UNITED
NATIONS (AP) — President Donald Trump goes before the U.N. General
Assembly on Tuesday to try to square his “America First” approach to
foreign policy with his administration’s hope for a multi-national
response to Iran’s escalating aggression.
While
Trump wants allies to join the U.S. in further isolating Iran, he also
seems to be holding to his go-it-alone strategy of using economic
sanctions to pressure Tehran to give up its nuclear program and stop
attacks that are rattling the Middle East.
On
Monday, the president praised British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s
call for a new deal to replace the 2015 Iran nuclear pact from which
Trump walked away.
The
president also said he appreciated the efforts of French President
Emmanuel Macron, who has been trying to get Trump back in the deal and
has suggested the American president meet with Iranian President Hassan
Rouhani while both are in New York this week.
But
at the same time, Trump declared: “We’re not looking for any
mediators.” He said that if Iran wants to talk, “they know who to call.”
Both
Trump and Rouhani have said no meeting is on the agenda for this week,
although the U.S. leader left some wiggle room, adding, “I never rule
anything out.”
Trump was expected to use his
speech to blame Iran for recent strikes against oil facilities in Saudi
Arabia. Iran has denied orchestrating the attack, which Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo has deemed “an act of war.”
Britain,
France and Germany joined the United States on Monday in blaming Iran
for the attacks. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, for his
part, pointed to claims of responsibility by Yemeni rebels and insisted:
“If Iran were behind this attack, nothing would have been left of this
refinery.”
Trump also is expected to use his address to the General Assembly to address the ongoing standoff in Venezuela.
The
United States and more than a dozen Latin American countries agreed
Monday to investigate and arrest associates and senior officials of the
Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro who are suspected of crimes like
drug trafficking, money laundering and financing terrorism.
Trump
is expected to have kinder words for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un,
even though the autocrat continues to hold a tight grip on his nuclear
weapons. Trump has met Kim for summits in Singapore and Hanoi and
orchestrated a surprise encounter with him in June at the Demilitarized
Zone, where he became the first U.S. president to ever set foot in North
Korea.
Trump
said Monday that another meeting with the North Korean leader “could
happen soon.” He provided few details, and it wasn’t clear what
officials were doing behind the scenes to set up a meeting to break the
diplomatic impasse over the North’s development of nuclear-armed
missiles targeting the U.S. mainland.
Trump’s
comments, even with few specifics backing them up, are tantalizing
because there is extreme interest, especially in Japan and South Korea,
in whether Trump and Kim can strike a deal on one of the world’s most
pressing standoffs.
This is Trump’s third
speech to the world body. Senior administration officials, who briefed
reporters about the president’s trip to the U.N. on condition of
anonymity, said that he will use his speech to affirm America’s
leadership role in the international community. That’s something Trump’s
critics claim has been weakened by the president’s solo style and
mercurial rhetoric and actions.
The White
House said Trump will also talk about the need to work collectively
within the global community to address world challenges — although
apparently not climate change.
Trump stopped
in only briefly Monday at a summit where world leaders talked about
doing something to counter climate change. As they met, the globe hit
another mark indicating a warming climate. Arctic sea ice shrank to 1.6
million square miles (4.15 million square kilometers) for the annual
summer low, which tied the second lowest mark on record.
On
Monday night, Trump mocked a teenage activist who gave an impassioned
speech at the United Nations urging world leaders to do more to combat
climate change.
Swedish 16-year-old activist
Greta Thunberg scolded the audience at the U.N. Climate Action Summit
on Monday, repeatedly asking, “How dare you?” Thunberg said: “We are in
the beginning of a mass extinction and yet all you can talk about is
money. You are failing us.”
In a tweet late
Monday, Trump says: “She seems like a very happy young girl looking
forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”
In
his speech to the U.N. General Assembly last year, Trump expressed
disdain for globalism and promoted his “America First” agenda. Like last
year, Trump is expected to showcase strong U.S. economic numbers and
talk about how he’s strengthened America’s military.
In
his 2018 speech to the assembly, his self-adulation prompted chuckles
from world leaders. That barely ruffled Trump, who shares a belief with
his supporters that the United States has been asked to do too much for
other countries and needs to focus on issues it faces at home.
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