|
STRONGEST SANCTIONS EVER: President Trump says the promised sanctions against Iranian oil exports are now in effect in an attempt to coerce Iran into complying with 12 requirements announced by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in May. “Iran sanctions have gone into effect. They’re the strongest sanctions that our country has ever issued,” Trump said on the White House lawn yesterday. Trump is following through on his pledge to restore sanctions as a consequence of the U.S. withdrawing from 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by six world powers during the Obama administration. Trump says the ban on exports will further cripple the Iranian economy, which is already in a tailspin. “We’ll see what happens with Iran, but they’re not doing very well, I can tell you. Iran is not going very well,” Trump said. Iran’s currency, the rial, has lost roughly 70 percent of its value. “It’s a big difference since I’ve been in office,” Trump said. “When I came to office, if you go a day before, it looked like Iran was going to take over the Middle East. It was a question of literally less than years — very quickly. And now nobody is talking about that.” EIGHT COUNTRIES GET WAIVERS: Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Pompeo confirmed that eight countries will get waivers to allow them to continue buying oil, but said all had pledged to reduce imports over time. “There’s a handful of places where countries that have already made significant reductions in their crude oil exports need a little bit more time to get to zero, and we’re going to provide that to them,” Pompeo said. Pompeo didn’t name the countries, but they include South Korea, China, India, Turkey and Japan, all major purchasers of Iranian oil. The full list is to be released by the State Department today, but Pompeo told reporters Friday it would not include the 28 countries in the European Union. ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’: In Tehran yesterday, thousands of Iranians gathered to mark the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy and to protest the reimposition of sanctions. Students attending the government-organized rally chanted “Death to America” and burned an American flag and pictures of Trump, according to Reuters. Today, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed to defy the ban on the sales of its oil. “I announce that we will proudly bypass your illegal, unjust sanctions because it’s against international regulations,” Rouhani said in a speech that was broadcast on Iranian television. “We are in a situation of economic war, confronting a bullying power. I don’t think that in the history of America, someone has entered the White House who is so against law and international conventions. “Make no mistake about it, the Iranians will do everything they can to circumvent these sanctions — that’s unsurprising to me,” Pompeo said Friday. “They’ll turn off ships, they’ll try and do it through private vessels, they’ll try and find third parties that don’t interact with the United States to provide insurance mechanisms.” He insisted the U.S. is ready with “many” and “varied” efforts to counter those circumvention efforts. WON’T GAS PRICES GO UP? “These sanctions have already had an enormous impact,” Pompeo said on Fox. “We’ve already reduced Iranian crude oil exports by over a million barrels per day. That number will fall farther.” Normally when the supply of crude oil shrinks the price goes up, but Pompeo predicted the price of gas at the pump will be stable. “We’ve already taken more crude oil off the market than any time in previous history,” Pompeo said, “while making sure that American consumers don’t suffer. We’ve got Brent crude at about the same price it was back in May, when the president announced the withdrawal from the [Iran nuclear deal].” NORTH KOREA DEMANDS SANCTIONS RELIEF: Meanwhile, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry is threatening to get back in the business of making nuclear weapons if the country doesn’t get sanctions relief soon in recognition of its initial steps toward denuclearization. “I’m not worried about rhetoric. We’ve seen this as we go through negotiations. Stray voltage happens to be all around us,” Pompeo said on Fox. Pompeo is scheduled to meet in New York this week with his North Korean counterpart Kim Yong-chol. He said will be a good opportunity to continue the denuclearization discussions. “We’re very focused. We know with whom we’re negotiating. We know what their positions are. And President Trump’s made his position very clear, no economic relief until we have achieved our ultimate objective,” he said. LOW-KEY EXERCISES: While the U.S. has made a show of canceling major exercises to fulfill Trump’s promise to end “expensive, provocative war games,” plenty of routine training continues on the Korean Peninsula. Today, the U.S. and South Korea will begin small-scale military drills. To keep the exercises under the radar, no media coverage will be allowed. About 500 American and South Korean marines will participate in the training that will begin near the southern city of Pohang, according to the Yonhap News Agency. Good Monday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre), National Security Writer Travis J. Tritten (@travis_tritten) and Senior Editor David Brown (@dave_brown24). Email us here for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter @dailyondefense. |
