The Washington Post - 05.09.2019

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza,

both of them avowed enemies of

U.S. ally Israel.

At the same time, however, the

United States and Israel have

charged that the Islamic Revolu-

tionary Guard Corps — the Irani-

an military force that wields

enormous domestic power and

answers to supreme leader Aya-

tollah Ali Khamenei, and whose

Quds Force unit is responsible f or

external proxy fights and extra-

territorial operations — has sup-

plied Hezbollah, Hamas and Shi-

ite militias in Iraq with increas-

ingly sophisticated weaponry.

In recent weeks, Israel has

reportedly carried out bombing

raids in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria

against what it says are precision-

guided missiles and missile-

production facilities supplied by

Iran to its proxies in those coun-

tries.

Many experts and U.S. allies

have suggested that Washington

signal some flexibility in its en-

forcement of sanctions to entice

the Iranians to negotiate. But the

latest sanctions appear to slam

the door on that possibility.

The measures announced

Wednesday — designating 16 en-

tities in Iran and other countries,

and 10 individuals and 11 tanker

vessels — directly target t he Quds

Force, which the administration

says is responsible for setting up

an elaborate system of cutouts

and shell companies to evade oil

sanctions and is using the money

to support terrorism.

Officials said the Revolution-

ary Guard had moved hundreds

of millions of dollars through the

network and repeatedly tried to

pass off Iranian oil as Iraqi in

origin.

The latest sanctions come one

day after the Treasury Depart-

ment sanctioned Iran’s space

agency, accusing it of trying to

develop ballistic missiles under

the guise of working on commu-

nications satellites.

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Cunningham reported from Istanbul.

commitments will continue. Ei-

ther Europe has to buy oil from

Iran or provide Iran with the

equivalent of selling oil as a

credit line guaranteed by Iran’s

oil revenue.”

When strict U.S. oil sanctions

were imposed last fall, five coun-

tries that depended heavily on

Iranian oil — China, India, Japan,

South Korea and Turkey — were

given temporary waivers. Those

waivers were ended in May, a

decision the White House said

was “intended to bring Iran’s oil

exports down to zero, denying

the regime its principal source of

revenue.”

With exports slashed more

than 80 percent, the Iranian

economy is believed to be close to

collapse. As a result, the adminis-

tration contends that has cut

Iran’s financial and weapons sup-

port to proxy groups that the

United States has designated as

terrorist, including Hezbollah in

its terms, protesting that U.S.

sanctions have taken away the

economic benefits promised in

exchange for Iran’s limiting its

nuclear program.

On Wednesday, Rouhani said

the new steps he announced

would have an “extraordinary”

impact on, and considerably el-

evate, Iran’s nuclear energy pro-

gram. Experts have said all the

Iranian steps taken thus far are

reversible.

Europe has been given “an-

other two-month deadline for

negotiations, an agreement and a

return to its commitments,” Rou-

hani said. Iranian television

quoted Deputy Foreign Minister

Abbas Araghchi as tying the new

deadline d irectly to Macron’s p ro-

posal.

“Our return to the full imple-

mentation of the nuclear accord

is subject to the receipt of $15 bil-

lion,” Araghchi said. “Otherwise,

the process of reducing Iran’s

This week, France proposed a

$15 billion line of credit, and

Macron sent his finance minister

to discuss it with U. S. officials.

On Wednesday, however,

Trump seemed to have changed

his mind about the wisdom of

that approach.

“I very much appreciate Presi-

dent Macron’s involvement but

we’re not dealing through Presi-

dent Macron. We’re dealing with

people directly,” Trump said.

“They said until we do certain

other things, like drop sanctions,

and that’s not happening, that

won’t be happening.”

France, along with the other

signatories who remain in the

2015 nuclear deal — Britain, Ger-

many, Russia, China and the Eu-

ropean Union — has spearheaded

efforts to keep it afloat, even as

the administration has de-

nounced it as inadequate and

called for it to be renegotiated.

Iran has begun to ease away from

could solve it in 24 hours.”

“We’re going to see what hap-

pens. They want to talk. They

want to make a deal,” Trump told

reporters at the White House.

