United States of America Scoping: 'See if America will save you now'

'See if America will save you now'

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May 27, 2021

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

'See if America will save you now'

Netanyahu and Blinken in Jerusalem on Tuesday, May 25, 2021.

Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't beat about the bush.

The Israeli Prime Minister welcomed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to his country by passing on thanks to US President Joe Biden, who took political heat in Washington for his forbearance in the battle with Hamas in Gaza. Then he moved to the real business at hand: "Naturally, Iran."

"I can tell you that I hope that the United States will not go back to the old (JCPOA nuclear deal), because we believe that deal paves the way for Iran to have an arsenal of nuclear weapons with international legitimacy," the PM said.

Netanyahu shrewdly used the mantra that Biden cited during the Gaza crisis — that Israel has "the right to defend itself" — and applied it to the Islamic Republic, "whatever happens" with the nuclear talks. That seemed a coded warning that Israel will not consider itself bound to halt any sabotage or other covert efforts against Iran's program even if a deal emerges. This was also another striking example of how the Israeli Prime Minister plays the politics of Washington — since Republicans who hang on his every word are itching to intensify a two-front assault on US-Iran diplomacy.

Blinken sought to deflect flashing signs of a potential future showdown with the Israelis over the deal. "It is no secret that we sometimes have our differences" on how to prevent Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon, the top US diplomat said. But he argued that then-President Donald Trump's earlier pullout from the deal had allowed Iran to enrich its uranium stockpiles to a point where it was far closer to a nuclear bomb.

Obstacles to a new deal are not just mounting in Israel and the US. Prospects that a hardline Iranian President will emerge from next month's elections also just went up considerably: All but one of seven candidates approved by Iran's Guardian Council this week are conservative, including Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi, the protégé of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Relative reformers in Iran have taken a hit after Trump went back on America's word and cranked up sanctions.

This week's developments may not kill off hopes for a new pact. But the task of selling any agreement in Iran, Israel and the US just got harder.

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'It began the day I came down the escalator'

Trump might have ditched his winter bolt-hole in Florida for his New Jersey golf resort to escape the summer heat. But he's surely sweating now.

Manhattan's top prosecutor has convened a grand jury that is expected to decide whether the former President or associates will face prosecution over alleged financial crimes involving the Trump Organization. The empanelment of a special grand jury is a clear sign that Manhattan's District Attorney Cyrus Vance is seeking to level criminal charges after investigating the ex-President financial dealings for two years.

In the US legal system, a grand jury is a behind-closed-doors body that considers evidence to decide whether there is probable cause that a crime was committed before indictments are filed. Jurors in such a forum are often more sympathetic to prosecutors than those in formal, public trials. The grand jury hearing the Trump case is expected to sit for up to six months.

Among other lines of investigation, Vance is trying to establish whether the Trump Organization falsified the value of its properties to secure favorable insurance policies and lower taxes. The trove of evidence includes tax returns that Trump long sought to cover up but became available in February after he lost a Supreme Court fight.

Speculation about the case is becoming especially intense after prosecutors opened a criminal tax investigation into Allen Weisselberg, the man who kept the Trump Organization's financial secrets for decades. One possibility is that they could try to pressure Weisselberg to turn on Trump. This is a potentially huge development for the former commander in chief, and could have serious complications for his hopes of a political comeback.

It is not yet clear whether Trump or close family members or associates are in real trouble. But Trump's defense is a familiar one that often helped him evade consequences for his actions during a turbulent presidency.

"This is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history. It began the day I came down the escalator in Trump Tower, and it's never stopped," Trump said in a statement.

'See if America will save you now'

Days after the United States announced financial sanctions and visa restrictions on Ethiopian and Eritrean officials, eyewitnesses told CNN that hundreds of young men were rounded up from displaced people's camps in the Western region of Tigray. Witnesses speaking to CNN's Nima Elbagir and Barbara Arvantidis on condition of anonymity described how Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers first encircled the camps with military vehicles late Monday evening, then began rounding up young men and forcing them onto buses. According to witnesses, as the soldiers broke into the abandoned school housing the refugees, they shouted, "We'll see if America will save you now!"