|
HAPPENING TODAY, DUNFORD AT DUKE: Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford will be in Durham, N.C., tonight to speak as part of Duke University’s American Grand Strategy fall lecture series. His remarks are to be streamed live by Duke University at 6 p.m. ALSO TODAY: The Defense Information Systems Agency’s annual Forecast to Industry event takes place all day today at the BWI Airport Marriott and Conference Center in Linthicum, Md. The event is billed as providing DISA’s industry partners with in-depth information about DISA’s acquisition and procurement plans. Agenda is here. DOD Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy, Vice Adm. Nancy Norton, director of DISA and other DOD officials will speak throughout the day, and will take part in a media roundtable at 12:15 p.m. UTAH MAYOR LATEST DEATH IN AFGHANISTAN: The U.S. service member who died in an apparent insider attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, this weekend has been identified as the mayor of a small city in Utah, who was serving in the National Guard. Maj. Brent Taylor, 39, was killed Saturday by an Afghan serving in the country’s defense forces. He is survived by his wife, Jennie, and their seven children. It was his fourth overseas deployment. Taylor had been on a yearlong leave of absence as mayor of North Ogden, a position he had held since 2013, so he could use his experience to help train troops in an Afghan commando battalion. In his last Facebook post before his death, Taylor said. “As the USA gets ready to vote in our own election next week, I hope everyone back home exercises their precious right to vote. And that whether the Republicans or the Democrats win, that we all remember that we have far more as Americans that unites us than divides us. ‘United we stand, divided we fall.’ God Bless America.” THIS YEAR’S DEATHS: Taylor is the eighth American combat death in Afghanistan this year. So far this year the Pentagon has announced the deaths of 24 U.S. service members, including seven under non-combat circumstances. Nine American troops have died in Iraq, and one each in Syria, Somalia, Kosovo, Djibouti, United Arab Emirates and Germany. MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR DEPLOYMENT: Trump’s deployment of up to 15,000 active-duty troops to the U.S. border with Mexico could cost $60 million to $110 million, according to estimates by Travis Sharp, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The cost estimate includes nearly $7 million for aircraft and helicopters and depends on whether the deployment until mid-December includes 10,000 or 15,000 total troops. Beyond the aviation costs, either the Pentagon or the Department of Homeland Security will be paying for engineering, medical services, housing and other expenses. A force of 10,000 service members could cost about $60-$75 million, and the higher estimate by the president could ring in at about $90-$110 million, Sharp said. That equals a daily cost of $112 to $143 per service member. SHRINKING MIGRANT CARAVAN: The migrant caravan of Central American asylum-seekers is expected to shrink from 7,000 to around 1,400, according to estimates from internal planning documents reported by Newsweek. “Based on historic trends, it is assessed that only a small percentage of the migrants will likely reach the border,” according to the briefing slides sent to Newsweek and published last week. The slides were prepared by U.S. Army North, which is under U.S. Northern Command. NORTHCOM is in charge of the deployment of active-duty troops to the border in the mission dubbed “Operation Faithful Patriot.” At a political rally last night in Tennessee, Trump continued to portray the caravan, which is 500 miles away and not expected to arrive at the border until next month, as an invasion. “No nation can allow its borders to be overrun. And that’s an invasion. I don’t care what they say. I don’t care what the fake media says. That’s an invasion of our country,” Trump told the crowd. REVISITING ROCKS AND RIFLES: And on Friday, Trump walked back his earlier comment that troops deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border would treat rock-throwing by members of the migrant caravan as shooters. When asked by reporters outside the White House Friday afternoon if he was advocating the military use firearms to respond to people throwing rocks, Trump said, “No, no, no, no, no.” “But if our soldiers or Border Patrol or ICE are gonna be hit in the face with rocks, we’re gonna arrest those people. That doesn’t mean shoot them. But we’re going to arrest those people quickly and for a long period of time,” Trump said. USE OF FORCE LAST RESORT: On Friday, NORTHCOM said in an email to the Washington Examiner, “Service members have been authorized to follow the Standing Rules for the Use of Force, meaning those units with assigned weapons may deploy with weapons stored in separate containers; however weapons will not be carried unless authorized by the SECDEF. Force is to be used by DOD as a last resort, and the force should be minimum necessary to accomplish the task.” ERDOGAN ON KHASHOGGI: In an op-ed published Sunday by The Washington Post, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says while Saudi Arabia still has many questions to answer