The Dossier: Trump to chair UN Iran meeting next week; US-China trade war ramps up

Trump to chair U.N. Iran meeting next week

President Trump announced Friday that he will be chairing the U.N. Security Council’s meeting on the Iranian regime next week at the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York City.

According to reports from earlier this month, the president will focus in on the Tehran regime’s destabilizing behavior and its support for worldwide terrorism.

The Trump administration continues to push ahead with a maximum pressure campaign against Iran’s rulers. From leaving the Iran nuclear deal to imposing crippling sanctions, the White House has pushed Tehran back on its heels for the first time since before the nuclear deal was signed. The sanctions have played a major role in crippling the Iranian economy and leaving the regime with fewer resources with which to support terrorism.

North Korea floats second Trump-Kim summit

Following his three-day summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, South Korean President Moon Jae-in told reporters that Pyongyang’s dictator wants to hold a second summit with President Trump, so that they can speed up the process toward denuclearization.

“Chairman Kim expressed his wish that he wanted to complete denuclearization quickly and focus on economic development,” Moon said during a news conference in Seoul.

It’s important to take Moon’s comments with a grain of salt, as he has sought to appease North Korea since the beginning of his tenure. Moon has for a long time claimed Pyongyang is serious about denuclearization, but U.S. officials remain skeptical about North Korea’s commitment. Denuclearization talks have pretty much completely stalled, as Trump administration officials expressed less and less confidence about Pyongyang’s commitment following the June summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un in Singapore.

U.S.-China trade war continues

President Trump is signaling that he’s committed to a long-term tariff battle with America’s chief economic rival.

After announcing the imposition of $200+ billion in tariffs on Chinese imports, the president told Fox News: “It’s time to take a stand on China,” adding, “We have no choice. It’s been a long time. They’re hurting us.”

“For a long period of time, China has taken advantage of our country. And I don’t blame China. I blame the people that represented our nation to have allowed that to happen,” the president said in a video posted to Twitter Thursday.

China, Russia slapped with new sanctions

The Trump administration has imposed a new round of sanctions on China and Russia, causing an angry response from Beijing and Moscow.

A Russian foreign affairs minister responded to the new U.S. sanctions, claiming that Washington is “playing with fire.” A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson demanded the removal of the sanctions, threatening that the U.S. will “bear the consequences” of such actions. 

Mark your calendars: U.N. General Assembly next week

The United Nations headquarters in New York will host its annual general assembly meetings next week, but that’s not the critical part from a U.S. perspective. President Trump is scheduled to meet face to face with the leaders of several key allies.

According to his schedule, the president will hold bilateral meetings with:

-President Moon Jae-in of South Korea 

-President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi of Egypt

-President Emmanuel Macron of France

-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel

-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan

-Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom

Author’s note: This post originally appeared in CRTV’s The Dossier newsletter. For foreign policy news and views delivered to your inbox twice a week, subscribe here or use the form below!

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