Antiwar.com Weekly Newsletter for December 17, 2020

Your source for foreign policy news. 

December 17th, 2020

Report: Biden Will Continue to Use Sanctions as a Weapon

According to a report from Reuters, the incoming Biden administration will continue to use sanctions as a foreign policy weapon, a favorite tool of President Trump.

Sources told Reuters that when Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20th, he will immediately begin to reshape US foreign policy but will take time to deliberate over sanctions on top targets like China and Iran.

The report raises questions about Biden's Iran policy. The former vice president has said he plans to work with the Islamic Republic to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, which would require the US to lift sanctions.

By Dave DeCamp

Recording Proves Assange Warned State Department Ahead of Cable Dump

A recording released on Wednesday by Project Veritas appears to prove a claim long made by WikiLeaks: its founder Julian Assange warned the US State Department after he learned over 250,000 State Department cables had been compromised and were about to be released. The release comes amid widespread calls for President Trump to pardon Assange before leaving office.

The release is a recorded phone call from August 26th, 2011, between Assange and former State Department attorney Cliff Johnson. Assange said files were taken from WikiLeaks by a "rogue" employee who would release the cables without redacting names of State Department sources. He urged the State Department to warn individuals who could be at risk. 

By Dave DeCamp

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Rouhani: Iran Will Return to Nuclear Deal Within an Hour of US Doing So

Reiterating his desire to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday that Tehran could come into compliance with the agreement within an hour of the US doing so.

Rouhani also said that Iran would not accept any preconditions for returning to the deal, known as the JCPOA, including limitations on Iran's ballistic missile program.

By Dave DeCamp

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The Futility and Cruelty

of Washington's Sanction

A perennial favorite tactic for officials running U.S. foreign policy has been to impose economic sanctions on countries whose governments defy Washington´s wishes. Sanctions enjoy a reputation among the policy elite of being the responsible ¨middle option¨ between relying solely on diplomacy or using military force when dealing with an adversary. Political leaders resist the former approach because they fear being portrayed as weakling appeasers. Conversely, launching military interventions entails significant perils and drawbacks -- a point that the multiple, sometimes spectacular, failures of Washington´s wars over the past seven decades underscore.

By Ted Galen Carpenter

Yemeni Civil War Unleashes a Plague of Locusts

Locusts seem like something out of a science-fiction story or a Biblical apocalypse: miles-wide clouds of voracious insects descending from above and stripping the land bare of every scrap of vegetation. One almost sees Charlton Heston as Moses invoking the wrath of God on Pharaoh Yul Brynner. But plagues of locusts are not just archaic tales from the crypt of history -- they are very real in the year 2020. In fact, for the last three years, an enormous locust plague has been devastating crops in large parts of Africa, the Middle East, and as far as India. Up to 10% of the world´s population -- as many as 760 million people -- are threatened with hunger. Yemen is Ground Zero for the locust outbreak, and the US-assisted Yemeni civil war has been instrumental in unleashing this terror on the world.

By Morgan E. Hunter

Peace Group Warns Against Making NDAA Fight All About Trump

President Donald Trump has sparked considerable controversy by threatening to veto the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act --a behemoth bill authorizing $740 billion in U.S. military expenditures  --

  for the first time in its nearly 60-year history. However, one peace group on Friday warned against making the NDAA all about Trump, reminding Americans of some of the grave consequences of spending more on militarism than the 10 next countries combined.

By Brett Wilkins

The Trump Administrations Abrahamic Sell-Out: Subordinating American Interests to the Saudis, Emiratis, and Israelis

12/11/20 Aaron Maté on the OPCWs Hero Whistleblowers

Congress Again Proves That the Business of Washington Is War

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