(21.11.2015)
“They have invited young men and some women in so that they can act out their greatest perversion. It’s not about an ideology. It’s not about the caliphate,” McRaven said at a national security conference in Austin, the Austin American-Statesman reported on Friday.
“I believe that they bring people in because they realize they can kill, they can rape with impunity, they can torture, they can do these barbaric things in the name of Islam.”
Several of the “Spartans” are now on Johnson’s payroll with government jobs, such as Priti Patel, the home secretary, who is understood to be prepared to support whatever the prime minister brings back from Brussels.
Because if we fail to get an agreement because of what is essentially a technical discussion of the exact nature of future customs checks, when that technology is improving the whole time, then let us be in no doubt that the alternative is no deal.“
Even the civil servants seem suddenly to be standing straighter. After three years of immobilism, dreariness and funk, the Government is again exuding purpose.
„So we continue to follow the situation very closely. We exchange intelligence, information about the situation,“ he said and noted that NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels discussed the American imitative in June where touched on the possibility of NATO members contributing assets but not as part of a NATO mission.
On her part, Kramp-Karrenbauer said the situation in Iran and in Hormuz is very sensitive.
For her part, Schmid expressed her pleasure at opening the first meeting of senior officials between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European External Action Service.
U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun will travel to Brussels July 8-9 and Berlin July 10-11 for meetings with European officials and with Republic of Korea Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Lee Do-hoon to advance our shared efforts to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea.
Union leader Erik Labourdette said the firefighters’ monthly average 1,500 euro ($1,680) package was going down by about 300 euros in planned cuts. One firefighter, Jean-Francois Kool, complained they were losing on-call bonuses and extras like sports clothes.
The pair will explore updating the trade blueprint to add a temporary Customs Union, which could be made permanent if Labour wins power in May 2022.
EU officials have given a warm welcome to the plan – so long as the UK signs off on the withdrawal pact including the backstop.
One told The Sun: “This should be workable. The EU never has made any problem about having time limits on a Customs Union.”
Mrs Merkel said: „We, the EU27, will discuss this today. We can fulfil this wish in principle if there will be a positive vote about the exit deal next week in the British Parliament.
The government has lost the ability to run the country. It is no longer in charge of its own destiny, let alone that of the nation. What makes this so humiliating is that power has been ceded not to parliament, but to the European Union. The immediate future of our country will be decided in Brussels and the capitals of the EU, not in Westminster.
The EU’s chief negotiator told ministers of the 27 remaining countries in the bloc that the leader of the British opposition had sought a head-to-head meeting with him. Mr Barnier and Mr Corbyn will hold talks in Le Berlaymont, the EU’s headquarters in Brussels, on Thursday morning.
The European Council is to consider the UK’s request for a Brexit delay. British opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will also meet EU leaders in Brussels.
With just eight days before the UK is due to leave the EU, the Prime Minister will make the case for extending the Article 50 withdrawal process to June 30 at a Brussels summit on Thursday.
Arrival and doorstep by Michael ROTH, Minister of State for Europe of Germany, at the General Affairs Council, taking place on 19 March 2019 in Brussels.
“For my Government it’s the key priority to prevent a no-deal Brexit. I don’t have any appetite for substance-less, very abstract discussions and negotiations on Brexit. Please deliver, dear friends in London please deliver. The clock is ticking.”
If she unilaterally cancelled article 50 would MPs vote for that? What would the 17.5 million voters do.
According to the minutes, the European commission’s secretary general, Martin Selmayr, who is known as a master of strategy, asked: “Imagine that they have a new Brexit secretary or prime minister – what then? Article 50 has been agreed and the process has ended. It must be clear that the starting point is not a renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement.”
In a stark message to dithering Tory MPs, she vowed there will be no fourth attempt if she fails this time.
She warned it will almost certainly lead to a two-year delay and declared bluntly: “It hardly bears thinking about.”
Tony Blair has been accused of “unacceptable” behaviour after it emerged he has been briefing Emmanuel Macron on how to force Britain to stay in the EU.
The former Labour prime minister believes that if the EU stands its ground over the Brexit deal, Parliament will cave in and accept a customs union – which would keep Britain yoked to Brussels – or a second referendum that could cancel Brexit altogether.