“We’re not looking for regime

change. They have tremendous

potential and I believe they are

going to want to take advantage

of that.”

Rouhani, after first respond-

ing favorably, on Tuesday ruled

out any bilateral discussions with

the United States, saying Iran

would talk to the administration

only as part of multilateral nego-

tiations after all sanctions have

been lifted and the administra-

tion returns to the international

nuclear deal from which Trump

withdrew last year.

“We’ve said it before and we

will say it again: We have no

intention to hold bilateral talks

with the United States. We never

did and never will,” Rouhani said.

He said that Iran will abandon

restrictions on nuclear research

and development, including on

the advancement of centrifuges

used to enrich uranium, as the

next step toward reducing its

commitments under the 2015 nu-

clear deal.

Both sides appeared to be

sending mixed messages, said

Dennis Ross, a Middle East ex-

pert who advised Presidents Ba-

rack Obama and George H.W.

Bush.

“Below Trump, there is one

consistent set of messaging —

we’re going to keep squeezing you

until you realize that you have to

come to the table. There is no give

from us,” he said. But “at Trump’s

level, the messaging is rather

different.”

At the Group of Seven meeting

last month in France, Trump

spoke favorably of a proposal by

French President Emmanuel Ma-

cron to compensate Iran in ex-

change for its full compliance

with the nuclear deal. At a sum-

mit news conference, Trump

seemed “not only to acknowledge

that, but then goes along with the

whole idea of a line of credit...

and the implication we wouldn’t

oppose it,” Ross said.

BY KAREN DEYOUNG,

CAROL MORELLO

AND ERIN CUNNINGHAM

U.S.-Iranian relations lurched
downward again Wednesday as
the Trump administration un-
veiled sweeping new sanctions
designed to tighten its strangle-
hold on Iran’s oil exports, and
Iran announced it would take
further steps away from re-
straints on its nuclear program.
The administration took ac-
tion against a shipping network
it said was directed by Iran’s
Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps-Quds Force and designed
to evade U.S. sanctions imposed
in November on Iranian oil ex-
ports. In starkly worded warn-
ings to international maritime
and insurance interests, the Unit-
ed States declared that it would
also sanction any individual or
entity that did business with
anyone connected to the net-
work.
“Failure to take heed... bears
grave consequences,” a n adminis-
tration official said, speaking on
the condition of anonymity un-
der administration rules. The
State Department also offered a
$15 million reward for informa-
tion that helps disrupt the net-
work.
The new sanctions came just
10 days after both President
Trump and Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani indicated a will-
ingness to meet.
Trump repeated the offer
Wednesday, even as White House
as well as Treasury and State
Department officials were dis-
cussing the new measures. The
two leaders are to attend the
annual United Nations General
Assembly in New York this
month.
“Sure. Anything is possible,”
Trump said of that venue. “We

BY ANNE GEARAN

AND MICHAEL BIRNBAUM

President Trump may soon win
a largely symbolic victory in his
effort to squeeze larger NATO con-
tributions from G ermany, u nder a
compromise plan that would
slightly increase what Germany
pays toward administering the
military alliance while lowering
the U.S. bill, diplomats and other
officials familiar with the propos-
al said Tuesday.
At issue are the relatively small
amounts alliance members con-
tribute toward the administration
of the alliance, which is separate
from d efense spending and a drop
in the bucket of overall alliance
outlays. But as Trump continues
to complain about what he calls
meager funding from Germany,
the largest economy in Europe
and the host country for major
U.S. defense installations, even a
tiny increase i n German p ayments
can be notched as his doing.
The money goes toward paying
for NATO employees, keeping the
lights on in NATO offices around
the world and funding the small
number of military assets under
NATO’s command. The 2019 total
for what is known as NATO’s c om-
mon funding is $2.6 billion. The
collective defense spending of
NATO’s 29 members, by compari-
son, is estimated a t $1.04 trillion.
The White House did not con-
firm details of the p roposal, which
was unveiled formally Tuesday at
a weekly m eeting of NATO ambas-
sadors in Brussels.
“The United States has consis-
tently called for and supported
efforts to enhance burden shar-

ing, which have resulted in over

$100 billion in total new defense

spending since 2016,” a senior ad-

ministration official said, speak-

ing on the condition of anonymity

because he was not authorized to

speak on the record. “ We a lso sup-

port NATO Secretary General

[Jens] Stoltenberg’s proposal to

adjust the way NATO allies’ com-

mon funding contributions are

calculated. We appreciate the

work his office has put into devel-

oping this p lan.”

