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Fox News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Iran's Africa activities pose 'significant threats to US national security'
The State Department and the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have joined a chorus of analysts this week in warning Fox News Digital of "significant threats to U.S. national security" from the actions of Iran in Africa. Tehran is accused of reportedly buying uranium in Niger, supplying drones in violation of a U.N. arms embargo to forces in Sudan and promoting the growth of destabilizing Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism on the continent. "Iran's long arm of terror stretches around the globe, including in Africa", Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, told Fox News Digital, adding, "Iran is an enemy to freedom everywhere, and a threat to U.S. national security; our partners in Africa must proceed with caution before engaging with this dangerous, authoritarian regime." Reports surfaced initially last year from first the French media outlet Africa Intelligence, and then the Washington-based NGO the Institute for Science and International Security, that the West African nation of Niger had been negotiating the sale to Tehran of $56 million worth of so-called yellow cake – uranium oxide. The 300 tons of uranium, some of which, one source suggests, has been partly delivered already, would allegedly be enough to make 30 nuclear weapons. Analysts say Niger could be preparing to sell even more 'yellow cake' to Iran. Uranium in the country has up until recently been mined by mostly French companies, such as Orano. But Niger's military leaders, who came to power in a coup in 2023, announced that they will revoke mining licenses and nationalize mining operations. Iran is said to want to strike a deal to start uranium mining itself in Niger, particularly around Imouraren, an area where the ground is estimated to contain 200,000 tons of the metal. In a move seen to be towards Russia and Iran, Niger ended an agreement with the Biden administration last year, which led to the closing of two U.S. military bases in the country that were used for anti-terror operations. "In Niger, French outlets covering the continent have reported that there is a secret agreement between Iran and Niger trading uranium oxide for either drones or energy," Behnam Ben Taleblu told Fox News Digital. Taleblu, senior Director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) added, "The Islamic Republic is an opportunistic actor, both in the Middle East and further abroad." A State Department spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital that Iran's activities in Africa are on their radar, saying, "On Niger, we are monitoring the possibility of an Iranian acquisition of uranium. We would have serious concerns about Niger, or any country, transferring uranium to Iran." The spokesperson continued, "Iran's continued development of its nuclear program, (and its) role as the leading state sponsor of terrorism, and destabilizing regional behavior, pose significant threats to U.S. national security and to global stability. "The President has been clear: Iran cannot ever have a nuclear weapon." Iran, said to be interested in Sudan's gold, has been supplying Mohajer-6 drones to Khartoum's government, according to the U.S. Africa Command's Africa Defense Forum. They were used effectively by Sudan in recently reclaiming the capital city, Khartoum and the Presidential Palace. The FDD's Taleblu added, "Iranian drones are active on four continents today, one of which is the African continent, particularly when looking at the conflicts in Sudan and Ethiopia." The State Department spokesperson weighed in "On Sudan, we are aware of reports. Both the RSF and the SAF have used weapons acquired from foreign actors against the civilian population and infrastructure and have committed human rights violations and abuses. "Supplying arms to any of the belligerents prolongs the conflict and heightens the risk of further destabilization in Sudan and the region. The United States calls for an end to all external support to the warring parties, and urges all our partners to press for a comprehensive cessation of hostilities, and increased, unhindered humanitarian access," the spokesperson concluded. Then there is Iran's reported psychological warfare against Africa's communities. "Iran's core Africa strategy is to export its ideology into those communities as a counter-balance to what it sees as anti-Iranian efforts in the Middle East," Frans Cronje, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Yorktown Foundation for Freedom and a former head of the South African Institute of Race Relations told Fox News Digital. Cronje continued, "Africa has 1.5 billion people. Approximately a third of those are Muslim and make up a quarter of all Muslims worldwide, more than the number in the Middle East. Muslims serve as dominant groups across much of North Africa and down the African east coast." "The Iranian Africa strategy can be thought of as having three components," Cronje stated. "The first is the provision of training and material support to extremist groups in Africa to aid in the export of terror globally, and to target Christians and pro-Western communities on the continent, whilst creating a high-threat environment for Western investors. "To that end the global terror threat index scores for several African countries have come to exceed those of traditional Middle Eastern terror staples. Africa's Christians face increasing volumes of horrific attacks, including Christian church burnings and beheadings, and it has become common for Africa to account for the bulk of global terror-related deaths annually. "The second is to identify both Shia and Sunni communities that can be radicalized against the West as well as against Iranian opponents in the Arab world. Iran has employed Al-Mustafa academic and cultural centers in over 30 African countries to train clerics and religious leaders. "A third pillar of the strategy is that Iran has deepened diplomatic and economic cooperation ties with scores of African governments and business organizations to win trade and investment deals that help it evade global sanctions, as well as securing the diplomatic support of African governments on global fora such as the U.N., for measures ranging from its nuclear weapons program to its investment in proxy forces that threaten Israel. "For example," Cronje concluded, "just a few months ago, over 700 delegates from nearly 40 African countries attended an investment conference in Tehran." Summing up, the FDD's Taleblu said "the threat the Islamic Republic poses on the African continent is both significant and diverse. From seeking to export its revolution through religious indoctrination via state-linked religious seminaries, to drone sales, the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism has not missed this opportunity to cause chaos while flying below the radar of the West."
