Former US President Jimmy Carter has suggested that Donald Trump’s presidency is “illegitimate” because he was elected with the help of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Carter, 94, made the comments on Friday at a panel on human rights in Leesburg, Virginia, hosted by the Carter Center.

“There’s no doubt that the Russians did interfere in the election, and I think the interference, although not yet quantified, if fully investigated, would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016,” Carter said.

“He lost the election, and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf,” Carter added..

The panel’s moderator and presidential biographer Jon Meacham then asked Carter if he believes that Trump is an “illegitimate president.”

“Based on what I just said, which I can’t retract,” the former president responded to laughs from the audience. “I would say yes.”

Carter served as the 39th US president from 1977 to 1981. A Democrat, he also served as governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975.

Carter has been particularly critical of the nation’s direction under Trump’s leadership. He’s also criticized Trump’s foreign policy and accused him of deepening racial divisions.

Carter’s remarks came just after Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. During the meeting, Trump jokingly told Putin not to “meddle” in the next US election.

US intelligence agencies claim Moscow interfered in the 2016 US elections to boost Trump’s chances of defeating his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

In July 2016, the FBI began investigating Russian meddling in the election. In May 2017, US Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to take over the Russia probe from the FBI.

Mueller released his long-awaited report on the Russia probe in April after a two-year investigation, which concluded that Trump’s election campaign did not conspire with the Russian government, but did not determine whether the Republican president committed a crime.

After nearly three years of inquiries, Trump’s presidency is still clouded by the Russia scandal, which continues to be investigated by several committees of the US Congress.

Both Trump and Russia have repeatedly denied the accusations. Trump has called the investigation a “witch hunt” and one fabricated by Democrats who are angry they lost the White House to a Republican.

Source: Presstv

Democratic divisions over race, age and ideology surged into public view in Thursday night’s presidential debate, a prime-time clash punctuated by a heated exchange between former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris.

US Representative Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) has said that an increasing number of his lawmakers believe President Donald Trump gives them “no choice” except his impeachment. 

“The number of members that are coming to the conclusion that the president is essentially leaving us no choice but to exercise our responsibility under the Constitution — that number’s growing and it’s because the president is taking us there,” Kildee told CNN in an interview run by the Hill on Tuesday.

“I do not see another path unless somehow something changes rather dramatically” in the Trump administration,  Kildee reiterated, adding, “I put that fully at the doorstep of the president.”

“Unless the president significantly changes course, becomes more transparent … and allows us to provide just the bare essential oversight … I don’t think he’s leaving us any choice”  but to pursue impeachment proceedings, he said.

In recent days, Democrats have ramped up their calls for impeachment after special counsel Robert Mueller gave his first public press conference on his investigation’s findings.

Mueller’s report, released last month, found insufficient evidence to charge Trump with conspiring with the Russians. However, it “didn’t exonerate” Trump from the charges.

In the wake of his report, top Democrats called for launching impeachment proceedings.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) who is concerned that Democrats need to wait because they have not yet gained enough public support to beat Trump, favors a go-slow course of action for the impeachment.

The party leadership believes that Democrats should be patient while courts continue to investigate Trump’s activities, cautioning that any impeachment attempt would die in the Senate which is controlled by Republicans.

Source: Presstv

Facing likely criminal charges and embroiled in a fierce dispute with a former protégé that has thwarted his attempt to form a new government, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is facing perhaps the perhaps the biggest threat yet to his political future.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has stressed the need to continue investigations against President Donald Trump to find an “iron-clad” case to impeach him.

Pelosi emphasized on Wednesday that it was necessary that the investigation of Trump continued until they had found enough evidence to lodge a compelling case against him.

“What we do want to make is such a compelling case, such an iron-clad case, that even the Republican Senate, which at the time seems to be not an objective jury, will be convinced of the path that we have to take as a country,” Pelosi said on Wednesday.

US Special Counsel Robert Mueller said the two-year probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election had not cleared Trump of wrongdoings.

“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller added.

Trump, who is being methodically probed for evidence of his wrongdoings and cover-ups, admitted to Russia’s role in his election as US president in 2016.

