Beijing protests U.S. Navy patrol going through South China Sea
Foreign policy roundup
BEIJING — China pro- tested a U.S. Navy patrol that sent a guided missile destroyer near a group of manmade islands in the South China Sea on Thursday, in the first American challenge to Beijing’s claims to the waters since President Donald Trump took office.
China’s Defense Ministry told reporters that it had sought an explanation with U.S. officials over the incident, which Beijing said involved the USS Dewey and took place around Mischief Reef, one of a chain of artificial islands China has built and fortified to assert its claims over the strategic waterway.
While U.S. officials did not immediately comment on Thursday’s operation, Washington has in the past insisted that it has the right to conduct so-called freedom of navigation operations, or FONOPS, in the area because it is in international waters. The Navy conducted similar operations under former President Barack Obama, but had not done so since Mr. Trump took office and began talking up the prospect of warming ties with Beijing and cooperating over issues like North Korea.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the U.S. destroyer had “trespassed” near islands over which China has “indisputable sovereignty.”
“We urge the U.S. to correct this mistake and stop taking further actions so as to avoid hurting peace and security in the region and longterm cooperation between the two countries,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.
Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Ren Guoqiang told reporters at a monthly news briefing that a pair of Chinese navy frigates had warned off the American ship after it entered the area without China’s permission.
Stiff Iran sanctions
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved 18-3 on Thursday the most sweeping sanctions against Iran since the United States and five other nations reached an agreement with Tehran in 2015 to sharply limit that nation’s nuclear capability.
The legislation would impose mandatory sanctions on people involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them.
Warning on Russia
Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a rare challenge to the Trump administration Thursday: Prove to us that you are making progress with Russia over the war in Syria soon, or we will push forward with sanctions.
Venezuela-Syria scheme
Syria and Venezuela plotted in recent years to evade U.S. and European sanctions on Syria through a secret deal to transport its crude oil through Russia to the Caribbean.
The previously undisclosed scheme — which hasn’t been executed — aimed to sell Syrian oil at a big discount to Venezuela through a Russian shell company, which would send it to Aruba for refining and distribution to gas stations in the U.S. and elsewhere, according to dozens of emails, documents and interviews.