Irish Times
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Ireland has a proud history of opposing anti-Semitism
Donald Trump 's new ambassador to Ireland, Ed Walsh , is a man with a mission: to combat the anti-Semitism allegedly rife here. At his confirmation hearing, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Jim Risch, told Walsh to convey the message that Ireland is 'very much out of step with the United States ' in its criticisms of Israel . Walsh replied that this 'will be a big part of my conversations' in Dublin. Risch has since claimed that Ireland 'is on a hateful, anti-Semitic path that will only lead to self-inflicted economic suffering'. He has warned that the Trump administration will retaliate against the Occupied Territories Bill which seeks to ban trade with illegal settlements in the West Bank and Gaza : 'If this legislation is implemented, America will have to seriously reconsider its deep and ongoing economic ties. We will always stand up to blatant anti-Semitism.' [ The Occupied Territories Bill: How long will it take to become law and will there be international implications? Opens in new window ] Ambassador Walsh said at his hearing that he would be seeking a detailed briefing on alleged Irish anti-Semitism. It might, then, be useful to inform him of the history of Irish solidarity with the Jewish people and help him understand a concept that Risch seems incapable of grasping: Ireland's horror at the collective torture of Gaza springs from the same moral outrage that made Irish leaders such powerful opponents of anti-Semitism. The ambassador might ask his officials to brief him on the two figures whose achievements – Catholic Emancipation and the transfer of the land of Ireland from the Ascendancy to the tenant farmer – did most to shape the nation we have become. They might tell him how (and more importantly why) Daniel O'Connell and Michael Davitt raised their voices against the systemic injustices inflicted on the Jewish people. READ MORE Those who experience collective oppression can react in one of two ways. The first is to imagine themselves as unique victims whose exceptional status entitles them to use any kind of violence against those they perceive to be their enemies. The second is to develop a deep disgust at all oppression. It is to say that what happened to us should happen to no human being. In the first, victimhood is hoarded as a special form of entitlement. It closes down all compassion. In the second, victimhood is shared. To know what it's like for yourself is also to know what it must be like for others. To claim justice for your own people is to uphold it for everyone. An important moment in the history of this second kind of response is a letter O'Connell wrote in 1829 to Isaac Goldsmid, one of the leaders of the Jewish community in England. O'Connell had just forced Catholic Emancipation on the British government and been elected as the first Catholic allowed to take his seat in the House of Commons. Goldsmid wrote to congratulate him on his victory. O'Connell's replied: 'I entirely agree with you on the principle of freedom of conscience, and no man can admit that sacred principle without extending it equally to the Jew as to the Christian ... With these sentiments you will find me the constant and active friend to every measure which tends to give the Jews an equality of civil rights with all the other King's subjects ... I think every day a day of injustice until that civil equality is attained by the Jews.' O'Connell's point was simple but potent: there are no rights that are not universal rights. Liberation for one group is a mere concession that can be withdrawn at any time – unless it extends equally to all. [ Daniel O'Connell used contradictions in his own life to achieve goals, says historian Opens in new window ] In 1903, Davitt travelled from Ireland to Kishinev (now Chisinau, capital of Moldova). He went there to investigate a pogrom fomented by the Tsarist authorities against the Jewish population of the city. His reports for the Hearst newspapers in the US and his book Within the Pale: The True Story of Anti-Semitic Persecution in Russia still stand among the most powerful accounts of the systemic terrorisation of a defenceless population by a cruel and cynical state. Davitt went into the houses where Jewish families had been massacred: 'I saw blood spattered on the walls of the rooms and yard, and picked up a child's schoolbook on which some murderer had wiped his hands.' Today, of course, he would pick up bloodied schoolbooks in southern Israel after the Hamas massacres or in shattered homes in Gaza. It is striking that much of what Davitt writes about the treatment of the Jewish communities in Tsarist Russia is so eerily redolent of the status of Palestinians now. Jews are 'confined by law within a kind of economic concentration camp'. They are 'routed from their dwellings as if they were