US President Trump on Thursday acknowledged for the first time that Russia helped “me to get elected,” and then quickly retracted the idea.

Top Democratic lawmakers express opposing views over the timing of the impeachment.

Pelosi has been in favor of a slow approach towards the impeachment process,  while House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), favors rapid legal action against Trump.

Representatives of the Venezuelan government and opposition have failed to reach an agreement in Norway to resolve the Latin American country’s political and economic crisis.

The end of the Norway-mediated talks in Oslo was announced without an agreement on Wednesday.

The talks failed after opposition delegates repeated calls for Venezuela’s democratically-elected President Nicolas Maduro to step down and allow a transitional government to organize new presidential elections.

Still, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said the representatives of Venezuela’s government and opposition had shown “willingness” to make headway.

“The parties have demonstrated their willingness to move forward in the search for an agreed-upon and constitutional solution for the country, which includes political, economic, and electoral matters,” the ministry said.

Norway also called on both sides to show discretion in public comments so as not to damage the process.

Nevertheless, opposition figure Juan Guaido threatened to call for street protests after the talks failed.

In an earlier statement, Guaido’s office claimed that the opposition remained willing to continue with the mediation as long as conditions were right but said it would not drop its demand for new elections.

Norway’s Foreign Ministry announced in March that it was ready to act as a mediator or facilitator of talks between the Venezuelan government and opposition.

The negotiations came amid a political stalemate after months of street demonstrations and a botched coup.

Tensions worsened in January, when Guaido unilaterally declared himself “interim president” of Venezuela. With prodding by the US, he later spearheaded the failed coup.

Source: Presstv

US President Donald Trump has said he does not want to go to war with Iran, but would not allow Tehran to have nuclear weapons — a goal the Islamic Republic has never pursued.

“With all of everything that’s going on, and I’m not one that believes — you know, I’m not somebody that wants to go into war, because war hurts economies, war kills people most importantly — by far most importantly,” Trump told Fox News on Sunday.

“I don’t want to fight. But you do have situations like Iran, you can’t let them have nuclear weapons — you just can’t let that happen,” he added.

Tensions mounted between Tehran and Washington last May, when Trump pulled his country out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and re-imposed harsh sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism.

In the interview, Trump touched upon his withdrawal from the deal, claiming it had some major impacts on Iran’s economy.

“I ended the Iran nuclear deal, and actually, I must tell you — I had no idea it was going to be as strong as it was.  It totally — the country is devastated from the standpoint of the economy,” he said.

Trump has once again threatened to destroy Iran if the Islamic Republic attacked its interests in spite of Tehran saying that it was not seeking war.

His most recent tweet appears to be a shift in tone just days after he said he was interested in diplomacy and wanted to avoid war.

He has also tightened economic sanctions against Tehran and blacklisted the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

The tensions saw a sharp rise on the first anniversary of Washington’s exit from the deal as the US moved to ratchet up pressure on Iran by tightening its oil sanctions and sending military reinforcements, including an aircraft carrier strike group, a squadron of B-52 bombers, and a battery of patriot missiles, to the Persian Gulf region.

Source: Presstv

Saudi Arabia has called for urgent meetings of the regional Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League to discuss escalating tensions in the region, the kingdom’s official news agency said on Saturday.

US President Donald Trump has ordered his administration to avoid a military confrontation with Iran, the New York Times and Reuters have reported.

The Times reported Friday that Trump, during a Wednesday morning meeting in the Situation Room, sent a message to his hawkish aides that he does not want the US pressure campaign against Iran to explode into an open conflict.

“Trump was firm in saying he did not want a military clash with the Iranians,” read the paper citing five senior officials who described the administration’s internal debate over Iran.

The account was echoed by a report published by Reuters on Thursday, saying Trump had communicated to his national security team and other aides to avoid an armed conflict.

“He doesn’t want to go to war. It’s not who he is,” said one official speaking on condition of anonymity.

The report also cited anonymous officials informed on the matter as saying that Trump had privately expressed concern that some of his advisers, such a Bolton, were pushing for war.