about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last month, the incident need not derail diplomatic relations between to the two countries. “As we continue to look for answers, I would like to stress that Turkey and Saudi Arabia enjoy friendly relations. I do not believe for a second that King Salman, the custodian of the holy mosques, ordered the hit on Khashoggi. Therefore, I have no reason to believe that his murder reflected Saudi Arabia’s official policy,” Erdogan writes. “Nonetheless, I must add that our friendship with Riyadh, which goes back a long time, doesn’t mean we will turn a blind eye to the premeditated murder that unfolded in front of our very eyes. The killing of Khashoggi is inexplicable. Had this atrocity taken place in the United States or elsewhere, authorities in those countries would have gotten to the bottom of what happened. It would be out of the question for us to act any other way.” THE RUNDOWN Axios: Trump: The Saudis “don’t know how to use” U.S. bombs BuzzFeed: Donald Trump’s Tough Talk About The Border Deployment Doesn’t Match What’s Really Taking Place Reuters: U.S., South Korea resume low-key military drills ahead of talks with North Korea Business Insider: More and more US troops are arriving on the US-Mexico border in anticipation of migrant caravans arriving — these photos show what they’re doing Washington Post: Samsung pursues Pentagon contract for phones, tablets New York Times: An Operation in Niger Went Fatally Awry. Who Is the Army Punishing? The Gazette: Air Force falcon mascot suffers life-threatening injuries as result of West Point prank USA Today: Marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I Bloomberg: Costliest Carrier Was Delivered Without Elevators to Lift Bombs Wall Street Journal: Trump Digs In for a Long, Cold War With Iran Daily Beast: The Pentagon Has Prepared a Cyberattack Against Russia Politico: Pompeo not worried by North Korean ‘rhetoric’ ahead of New York talks |
CalendarMONDAY | NOV. 5 8 a.m. 1743 W Nursery Rd. The Defense Information Systems Agency Annual Forecast to Industry. Disa.mil 9 a.m. The Pentagon. Vice Adm. Raquel Bono, director, Defense Health Agency, hosts a media roundtable to discuss changes to TRICARE health benefits. 10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Artificial Intelligence and National Security: The Importance of the AI Ecosystem. csis.org 12:15 p.m. 740 15th St. NW. Afghanistan: What’s Next After Parliamentary Elections. newamerica.org 3 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Book Launch: The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World with Author Robert Kagan. csis.org TUESDAY | NOV. 6 6:30 a.m. 2425 Wilson Blvd. Institute of Land Warfare Breakfast with Lt. Gen. Aundre Piggee, Army Deputy Chief of Staff. ausa.org 9 a.m. 529 14th St. NW. Elections Under Threat? A Global Comparative Analysis of Cybersecurity of Elections. press.org 10 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Iran: Renewed Sanctions and U.S. Policy. heritage.org 10 a.m. 901 N Fairfax St. ISR and C2 Battle Management Conference. isrusa.iqpc.com 11 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Stronger Together – Building the Transatlantic Partnership of the Future. heritage.org 5:30 p.m. 2425 Wilson Blvd. Institute of Land Warfare Hosts Douglas Mastriano, Author of Thunder in the Argonne. ausa.org WEDNESDAY | NOV. 7 6:45 a.m. 1250 South Hayes St. Special Topic Breakfast with Lt. Gen. Brian Beaudreault, Marine Corps Deputy Commandant for Plans, Policies and Operations. navyleague.org 8:45 a.m. 901 N Fairfax St. ISR and C2 Battle Management Conference. isrusa.iqpc.com 10:30 a.m. 2799 Jefferson Davis Hwy. National Submarine League Annual Symposium and Industry Update. navalsubleague.org Noon. 1030 15th St. NW. How Iran Will Cope with U.S. Sanctions. atlanticcouncil.org Noon. Howard University. Army Senior Leader Development Conference with Rep. Anthony Brown, Lt. Gen. Charles Luckey, Chief of Army Reserve, and others. 12:30 p.m. 1619 Massachusetts Ave. NW. The Impact of War and Sanctions on the Russian Economy. sais-jhu.edu THURSDAY | NOV. 8 7 a.m. 2799 Jefferson Davis Hwy. National Submarine League Annual Symposium and Industry Update. navalsubleague.org 9 a.m. 901 N Fairfax St. ISR and C2 Battle Management Conference. isrusa.iqpc.com 9:15 a.m. 1789 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Back to the (Army’s) future: A conversation with Army Secretary Mark Esper. aei.org 4:45 p.m. 1740 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Was the United States Ever Good at National Security Policy? with Kori Schake. sais-jhu.edu FRIDAY | NOV. 9 9:30 a.m. 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW. A Question of Time: Enhancing Taiwan’s Conventional Deterrence Posture. stimson.org 11 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Economic Security as National Security: A Discussion with Peter Navarro, Director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy. csis.org Noon. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The Future of Navy Expeditionary Warfare with Maj. Gen. David Coffman, Director of Expeditionary Warfare for the U.S. Navy. hudson.org Noon. House Visitor Center 201. Capitol Hill Forum on the Future of Federal Information Technology. lexingtoninstitute.org 6:30 p.m. 529 14th St. NW. NPC Headliners Book Event: Bill Lord Looks Back “50 Years After Vietnam.” press.org |
|
