Trump issues threat to cut off aid to Palestine
Donald Trump ignited a firestorm on his arrival in the Swiss resort of Davos yesterday, issuing a threat to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it shows it wants to negotiate a peace deal.
Meeting Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the Davos gathering of government and business, Mr Trump said US aid to the Palestinians would be on hold until its leadership was willing to “sit down” to talks.
In one of a series of talks at the World Economic Forum, Mr Trump said that the Palestinians disrespected Washington a week earlier by not allowing Vice President Mike Pence to see them on his trip to the Middle East. Aid funding would be off the table until there was a change of heart. “This was never brought up by any negotiators but it’s brought up by me,” he said.
“The money’s not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace,” he said. “We have a proposal for peace. It’s a great proposal for the Palestinians. I think it’s a very good proposal for Israel.”
President Mahmoud Abbas has called Mr Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem in December the “slap of the century”.
Confirming Mr Pence’s promise that the US embassy move to Jerusalem would start to happen next year, Mr Trump said a small presence would pave the way for a permanent instalment.
His decision to announce
Washington’s embassy was on the move broke with decades of US policy that the city’s status as a capital would be the result of a final deal emerging from peace negotiations.
“We took Jerusalem off the table so we don’t have to talk about it any more,” he said. “What I did with Jerusalem was my honour.”
Accompanied by a large team of aides and cabinet officials, Mr Trump is expected to set out his America First agenda that challenges the globalisation that Davos has championed for decades.
There is some trepidation about what he will say. The Danish Prime Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, said he hoped Mr Trump would give assurances that the US focus would not preclude reaching out and working with other nations. “I think everybody needs to realise, whether you are leader from a small or medium-sized or big country, that you can’t achieve what you want on your own,” he said.
The US leader’s arrival was announced by helicopters flying over Davos at about noon. Normally there is a security flight ban in the area for the protection of the high-level delegations that huddle in Davos each January.
The US leader arrived at the conference centre after brief motorcade procession through the Alpine town that went past small souvenir shops, ski shops and restaurants.
“There were some J P Morgan flags posted on the route as well. The smattering of onlookers included a few waving American flags and some young kids in ski helmets,” the US pool report noted.
For those watching from the sidelines the only evidence that Mr Trump was in town was the sight of three people mounting a demonstration on the Promenade wearing masks of the US president and chanting that he was not welcome. Good-naturedly they posed for photographs with pedestrians.
During the first two days of the forum the delegates appeared content with the parade of other leaders. They mingled, discussed and listened to India’s Narendra Modi and Canada’s Justin Trudeau and others. One delegate complained that the forum would now be “all about Trump”. Another, an American financier, called Mr Trump’s presence at the forum “the height of hypocrisy”.
The first meeting on his agenda was the British leader, Theresa May, who was given some reassuring words that the so-called special relationship between the two states had not been damaged by the failure of the two countries to organise a state visit for the man who became leader of the free world a year ago.
“It’s a false rumour” that there is tension in the US-UK relationship, he said. “We’re on the same wavelength in I think every respect.”
According to the pool report the US leader said the pair were “liking each other a lot” and the two countries were “joined at the hip” when it came to the military.
“He looked at her and said there was nothing that would happen where the US would not be there for Britain,” the report said.
Trump and Russia,
Donald Trump may be in Davos, but the inquiry into alleged Russian interference in the US election last year is moving ever closer to the US president.
Having spoken to Mike Pompeo, the director of the CIA, and beleaguered Justice Secretary Jeff Sessions, special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s team now wants to question Mr Trump himself.
Republicans and Democrats are stepping up partisan attacks on each other, federal investigators and intelligence services.
And a drip, drip, drip of information is adding to the cloud that has hung over the White House since questions emerged about who knew what about Russian efforts to sway the election.
The result is a febrile atmosphere in which Democrats believe the investigation is approaching uncharted territory, while Republicans are stepping up attacks on the FBI to discredit the investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. Noah Rothman, a conservative commentator, said on Twitter: “I’ve done two conservative radio shows today playing a generally adversarial role in defence of the FBI. The grassroots is eating up the notion Trump is a victim of systemic corruption in law enforcement.”
Conservative media outlets are focused on a secret dossier prepared by Republican congressmen, which reputedly details how security services attempted to undermine the Trump campaign. The fourpage document is said to draw on classified data, but Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, with security clearance to see the material, said the information is “cherrypicked” and misleading.
The sniping came as it emerged Mr Mueller was in talks with the White House to interview the president himself. For his part, Mr Trump said he was ready to meet investigators under oath.
“I would love to do that – I’d like to do it as soon as possible,” he told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. He said that lawyers had told him it would take place within the next three weeks.
Once again, he denied any wrongdoing.
“Here’s the story, just so you understand,” he said.
“There’s been no collusion whatsoever. There’s no obstruction whatsoever, and I’m looking forward to it.”
The full scope of Mr Mueller’s investigation is unknown. His team of lawyers, forensic accountants and experts in white-collar crime have conducted their work amid tight secrecy and minimal leaks.
But its recent interviews with Mr Trump’s inner circle have heightened speculation that its focus is now on the post-inauguration White House and, in particular, that the investigation centres on the dismissal of James Comey as FBI director and discussions that preceded the removal of Michael Flynn, the White House national security adviser.
That period in the early days of the administration is central to allegations that Mr Trump tried to obstruct justice by deflecting Mr Comey from investigating Mr Flynn, before removing him altogether.
This week it emerged that Mr Sessions, who had urged the FBI director’s dismissal, was interviewed for hours, becoming the highest-ranking Trump administration official known to have submitted to questioning.
At the same time, the Associated Press reported that Mr Pompeo, along with Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, and Admiral Mike Rogers, the National Security Agency director, were all questioned last year on whether Mr Trump had asked them to lean on Mr Comey before he was fired last May.