The German Foreign Ministry

did not immediately respond to a

request for comment.

Under the U.S.-backed propos-

al, American contributions

toward NATO’s common funding

would drop from 22.1 percent of

the total to 15.9 percent, begin-

ning in 2021, officials said.

Germany would increase its

share from 14.8 percent to

15.9 percent, matching the U.S.

share and allowing both nations

to point to a small area of agree-

ment.

For Germany, the tiny increase

in administrative funding for

NATO as a multilateral institution

is likely to be more politically pal-

atable than big increases in over-

all defense spending, said Jeff

Rathke, president of the American

Institute for Contemporary Ger-

man Studies at Johns Hopkins

University.

“It is a natural fit for Germany

to increase its contribution to

NATO common funding as an ex-

pression of Germany’s interna-

tional security objectives and the

priority i t places on sustaining the

NATO alliance,” said Rathke, a

former U.S. d iplomat.

German Chancellor Angela

Merkel has presided over increas-

es in German defense spending

since 2014, despite domestic p olit-

ical opposition to increases that

some of Merkel’s opponents say

should be spent on social services

and other domestic priorities.

German defense s pending i s ex-

pected to reach $54 billion this

year, but the country still l ags well

behind a pledge among NATO na-

tions to spend 2 percent of their

individual gross domestic prod-

ucts on defense.

“This was long discussed and

was a proposal that came from the

German side to get us off the hook

for the funding increase,” said

Karl-Heinz Kamp, president of

the German g overnment’s Federal

Academy for Security Policy. The

idea was to “show we are doing

something in a demonstrative

way that doesn’t cost that much,”

he said, describing it as a “politi-

cal” move.

Germany devoted 1.36 percent

of its annual economic output, or

GDP, toward defense this year, far

short of the 2 percent spending

goal. Merkel said last month that

her country would reach 1.5 per-

cent by 2024, the deadline that

NATO leaders set to get to 2 per-

cent. Germany would need to

spend about $23 billion a year

more o n defense to meet its pledg-

es.

Trump and Merkel held what

both described as a productive

meeting last month at the Group

of Seven summit in France, and

although Trump said they had

discussed defense, he skipped a

chance to take Merkel to task in

front of news cameras.

But as recently as June, Trump

had complained bitterly about

German defense spending and

NATO participation, falsely tell-

ing Fox Business Network that

“we pay for close to 100 percent of

NATO.”

“We pay for close to that be-

cause Germany doesn’t pay what

they’re supposed to pay,” Trump

said, noting that only seven na-

tions in the alliance meet their

2 percent commitment. “I got

them to pay last year $100 billion

more,” T rump said.

“Germany’s t aking t remendous

advantage,” Trump a dded.

Alliance members increased

defense spending in 2018 for the

fourth year in a row, highlighting

a slow turnaround amid White

House c riticism.

The U.S. military is the jugger-

naut of the alliance, contributing

69 percent of overall defense

spending, even though the U.S.

economy forms only about half of

the club’s e conomic might.

Some shifts in NATO common

funding have been discussed for

months, but the proposal sparked

immediate frustration from

France and Britain. Those na-

tions, which may be asked to help

make up the shortfall from the

U.S. reduction, argued that the

change would do little to address

the broader issue of lagging de-

fense spending in Europe, accord-

ing to two diplomats familiar w ith

the conversations who spoke on

the condition of anonymity to dis-

cuss a touchy alliance subject.

