Donald Tusk: special place in hell for those who backed Brexit without plan
BRUSSELS - Donald Tusk, the European council president, has said there is a “special place in hell” for politicians who promoted Brexit “without even a sketch of a plan”, while he reiterated the EU’s refusal to renegotiate the withdrawal treaty.
He said the EU’s top priority was to prepare for the “fiasco” of a nodeal Brexit, while ruling out any renegotiation of the Irish backstop. “There is no room for speculation here. The EU is first and foremost a peace project we will not gamble with peace or put a sell-by date on reconciliation,” he said, rejecting British demands for a time limit on the Irish backstop. He added: “I’ve been wondering what that special place in hell looks like, for those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely.” Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, said the withdrawal agreement May agreed with the EU in November was “the best deal possible”. He said the backstop was intended never to be used, but was needed as a legal guarantee, “to ensure that there is no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland while protecting the integrity of our European single market and customs union”. Reflecting a widespread view in Brussels, Varadkar said: “The instability in British politics in recent weeks demonstrates exactly why we need a legal guarantee and a solution that is operable that we know will work, will last.”
The latest interventions pile pressure on May, who is due in Brussels today to meet Tusk and the European commission president, JeanClaude Juncker. On Tuesday, the prime minister raised the ire of hardline Eurosceptic backbenchers, when she said there was “so suggestion” the UK would leave the EU without a backstop, although she is still seeking changes. But the EU has ruled out changes and Tusk called on May to set out “a realistic suggestion on how to end the impasse”.
(The Guardian, Photo: The
Guardian) WASHINGTON - The commander of US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said Tuesday he “was not consulted” prior to President Donald Trump’s December announcement that the US would withdraw its troops from Syria.
Despite Trump’s claims that ISIS has been defeated, general Joseph Votel said the fight against the terror group is “not over” and warned ISIS could regroup after US troops leave. In December, Trump tweeted, “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” later releasing a video where he said US troops are “all coming back now.” That decision prompted the resignations of Secretary of Defense James Mattis and the Special Presidential Envoy to the Counter-ISIS campaign Brett McGurk.
“The fight against ISIS and violent extremists is not over, and our mission has not changed,” Votel said. He said ISIS still controls about 20 square miles of territory in Syria where the terror group still commands approximately 1,000 to 1,500 fighters. Votel would not commit to a timeline for the withdrawal. “I am not under pressure to be out by a specific date,” he said. “The fact the President made a decision and we are going to execute his orders here to withdraw forces from Syria and as we do that we’re going to do that in a very deliberate manner,” Votel added. “We do have to keep pressure on this network, it is a resilient network. It does have certain components that are still left in it, although they are dispersed and disaggregated they have the capability of coming back together if we don’t,” Votel said.
Votel also said that “a key task” that the US was looking at was “the protection of those who have fought valiantly with us and ensuring that they remain safe as our diplomats and United Nations and others pursue a political solution here in Syria,” referring to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
(CNN, Photograph: AP)