By Sherwin Bryce-Pease
He called the SA situation very dangerous and very bad for a lot of people. In addition to these remarks following his surprise order last week targeting the country over its land expropriation law and the unsubstantiated alleged treatment of the Afrikaans white minority, Trump also suggested canceling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal were the latter not to release all the remaining hostages by this coming Saturday.
He is also doubling down on his proposal for the US to own and develop the Gaza strip while imposing 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the US.
Trump again holding court with the media in the Oval Office as he signed an Executive Order imposing a flat 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports that will also likely affect South Africa; a move that has already been condemned by Canada and the European Union that have expressed an appetite to hit back but Trump remains undeterred as his global trade war heats up.
“Today I’m simplifying our tariffs on steel and aluminum so that everyone can understand exactly what it means. It’s 25% without exceptions or exemptions. And that’s all countries, no matter where it comes from. All countries, if made in the US, however, that is states of America. There is no tariff. Zero. So if it’s made in the US, there is no tariff. All you have to do is make it in the United States. We don’t need it from another country.”
On SA, Trump was pressed about whether he would attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit later this year, given his Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s withdrawal from the Foreign Ministers meeting later this month as he again doubled down on attacking the country.
“Well, we’ll see what happens. But the SA situation is very, very dangerous and very bad for a lot of people. There’s tremendously bad things going on and including the confiscation of property and worse, much worse than that. You know what I’m talking about. And we’re not making any payment until we find out what’s going on in SA.”
But the US Embassy in Pretoria put out a fact sheet confirming that life-saving humanitarian aid would be exempted from the USAid Freeze directed at SA and that it had received full permission to restart PEPFAR and its life-saving HIV care and treatment services under that waiver issued by the US Secretary of State.
On the Gaza ceasefire deal, Trump warning that all hell could break loose were Hamas not to release all the remaining hostages, more than 70 still held in captivity, by this Saturday, after Hamas indefinitely postponed the next hostage-prisoner swap after accusing Israel of violating the agreement.
“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12:00, I think it’s an appropriate time. I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out. I’d say they ought to be returned by 12:00 on Saturday. And if they’re not returned, all of them, not in drips and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two. Saturday at 12 o’clock and after that, I would say all hell is going to break out. And I don’t think they’re going to do it. I think a lot of them are dead. I think a lot of the hostages are dead. I think it’s a great, it’s a great human tragedy what’s happened, how people can be that mean to do. I’m speaking for myself. Israel can override it, but from myself, Saturday at 12:00. And if they’re not, if they’re not here, all hell is going to break out.”
Add to that Trump’s plan to take over the Gaza Strip declaring it a real estate development of the future and earlier telling Fox News that Palestinians who were resettled from the enclave would have no right of return, a position that has been roundly rejected by the international community including countries of the region.
“We’ve spoken to a lot of Palestinians. They would love to leave Gaza if they could find a place to be. And I’ve spoken to various leaders of various countries in the not so, you know, distant area from where we’re talking about, the Gaza Strip.
And I think they were very positive about providing land. What we need is land. And if we could build a nice place for people to live safely, everybody in Gaza would do it. They’ve been persecuted. They’ve been they’ve been spit on, they’ve been treated like trash and they would love to get out of Gaza. But until now, they never had an alternative. Now they have an alternative.”
The UN Secretary General last week warning that it was essential to avoid any forms of ethnic cleaning in Gaza. Trump is due to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House Tuesday after telling reporters last night that he was open to cutting aid to Jordan and Egypt were they to refuse his demand to permanently take in most of the Palestinians from Gaza.
Both countries are major recipients of US aid, both militarily and economic but have joined others in the region including Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League in rejecting the US President’s proposal.
--SABC--
