Trump the unreliable partner confounds both foes and allies

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Trump the unreliable partner confounds both foes and allies

2019-06-25 06:21 Last Updated At：06:30

President Donald Trump's abrupt decision against military strikes may have prevented open military conflict with Iran, but it also showed him anew to be an unpredictable, unreliable, partner at home and abroad.

Trump won his job partly on his claims to be a great dealmaker. But the celebrity businessman-turned-president's negotiating style -- repeatedly pushing toward a brink only to pull back at the moment of action -- leaves the U.S. lurching from crisis to crisis. On trade tariffs, immigration raids and now the standoff with Iran, his course reversals confound allies as well as adversaries, and his own party in Congress.

As fallout from Trump's actions reverberated around the globe on Monday, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo jetted to the Middle East i n search of a coalition of allies against Iran, the president offered a fresh round of equivocation, defending his decision not to attack Iran even while issuing new threats.

"I think a lot of restraint has been shown by us. A lot of restraint. And that doesn't mean we're going to show it in the future, but I felt that we want to give him this chance," Trump said.

"We would love to be able to negotiate a deal if they want to. If they don't want to that's fine too."

His backing off on military strikes that were about to be launched in retaliation for the shootdown of an unmanned U.S. drone was just one of several recent tactical shifts by the White House on significant issues. Over the weekend, Trump changed course over immigration raids that had stoked fear among people and families living in the country illegally. He postponed steep tariffs he had announced on Mexico earlier this month, giving immigration talks more time.

The Iran standoff, however, is perhaps the most dangerous, as the two countries escalate rhetoric and actions that raise concerns in Congress and the world at large that Iran and the U.S. could stumble into broad military conflict.

When lawmakers asked the president last week how he would be making his decision on Iran, he responded, "My gut."

While that decision not to order military strikes appears to have calmed tensions with Iran, at least somewhat, Trump's messages leave uncertainty about next steps.

"We've never seen anything like it," said Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., a newly elected freshman who served as an assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration.

"I'm glad that he changed his mind about the strike, made the right decision, but he made it in the worst possible way," Malinowski said in an interview Monday. "I don't think anyone has any clue what our policy is."

GOP defense hawks, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the former vice president's daughter, warn against Trump's approach, too. She told a radio host that "weakness is provocative" when it comes to confronting Iran and other adversaries.

Other Republicans say Trump is merely keeping his options open as he pushes Iran to negotiate. That's different, they say, from his predecessor, Barack Obama, who drew a red line against Syria, but then wavered against taking military action.

Ohio GOP Rep. Mike Turner, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in an interview Monday that Trump's style is more like one you'd see from a litigator trying to get an outcome in talks. "It sort of sends a signal to Iran that if you continue, do expect a military response," he said.

Trump's shifting tactics have drawn mostly silence from U.S. allies across the globe, who have declined to publicly assess the president's decision making or his "maximum pressure" campaign that is using economic sanctions in an effort to force Iran to the negotiating table over nuclear issues.

The tensions with Iran come amid deepening divisions between the United States and its European allies over foreign policy and trade, with the allies appearing to talk past each other on a matter that all view as a crucial security issue.

While European leaders have been careful not to criticize Trump's actions, they're also cool toward U.S. talk of building a global coalition against Iran.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told ZDF television over the weekend, "The strategy of maximum pressure can't be the right one, because one of the consequences is that we are all talking about how serious the situation is, and that there is a danger of war."

Germany, France and Britain, as well as Russia and China, remain part of the nuclear deal that Trump abandoned last year as he tries to cut a new accord that would further curtail Iran's nuclear capability.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close friend of the president, has welcomed Trump's tough line toward Iran, including last year's U.S. pullout from the nuclear deal. But the Israeli leader has said little in public during the recent crisis, apparently wary of being seen as pushing the U.S. toward war.

Yoel Guzansky, a former adviser on Iran policy in the prime minister's office and now a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, said the administration's decision against a strike essentially sent Iran the message that "if you don't kill Americans you can do whatever you want in the Gulf."

But Tzachi Hanegbi, a Cabinet minister close to Netanyahu, played down Trump's last-minute decision to call off last week's airstrike.

"The real big story is that the American policy toward Iran, which has changed to our delight in the last two, three years, is a policy that completely serves the world's and Israel's interests, to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons," he told Israeli public radio on Sunday.