so many noxious animals'. Davitt quoted with approval a letter from the English Catholic cardinal Henry Manning on the position of the Russian Jews: 'so hemmed in and hedged about' that 'they are watched as criminals'. This system constituted 'both a violent and a refined injustice'. And it created a duty of protest: 'The public moral sense of all nations is created and sustained by participation in [the] universal common law; when this is anywhere broken, or wounded, it is not only sympathy but civilisation that has the privilege of respectful remonstrance.' The question the ambassador might ponder is this: should the Ireland of his ancestors now abandon the tradition of O'Connell and Davitt? They believed that anti-Semitism, both in its 'refined' forms (legal discrimination in Britain) and its 'violent' expressions in the Russian pogroms, was a breach of universal law. They abhorred such smooth and rough abuses, not because they were inflicted on Catholics or Jews or Irish people, but because they were perpetrated against human beings. They believed that there is a duty to speak out when that law is 'anywhere broken or wounded'. Respectful remonstrance about Gaza is part of our heritage of opposing anti-Semitism. For the best part of our political tradition, the rights of Jews and of Palestinians to live without persecution are not in binary opposition. They are the same human rights – and their violation demands the same protest.
Irish Times
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
‘Ireland is not anti-Semitic': Taoiseach rejects criticism from veteran US senator
The Taoiseach has rejected criticism of the Occupied Territories Bill from the chairman of the United States Senate foreign relations committee, describing the accusation of anti-Semitism as appalling. Idaho Republican Jim Risch said Ireland was on 'a hateful, anti-Semitic path' and that the US would have to reconsider the bilateral relationship if the legislation proceeded. 'I would reject any assertion that this is anti-Semitic. I'm appalled of that assertion and that's something we're going to correct,' Micheál Martin told The Irish Times. Speaking in Osaka during a four-day visit to Japan, Mr Martin said the war in Gaza was causing pressure on politics throughout Europe. But he insisted the Government did not have to choose between defending Ireland's economic interests and taking a tough position against Israel's actions. 'We've been very responsible in terms of looking at everything through the prism of humanitarian rights. I don't know how anyone can justify the blockade in Gaza. The reports we're repeatedly getting from UN agencies in respect of starving children and the slaughter of children, that is absolutely unacceptable,' he said. READ MORE 'It's not one or the other. We will work on our economic interests. We'll work to explain our position to interlocutors in the US and to the US administration.' The Taoiseach said he was encouraged by Donald Trump's 'absolute opposition to war' to hope that the US president could succeed in bringing an end to the killing in Gaza. Martin said that during his visit to Washington in March, it was clear Israel was galvanising opinion in the US against Ireland. 'We were getting feedback that there was a certain undermining of Ireland unjustifiably and endeavouring to position Ireland's opposition into the conduct of the war and the breaching of international humanitarian law by Israel, and labelling that as anti-Semitic,' he said. 'Ireland is not anti-Semitic. We've been very strongly supportive of international and global efforts to oppose anti-Semitism. We've signed significant declarations in that respect, but also in terms of our own education system, we've been very strong in terms of teachings on the Holocaust and the horrors of all of that. We would reject that very strongly, and that's a bit of a smear on Ireland.' Much of the focus of the Taoiseach's visit to Japan is on the bilateral economic relationship and Japanese investment in Ireland. Japan's population is declining by more than 800,000 every year and Martin said that contrary to anti-immigration rhetoric, Ireland's growing population is one of its attractions for foreign investors. 'I said it this week to a couple of Japanese companies, there is no issue with human capital in Ireland because we have access to the European labour market. It's been a powerful incentive, whereas tax would have been an earlier incentive. In the modern world, it's human capital,' he said. 'I acknowledge that our population has gone up by one-third in two decades. That's what's creating the pressure on services, creating huge demand on housing, but also on health services, education services. But there's something to reflect on that we're now, for the first time since the famine, over seven million people. To me, that's an extraordinary achievement by modern Ireland. It should be seen as an achievement.'