Trump’s concern comes a week after Bolton announced that the US was sending an aircraft carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East to counter a “threat” from Tehran.

Hawks in Trump’s team – led by Bolton – have also gone as far as drawing up plans for a possible military strike that could involve sending 120,000 soldiers to the Middle East, according to a recent report.

Trump described the news as fake, but many observers have questioned the US administration’s sudden and vague assertions about an emerging Iranian “threat”, citing contradicting remarks made by US intelligence officials and politicians.

Major General Chris Ghika, the deputy commander of the US-led coalitions’ alleged anti-terror operations in Syria and Iraq, has rejected the administration’s assertions.

The British Defense Ministry has backed Ghika’s assessment.

American lawmakers from both parties have also expressed frustration about the administration’s increasing war rhetoric and lacking consultation with Congress.

US Sen. Bernie Sanders

In a move to quell lawmakers’ frustration, administration officials held a briefing for the Senate and House leaders from both parties later on Thursday.

Following the session, congressional representatives declined to comment on the classified information discussed during the meeting.

Representatives, however, continued to express conflicting views about the administration’s Iran allegations.

“It’s a situation where this president has surrounded himself with people, Pompeo and Bolton in particular, who believe that getting tough on a military basis with Iran is in our best interest,” said Democrat Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois after taking part in the briefing.

“I do not,” he added.

The internal tensions over the government’s approach towards Iran have prompted fears that the Trump administration may be seeking armed conflict despite Trump’s unwillingness.

Assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs under President Barack Obama Derek Chollet has said that the Trump administration is caught between fundamental policy contradictions; a “president who wants to withdraw from the Middle East and an administration with a maximalist policy of regime change.”

The comments comes as various reports in the past two weeks have claimed that Trump has been at odds with specifically Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over their push for military confrontation with Iran.

Earlier this week, US media reported that Trump was considering replacing hawkish Bolton.

Trump and John Bolton

‘There will be no war’

The heated debate over the Trump administration’s Iran policy comes as Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei downplayed the US’ highly belligerent rhetoric against Iran earlier this week, stressing that “there is not going to be any war.”

Ayatollah Khamenei

The Leader also ruled out any negotiation with the US as long as Washington sticks with its hostile approach against the Islamic Republic.

The comments were echoed by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday, who said that the Washington regime was acting as a “bully” trying to force others into acting illegally against a United Nations Security Council resolution which ratifies the nuclear deal.

In May 2018, Trump withdrew Washington from the JCPOA, reached in July 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany — and decided to re-impose unilateral sanctions against Tehran.

The Trump administration’s maximum pressure policy through harsh sanctions and hostile rhetoric has since put Washington on a collision course with Tehran, with Trump seeking to cut Iranian oil exports to zero.

Iranian officials have stressed that the country is ready to defend its interests against any possible act of aggression.

Source: Presstv

Mr. President, UN Security Council members,

I wish to thank the Security Council for this opportunity to speak about the massive human suffering I witnessed when I visited Cameroon three weeks ago.

I traveled to both the South-West province of Cameroon and the Far North. In the former, I met with communities fleeing armed conflict. In the latter, I spoke with refugees and internally displaced families fleeing Boko Haram violence.

Cameroon has been a generous host to refugees, including from the Central African Republic and Nigeria. We appreciate the cooperation of the authorities in providing sanctuary to people in great need.

Mr. President,

When brutal fighting displaces hundreds of thousands of civilians, it usually sets international alarm bells ringing. But, the shocking unmet needs of tens of thousands of people fleeing violence in South-West and North-West Cameroon has resulted in no systematic mediation efforts, no large relief programme, little media interest and too little pressure on the parties to stop attacking civilians.

The collective silence surrounding the atrocities is as shocking as the untold stories are heart-breaking. That is why this session is so important.

A group of displaced and disillusioned women I met told me that they felt abandoned by the international community, as well as by the conflict parties.

They asked me, where is international solidarity? Where are the African organisations, the donor nations? Where is Europe? This conflict has roots in generations of interference from European powers.

