiations, aimed at restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal from which President Donald J. Trump withdrew in 2018, collapsed last summer amid what U.S. officials called unacceptable Iranian demands. But Mr. Rome added the Biden administration was unlikely to want a new nuclear agreement ahead of the 2024 election, given the issue’s political volatility.

Persons: Rome, Biden, Donald J, Trump, renege Organizations: U.S, European Union Locations: Iran, United States, Iraq, Syria, Oman, Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, European

☆ Blinken Calls Blockade of Diplomatic Nominees a National Security Risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Vance of Ohio, have also blocked nominees for different reasons. “These delays are undermining our national security,” Mr. Blinken told reporters during an unusual appearance at the State Department’s daily news media briefing. The overwhelming majority of the stalled State Department nominees are career diplomats, and more than a third have been awaiting votes for about a year or more, he added. The aide noted that the vacancies put the United States at a disadvantage in its global competition with China, which many Republicans call their top foreign policy priority. Beijing has ambassadors in dozens of foreign capitals where the United States lacks them, the aide said.

Persons: Rand Paul of Kentucky, Biden, Ted Cruz of, Vance of, Mr, Blinken, ”, chargé d’affaires Organizations: State Department, Republican, State, Department, Democratic, Foreign Relations, World Health Organization, International Monetary Fund Locations: Ted Cruz of Texas, Vance of Ohio, United States, China, Beijing

☆ An Uneasy Quiet at NATO’s Newest Border With Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Michael Crowley | More About Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a recent afternoon along Finland’s border with Russia, an attack from Russian military bases a few miles away seemed a distant prospect. That’s not only because, as NATO’s newest member, Finland now enjoys the guaranteed protection of 30 nations, including the United States — a development that President Biden will celebrate during a visit to Helsinki next week. It may be years before Russia poses a conventional military threat from across the verdant forest of pine, spruce and birch. But there were some Russians to be seen on a sunny June day at the Vaalimaa border crossing, about midway between Helsinki and St. Petersburg. A trickle came and went, many in expensive cars: an Audi Q7, a black BMW with two sleek bikes mounted on a rack.

Persons: That’s, Biden, It’s Organizations: Audi, BMW Locations: Russia, Finland, United States, Helsinki, Ukraine, St . Petersburg

Sweden broke from decades of neutrality following the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year by seeking to join NATO. Mr. Erdogan has also invested himself deeply in the matter, having long insisted that Western nations do not take his concerns about Kurdish terrorism seriously enough. U.S. officials insist their support for the arms sale is not linked to Mr. Erdogan’s position on Sweden. But after a late May phone call with the Turkish leader, Mr. Biden told reporters:“He still wants to work on something on the F-16s. Analysts say it is unclear whether Mr. Biden can convince them to change their position.

Persons: Erdogan, Biden, Mr, Bob Menendez Organizations: NATO, Sweden, Bloomberg, Senate Foreign Relations, Bob Menendez of New Locations: Ukraine, Hungary, Turkey, Sweden, Washington . U.S, Bob Menendez of, Bob Menendez of New Jersey

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