Posted by BW Actual on Feb 7th 2025
BLACKWATER USA | DAILY BRIEF
Iran
- The U.S. Treasury announced new sanctions against Iran as part of the "maximum pressure" campaign Pres. Trump outlined in an executive order "aimed at driving Iran's oil exports to zero."
- This is more of rhetorical escalation than a meaningful change in sanctions measures: most of Iran's oil exports go to China, which is happy to flout U.S. sanctions and continue buying cheap Iranian crude.
- Trump had seemed hesitant to impose harsh penalties on Iran because he still hopes Tehran will be willing to negotiate a new nuclear deal to replace the agreement Trump canceled during his first term.
- After learning of these new sanctions, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, poured cold water on that idea, saying that "negotiating with America is neither smart, wise, or honourable."
DRC
- Leaders from two Sub-Saharan African blocs - the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community - will meet in Tanzania starting today to discuss the ongoing crisis in eastern DRC, where M23 rebels and Rwandan troops continue to advance and seized another town - Ikhusi - yesterday.
- They're unlikely to find a resolution. Rwanda's Pres. Kagame is digging in for a prolonged fight, and DRC's Pres. Tshisekedi has shown little interest in negotiating. He probably won't even show up to today's summit.
China (Belt and Road)
- Following SecState Rubio's visit, Panama formally quit China's Belt and Road Initiative by submitting its 90-day notice that it will be withdrawing from its 2017 memorandum with China. Pres. Mulino said the pact had brought none of the promised benefits to Panama: "I don’t know what those who signed this agreement with China were thinking."
- Beijing said it "regrets" Mulino's decision, and blamed the U.S. for "smearing and sabotage" of its deal with Panama..
Venezuela
- The U.S. formally seized a Venezuelan Dassault Falcon 200EX plane previously used by Pres. Maduro's Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, and state oil company, PDVSA; citing violations of U.S. sanctions and export control laws. This was one of 15 PdVSA aircraft flagged for sanctions violations in 2020, and it's the second of the 15 the U.S. has seized.
Ukraine
- Ukraine took delivery of French Mirage 2000-5 and Dutch F-16 multi-role fighter planes this week, and Pres. Zelensky thanked his European allies for following through on their commitments to continue supporting Ukraine as U.S. support dries up.
- France is thought to be sending Ukraine six Mirage jets; it's not clear how many arrived in this first batch.
ICC
- Pres. Trump imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the ICC's "illegitimate and baseless" actions against Israel, which is under ICC investigation for war crimes in Gaza. Under Trump's order, ICC personnel investigating Israel will be barred from traveling to the U.S. and transacting with U.S. entities.
- Neither the U.S. nor Israel recognize the ICC's jurisdiction, so - needless to say - the U.S. declined to execute the ICC's outstanding arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who visited Trump in the White House the day before Trump signed the sanctions order.
Other News
- Global average temperatures were warmer last month than in any previous January on record. The NYT reported that so many temperature records have been broken in recent years that "scientists have begun to look past carbon emissions and explore whether something else in the planet’s chemistry might have changed."