When I visited the provincial capital Buea, I met with families from the hundreds of villages that have been burned. They affirmed that tens of thousands of people are still hiding in the bushes, and that new attacks are taking place every week.

Children have been denied their right to education for years because of the political conflicts between grown adults. Most schools have been closed, and the Ministry of Education affirms that at least 780,000 children are out of school. We risk losing a generation to illiteracy.

I was also shocked by the scale and brutality of the crisis. Even hospitals have been attacked, and health workers fear for their lives.

The absence of a humanitarian response commensurate to the hundreds of thousands of people in great and unmet need is striking. We are too few humanitarian actors on the ground, and we are gravely underfunded.

My colleagues in the Norwegian Refugee Council and other relief organisations in Cameroon tell me they can reach people in need in the South-West and North-West despite the insecurity.

Parties to the conflict said they are ready to support access to all areas of great need. This includes the South-West Governor who I spoke with in Buea, and armed opposition groups with whom we are in contact. Our immediate priority is access and assistance to people hiding in the bushes, who as of today receive no assistance or protection. They fear they cannot return to their torched villages, nor do they feel that it is safe for them to go to the urban centres.

These families are terrorized beyond belief.

Similarly in the Far North, civilians feel abandoned. The humanitarian response is severely underfunded and underreported. The displaced children I met in the capital town, Maroua, and surrounding areas, had hoped one day to return to their ancestral lands from where they fled Boko Haram violence. But insecurity still plagues these areas.

The only thing that has changed for these communities is that their suffering and the violence raged against them has disappeared from our TV screens, hearts and minds.

In my 40 years as a humanitarian worker, I have too often seen how the lack of early intervention results in smaller conflicts becoming horrific and endless wars. There is still time to avoid the conflict in the South-West and North-West from escalating further, with untold suffering as a consequence. Equally, there is time to give hope and durable solutions to displaced families in the Far North, and to the Central African refugees that Cameroon hosts.

Mr. President, UN Security Council members,

Our conclusions are the following:

1. The UN, the Secretariat, this Security Council, and all the agencies and programmes of this great family of organisations, need to do better in what we have all pledged; act to ensure conflict prevention, conflict resolution and bridge building before it is too late.

The crisis in the English-speaking part of Cameroon is one of the world’s most neglected. The lack of information and international political attention has allowed the situation to deteriorate from peaceful demonstrations to the atrocities committed by both sides. We need more independent information and reporting from the crisis. And more than anything we need to protect and assist defenseless civilians.

2. We urgently need national and international conflict resolution resources to help stop the violence and start UN talks about the many grievances that exist. Mediation or facilitation of peace talks should be done by local, national or international actors that have the trust of both the government and non-state armed groups.
3. Organisations and countries with influence over the conflict parties must make it clear that the attacks on civilians, on their homes and villages, and their schools and their hospitals, are crimes under international law that cannot be allowed to continue.

The deep and acute protection crisis might also be alleviated by a greater presence by international organisations. The UN Country Team should be given the financial and human resources needed to put protection at the centre of its response.

4. A first step to break the vicious cycle could be a concerted international effort to reopen and provide protection for schools and schoolchildren. Today, the political and strategic conflict among politicians and armed men has paralyzed education for young people. It must be possible to de-politize education. The grown adults must at agree on finding a way for children to return to school, as the mothers I met pleaded for.

To do this, both parties must show willingness to make compromises on the issues that so early became contentious in this conflict. UN and humanitarian partners also need to strengthen their efforts to pave the way for an effective education response.

5. We need to ramp up the humanitarian response. As the Emergency Relief Coordinator noted, many of the 1.3 million people who need humanitarian support have received no assistance. A massive funding injection is needed to save lives.

We need to extend the scope of the humanitarian response beyond city centres and into rural areas in South-West and North-West region. The total funding for Cameroon must be increased; money cannot just be shifted from other regions towards the crisis in the South-West and North-West.

If we do not act today, lives will be lost. The future of a generation of Cameroonians hangs in the balance.

Thank you.