NATO uses t he size of countries’

economies to divvy up responsi-

bility for paying into the common

budget. But the United States has

already negotiated a cap on its

contribution, meaning that the

current U.S. share of the bill, about

$576 million, is actually dispro-

portionately low compared to oth-

er countries’. The proposed

change would save U.S. taxpayers

about $163 m illion.

“This is not what burden-shar-

ing means,” s aid one of the diplo-

mats, who said that what Ger-

many needed to do was speed up

its defense spending increases,

which would result in billions of

dollars toward collective defense.

The current proposal, the diplo-

mat said, is “playing with the fig-

ures.”

The discussion is expected to

continue into the fall. If an agree-

ment is reached, it would prob-

ably be announced at a December

summit of NATO leaders in Lon-

don.

A NATO spokesman declined to

comment on the substance of the

discussions, saying that conversa-

tions at the gathering of ambassa-

dors a re classified.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Birnbaum reported from Brussels.

Loveday Morris in Berlin contributed

to this report.

Tr ump may score symbolic win in NATO spending fight

ANDREW HARNIK/ASSOCIATED PRESS

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Trump meet at the Group of Seven summit in France

last month. A proposal would increase Germany’s share of NATO administrative funding, but the two

countries are still at odds over the much larger defense budget.

Proposal would balance

German and U.S. shares

of administrative costs

ASSOCIATED PRESS

beijing — Chinese telecom
equipment maker Huawei ac-
cused U.S. authorities on Wednes-
day of attempting to break into its
information systems and of trying
to coerce its employees to gather
information on the company.
Huawei, which faces mounting
American pressure, including

possible loss of access to U.S.

technology over accusations that

the company is a security risk,

said in a statement that Washing-

ton has used “unscrupulous

means” in recent months to dis-

rupt its business.

U.S. officials have given no evi-

dence to support claims that Hua-

wei might aid Chinese spying,

accusations the company denies.

The United States, Australia, Ja-

pan and some other governments

have imposed restrictions on the

use of Huawei technology.

Huawei Te chnologies is the

No. 2 global smartphone brand

and the biggest maker of network

gear for phone companies.

Export controls announced by

the Trump administration in May

would limit Huawei’s access to

U.S. technology. Implementation

has been postponed to mid-

November.

Washington is lobbying Euro-

pean governments to exclude

Huawei from next-generation

telecom networks. Germany,

France and Ireland say they have

no plans to ban any supplier.

Huawei gave no evidence to

support its accusations. A compa-

ny spokesman said he had no

additional details.

The accusations were included

in a statement about an unrelated

patent dispute in the United

States.

President Trump declined to

respond to the allegations when

asked about them on Wednesday

by a reporter.

He called the issue a national

security matter and said the com-

pany is “a big concern of our

military, of our intelligence agen-

cies.”

The Huawei statement said

U.S. authorities launched cyber-

attacks “to infiltrate Huawei’s in-

tranet and internal information

systems” but gave no indication

what information they targeted

or whether they succeeded.

Huawei also said FBI agents

pressured its employees to collect

information on the company.

The company said U.S. authori-

ties have disrupted Huawei’s busi-

ness by delaying shipments, deny-

ing visas and engaging in unspeci-

fied intimidation.

Huawei is also facing a variety

of charges in the United States —

to which it has pleaded not guilty.

In one case, U.S. prosecutors

asked a judge Wednesday to dis-

qualify a former U.S. deputy attor-

ney general as the electronics gi-

ant’s l ead attorney because he had

access to classified information

from an earlier investigation re-

lated to the company.

China’s government has ac-

cused Washington of improperly

using national security argu-

ments to hurt Chinese commer-

cial competitors.

“This kind of behavior is nei-

ther glorious nor moral,” Foreign

Ministry spokesman Geng Sh-

uang said Wednesday.

U.S. imposes sanctions on Iranian shipping network to choke o≠ oil flow

Huawei accuses U.S. of

cyberattacks, coercion

Tehran dismisses direct

talks with Washington

on nuclear deal

OFFICE OF THE IRANIAN PRESIDENT/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, center, with judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, left, and the speaker of

parliament, Ali Larijani, said Wednesday that Iran was relaxing its adherence to the 2015 nuclear deal.