The leader of parliament Andrea Leadsom said she was beginning to wonder what game the European Union was playing over Brexit as relations between London and Brussels deteriorated ahead of a vote by lawmakers next week.
The right playbook however is Churchill’s. Keep buggering on. This is not the time to capitulate, to fold and to be defeatist. Now is the time to stand firm and hold our nerve.
Mrs May’s announcement yesterday in which she conceded two Commons votes on Brexit in mid March is the wrong move. It sends the wrong message to the EU. Opening up the possibility of ruling out No Deal, or extending Article 50, may harm our negotiating position.
– Theresa May is set for rough ride in Brussels as she fights for Brexit concessions on the Irish border backstop
– The Prime Minister will insist legally binding changes to the Withdrawal Agreement package must be made
– Body language between Mrs May and EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was distinctly frosty
– Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has written to the PM with revised demands for backing a Brexit agreement
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has told Theresa May during „robust but constructive“ talks that the European Union will not renegotiate the Brexit deal.
During the handshake with Juncker, May was asked by several of the press whether she had alternative proposals, with another journalist jokingly asking the UK leader „Is this hell, Prime Minister?“ The question was presumably in response to Wednesday’s comment by Tusk stating that there was „a special place in hell“ for „those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of plan how to carry it safely.“
Published on Dec 11, 2018
(now enriched with extra-added #Brexit) #carbonfootprint #airmiles
The Prime Minister will meet EU President Jean-Claude Juncker this evening but not before she has met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte for breakfast in the Hague.
Theresa May is to make an emergency dash to Brussels on Saturday to complete the Brexit negotiations after the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, threatened to pull the plug on the Sunday leaders’ summit.
As she emerged from talks in Brussels lasting nearly two hours with the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, the British prime minister admitted that there were some major issues to resolve.
The surprise move was announced after a meeting with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.
EU diplomats have said they had been told the German Chancellor is not willing to come to Sunday’s summit for any negotiations, meaning a text must be ready beforehand.
According to several news outlets, British Prime minister Theresa May has left her meeting with the European Commission’s President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels without speaking to the press.
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And he reiterated Spain’s insistence that negotiations over the future relationship between Gibraltar and the EU should be handled separately to those with the U.K.
“I am very much [more] worried about the unity of the United Kingdom than the unity of the Kingdom of Spain. I think the United Kingdom will split apart before the Kingdom of Spain,” he said, in an apparent reference to movements in both Scotland and Northern Ireland to leave the U.K. over its EU departure.
Spain has faced its own independence claim from the region of Catalonia, which voted to separate in a referendum dubbed illegal by Madrid. The Spanish government has always opposed Scotland being allowed to join the EU, apparently worried that it would start a precedent for newly independent European states to join, encouraging Catalan separatists.
Theresa May is to travel to Brussels on Wednesday evening to finalise the Brexit deal in a meeting with the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini will meet a delegation of Israeli Arab lawmakers, headed by Joint List head Ayman Odeh in Brussels on September 4. This is the first time Mogherini would be meeting with Israeli Arab lawmakers.
According to the official website of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, following the US announcement of its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran nuclear deal, EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini held talks with the Foreign Ministers of France (Jean-Yves Le Drian), Germany (Heiko Maas), the United Kingdom (Boris Johnson) and of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Mohammad Javad Zarif) on Tuesday, May 15, 2018.
According to the press release, the top diplomats attending the meeting:
“We are operating in a very difficult context,” Mogherini said after an intense day of diplomacy that included meetings with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany. All of those countries were signatories of the deal that aimed to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon in exchange for economic incentives. She said European leaders hoped to have a firm plan within a few weeks.
Iran’s foreign minister is embarking on a diplomatic tour from today to save the nuclear deal after the US withdrawal and escalation with Israel in Syria.
President Donald Trump’s chief diplomat was concluding his first-ever international trip after being sworn in on Thursday. He landed in Amman on Sunday after stops in Brussels, Riyadh and Tel Aviv.
“We do believe the Israelis have the right to defend themselves, and we’re fully supportive of that,” Mr. Pompeo said at a joint press conference with Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.
As the situation on the ground in Syria deteriorates, the second Brussels Conference on „Supporting the Future of Syria and the region“ focuses on humanitarian support and bolstering the UN-led political peace process in Geneva. The conference takes place on 24 and 25 April 2018 and is co-hosted by the European Union and the United Nations.