Irish Times
02-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Occupied Territories Bill ‘blatant anti-Semitism', says influential US senator
A senior United States politician has accused the Republic of going down a 'hateful, anti-Semitic path'. US Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Senator Jim Risch said the Occupied Territories Bill 'will only lead to self-inflicted economic suffering' for the State. Writing on X, the veteran Republican senator who represents Idaho, said: 'Ireland, while often a valuable US partner, is on a hateful, antisemitic path that will only lead to self-inflicted economic suffering. Ireland, while often a valuable U.S. partner, is on a hateful, antisemitic path that will only lead to self-inflicted economic suffering. If this legislation is implemented, America will have to seriously reconsider its deep and ongoing economic ties. We will always stand up to… — Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman (@SenateForeign) 'If this legislation is implemented, America will have to seriously reconsider its deep and ongoing economic ties. We will always stand up to blatant antisemitism.' READ MORE Senator Risch linked to an article in the Jerusalem Post, which stated that the Republic is the first country in Europe to introduce legislation to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Senator Risch previously raised the issue of the State's relationship with Israel in his role as committee chairman. Speaking at the confirmation hearings for US president Donald Trump's new ambassador to the Republic, Ed Walsh, in May, Senator Risch said it was 'heartbreaking to see the mistake that the Irish are making regarding the Jewish state and Hamas'. 'It's heartbreaking with zero recognition of what Hamas did on October 7th. I truly hope, Mr Walsh, that this is going to be a tough needle to thread when you got a close ally making a mistake, but you have got to thread that needle.' Senator Risch told Mr Walsh to convey a message to the Republic that the State is 'very much out of step with the United States as far as their relationship with those countries in the Middle East'. Mr Walsh said he was looking at getting a detailed brief on the issues relating to this. 'President Trump has been very clear that Ireland is an ally and there is no room for anti-Semitism across the world,' said Mr Walsh, who was confirmed as ambassador this week. 'It will be a big part of my conversations with them. I hear you. I do understand the issue.' Reacting to Senator Risch's X post, former Republic of Ireland ambassador to the United States Daniel Mulhall said he was sceptical that the Occupied Territories Bill can work, 'but I do not see it as an expression of anti-Semitism. Its roots lie in a genuine sympathy for the plight of Palestinians rather than in any antipathy towards Israelis.'
South China Morning Post
01-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Beijing slams US official, EU body for attack on Hong Kong national security law
Beijing has hit out at a United States official and the European Union's diplomatic wing for attacking Hong Kong's national security legislation , criticising their 'hypocrisy' and 'malicious intention' of containing China by going after the city. Advertisement The statement from China's foreign ministry arm in Hong Kong on Tuesday was in response to remarks by Jim Risch, the chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the European External Action Service. Risch said that Hong Kong had become 'no different from China' since the Beijing-imposed national security law was enacted five years ago, while the EU body said the legislation had resulted in a continuous erosion of civil liberties in the city. The day after Hong Kong marked the fifth anniversary of the Beijing-decreed national security law's promulgation, a spokesman for the Commissioner's Office of China's Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong expressed its 'strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition' to the US official and EU body's remarks. 'Certain politicians have disregarded their own poor track record on human rights and the rule of law, ignoring the facts of Hong Kong's prosperity, stability and people's well-being,' he said. Advertisement 'Their open interference in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs has exposed their hypocrisy, double standards and malicious intention to contain China through Hong Kong.' Tuesday also marks the 28th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty.
