tyb
U.S. general says will ensure necessary resources to counter Iran
CAIRO (Reuters) - U.S. Central Command chief General Kenneth McKenzie said on Saturday the United States would deploy the necessary resources to counter any dangerous actions by Iran, Sky News Arabia reported.
“We’re gonna continue to reach out to our partners and friends in the region to ensure that we make common cause against the threat of Iran,” McKenzie, on an official visit to the Gulf region, was quoted as saying by Sky News Arabia.
“I believe we’ll have the resources necessary to deter Iran from taking actions that will be dangerous,” he said, according to a transcript released by the Abu Dhabi-based channel. “We will be able to respond effectively.”
Tensions between Tehran and Washington have risen since the Trump administration last year withdrew from an international nuclear deal with Iran and began ratcheting up sanctions.
Earlier this month, the United States blacklisted Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.
Washington on Monday demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers, most of them in Asia, to continue importing limited volumes.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and some senior military commanders have threatened to disrupt oil shipments from Gulf countries if Washington tries to strangle Tehran oil exports.
McKenzie also said a reduction of U.S. troops in Syria would be done cautiously.
“On the long term, we’re gonna reduce our forces in Syria, we recognize that, that’s the guidance in which we are operating. That will be something that we will look at very carefully as we go forward,” the general said.
President Donald Trump had ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops Syria in December after he said they had defeated Islamic State militants in Syria. In February, a senior administration official said the United States will leave about 400 U.S. troops split between two different regions of Syria.
McKenzie also said he was confident that the U.S. is going to have “a long term presence in Iraq, focused on the counter-terror mission.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran/u-s-general-says-will-ensure-necessary-resources-to-counter-iran-idUSKCN1S30HT?il=0
(shout out to faggot who dropped special op's pepe earlier)
>A House needs to be constantly cleaned.
Really nigga?
Moscow 'thinking' of simplifying nationality process for all Ukraine: Putin
BEIJING - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Moscow was “thinking” of making it easier for all Ukrainians to obtain Russian citizenship after the Kremlin moved to grant passports in the country’s separatist east, causing uproar in Kiev.
“We are actually thinking about providing citizenship in a simplified order to all citizens of Ukraine, not only residents of the Lugansk and Donetsk republics,” Putin told the press during his visit to Beijing, referring to the unrecognized separatist republics governed by Moscow-backed rebels.
This week Putin signed a decree allowing people living in the breakaway regions to receive a Russian passport within three months of applying for one.
The conflict between the Ukrainian government and breakaway rebels began after Moscow annexed Kiev’s Crimea peninsula in 2014. The war has claimed some 13,000 lives.
The declaration sparked more condemnation in Kiev.
“Russia wants further escalation and chaos in Ukraine and therefore continues to complicate the rules of the game,” Dmytro Kuleba, Kiev’s permanent representative to the Council of Europe, wrote on Twitter.
The move came just days after Ukraine elected comedian Volodymyr Zelensky as president. The actor, due to be inaugurated by early June, called for more international sanctions against Russia in response.
The European Union also condemned the move, calling it a fresh assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Putin on Saturday said he wanted to “understand” Zelensky’s position on the conflict.
He did not exclude talks with the comedian — a political novice — with whom he said he was ready to “have a discussion.”
The Russian leader said “everyone is tired of this conflict” and that Ukraine expects solutions on the war from the country’s new leadership.
He also said Moscow will fulfill all “social responsibilities to our new citizens of Russia.”
After they receive a Russian passport, residents of eastern Ukraine will be eligible for “social payments, pensions and their increase, everything will be fulfilled.”
Such payments would not strain the Russian budget, he claimed, saying that the decision had been “calculated.”
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/27/world/moscow-thinking-simplifying-nationality-process-ukraine-putin/