VENEZUELA
The Venezuelan military, according to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, “didn’t fracture in the way that we would hope, but it’s just a matter of time. It’s the case that Maduro may rule for a little while longer, but he’s not going to govern.” He added that structurally, there is no pathway for Maduro to stay in power. It’s time, he said, for him to leave and the United States also wants to see the Cubans and the Russians out of the country.
Washington is working to secure the southern border at the same time as trying to support democracy in South America. Pompeo said today there are 3 million migrants leaving Venezuela and heading into neighboring countries such as Colombia, Chile and Peru. They need humanitarian support including food. Helping is something, Pompeo added, that is in our nature.
CHINA
Chinese students in the United States are sending information on critical American technologies back to China and it a growing concern in Washington. The Chinese are attempting to put their systems in networks around the world and to steal Western intellectual property using advanced methods that only a few years ago were beyond the reach of the Chinese IT technologists. Washington also is concerned about large, high tech American companies going to China and inadvertently helping the communist regime in every major industry including space and weaponry and artificial intelligence.
ISIS POST-CALIPHATE
ISIS has capabilities post-caliphate and the United States needs to act, according to Pompeo. “…even apart from the Sri Lanka incident, it’s absolutely the case that the capacity for ISIS and other radical Islamic terror groups, Sunni terror groups, remains. Their ability to network – we have al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula that still has real capacity to put the United States at risk through its expertise… But this challenge, this challenge of taking down these networks, is something the United States is going to have to continue to stay right on top of.”
The mission set is very clear according to the Secretary. The US will not allow ISIS to get the caliphate back in either western Iraq or eastern Syria. Washington is applying pressure to the networks whether they are in Southeast Asia, in Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan.
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NORTH KOREA
The United States made a major mistake in earlier Administrations, according to Pompeo. He pointed out that Washington handed North Korea “a bunch of money in exchange for too little, and we’re [Trump Administration] determined not to make that mistake.” Pompeo said Washington is focused on put the right set of incentives in places to achieve its objectives. The end goal is not to overthrow the regime but to achieve denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. He added that it “solely turns on whether Chairman Kim makes the fundamental strategic decision, the one that he has told me half a dozen times he has made, the one he’s told the President a handful of times that he has made.”
The President and Pompeo has repeatedly said that the United States will be patient to ensure good faith negotiations and real conversations. Pompeo said “…our mission set is very clear: State Department’s in the lead trying to negotiate a solution here. We have great partners in South Korea, Japan, who have been great allies and having these conversations, too. We appreciate all of the work that they’ve done. It’s in their backyard.”
IRAN
In a statement released by the State Department on Friday, May 3, he Trump administration stated that it continues to “hold the Iranian regime accountable for activities that threaten the region’s stability and harm the Iranian people.” This includes denying Iran any pathway to a nuclear weapon and continues the maximum pressure campaign.
Starting May 4, assistance to expand Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant beyond the existing reactor unit could be sanctionable, according to the Department Spokesperson. In addition, activities to transfer enriched uranium out of Iran in exchange for natural uranium could be sanctionable. The United States is demanding Iran stop all proliferation-sensitive activities, including uranium enrichment, and the storage for Iran of heavy water it has produced in excess of current limits.
DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government. Each Saturday, she presents key updates on U.S. foreign policy from the State Department.
Illustration: Pixabay