That's a sentiment shared by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are also supportive of Trump's tough talk on Iran. The Gulf allies have not commented on Trump's about-face. Indeed, they have been reluctant to publicly criticize him over any of his policies.

Danielle Pletka, a senior vice president at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said Trump has made his decisions all about himself, and that means some allies will stick with him while others will have concerns. "That would be the case if he bombed Iran or if he didn't bomb Iran."

"For Donald Trump, he's damned if he's does, damned if he doesn't," she said by phone from a security conference in Hamburg. "He's so personalized everything in terms of Donald Trump."

Associated Press writers Shahar Golan in Jersualem, Geir Moulson and Frank Jordans in Berlin and Deb Riechmann and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.

Venice launches experiment to charge day-trippers an access fee in bid to combat over-tourism

2024-04-25 17:37 Last Updated At：17:41

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launched a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro (around $5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.

Visitors arriving at Venice's main train station were greeted with large signs listing the 29 dates through July of the plan's test phase, as well as new entrances separating tourists from residents, students and workers.

Stewards were on hand to politely guide anyone unaware of the new requirements through the process of downloading the QR code to pay the fee.

“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said the city’s top tourism official, Simone Venturini. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”

Arianna Cecilia, who lives in Rome and was visiting Venice for the first time with her boyfriend, said it felt “strange" to have to buy a ticket to enter a city in her native Italy, and then pass through a tourist entrance.

The couple were staying in nearby Treviso, and had paid the fee and downloaded the QR code as required prior to arrival.

Workers in yellow vests carried out random checks at the train station, and anyone caught faces fines of 50 euros to 300 euros — though officials said “common sense” was being applied for the launch.

The requirement applies only for people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of those hours, access is free and unchecked.

Venice has long suffered under the pressure of over-tourism, and officials hope the pilot project can help provide more exact figures to better manage the phenomenon.

The city can track the number of hotel visitors — which last year numbered 4.6 million, down 16% from pre-pandemic highs. But the number of day visitors, which make up the majority of the crowds in Venice, could only be estimated until recently.

A Smart Control Room set up during the pandemic has been tracking arrivals from cell phone data, roughly confirming pre-pandemic estimates of 25 million to 30 million arrivals a year, said Michele Zuin, the city’s top economic official. That includes both day-trippers and overnight guests.

But Zuin said the data is incomplete. “It’s clear we will get more reliable data from the contribution” being paid by day-trippers, he said.

Venturini said the city is strained when the number of day-trippers reaches 30,000 to 40,000. Its narrow alleyways are clogged with people and water taxis packed, making it difficult for residents to go about their business.

Not all residents, however, are persuaded of the efficacy of the new system in dissuading mass tourism. Some say more attention needs to be paid to boosting the resident population and services they need.

Venice last year passed a telling milestone when the number of tourist beds exceeded for the first time the number of official residents, which is now below 50,000 in the historic center with its picturesque canals.

“Putting a ticket to enter a city will not decrease not even by one single unit the number of visitors that are coming,’’ said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a protest Thursday against the measure.

“You pay a ticket to take the metro, to go to a museum, an amusement park; you don’t pay a ticket to enter a city. This is the last symbolic step of a project of an idea of this municipal administration to kick residents out of Venice,” he said.

Venturini said about 6,000 people had already paid to download the QR code, and officials expect paid day-tripper arrivals Thursday to reach some 10,000.

More than 70,000 others have downloaded a QR code denoting an exemption, including to work in Venice or as a resident of the Veneto region. People staying in hotels in Venice, including in mainland districts like Marghera or Mestre, should get a QR code attesting to their stay, which includes a hotel tax.

The tourist official says interest in Venice's pilot program has been keen from other places suffering from mass tourism, including other Italian art cities and cities abroad such as Barcelona and Amsterdam.

Marina Rodino, who has lived in Venice for 30 years, is opposed to the new plan. She was passing out mock EU passports for “Venice, Open City,” underlining the irony of the new system, and challenging its legal standing with citations from the Italian constitution guaranteeing its citizens the right to “move or reside freely in any part of the national territory."

Rodino has seen her local butcher close and families leave her neighborhood near the famed Rialto Bridge as short-term apartment rentals spring up. But she said the new entrance fee requirement will still allow young people to flood the city in the evening for often rowdy gatherings.

“This is not a natural oasis. This is not a museum. It is not Pompeii," she said. “It is a city, where we need to fight so the houses are inhabited by families, and stores reopen. That is what would counter this wild tourism.”