A2 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, AUGUST 1 , 2019
HAPPENING TODAYFor the latest updates all day, visit
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anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising
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Department issues jobless claims
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7 p.m. | President Trump and Vice
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CORRECTIONSNotes at the end of Meghan
Leahy’s parenting advice column
and an excerpt from a recent
online chat with Leahy in today’s
Local Living section, which was
printed in advance, misstate the
date of Leahy’s next online chat.
She will take questions Aug. 14,
not Aug. 7.
In today’s Local Living section,
two photos with an article about
beating the heat at home are
incorrectly credited because of a
production error. The photo of
the Blossom umbrella was
provided by ShadeCraft, and the
photo of the Chevy Chase porch
designed by Anthony Wilder was
taken by John Cole.
A July 23 A-section article about
a Florida proposal to prohibit
noncitizen voting incorrectly
reported that noncitizens are
permitted to vote in College Park,
Md. While College Park officials
announced in 2017 that the city
council had approved a measure
to permit noncitizens to cast
ballots for local offices, they
subsequently discovered that the
measure needed the support of a
supermajority of council
members, rather than the simple
majority it had obtained.
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BY ANNE GEARAN
AND RUTH EGLASHPresident Trump’s adviser and
son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is visit-
ing Israel and Arab states this
week as part of a push invoking
the threat from Iran as a reason
for Arab governments and other
world powers to back a forthcom-
ing peace proposal.
As a potential fall release of
Trump’s peace plan approaches,
his envoys are arguing that Iran is
a bigger danger to Middle East
stability than the Israeli-Palestin-
ian conflict and that Iran uses the
conflict for its own ends.
“The Iranian regime has ex-
ploited the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict for decades – profiting
from the chaos & violence to ad-
vance its malign activities & influ-
ence in the region,” Trump negoti-
ator Jason D. Greenblatt tweeted
Wednesday. “A successful peace
agreement would be the Iranian
regime’s worst nightmare.”
Kushner arrived in Israel on
Wednesday as a major newspaper
published an unconfirmed out-
line for a potential Camp David
summit with Arab governments
in the coming weeks, ahead of the
rollout of Trump’s plan. A White
House official said “no summit
has currently been planned.”
Kushner was visiting Jordan
and several other countries as a
follow-up to an economic summit
he held in Bahrain in June that
was designed to show the eco-
nomic payoff for Palestinians and
their supporters if the decades-
long conflict with Israel is re-
solved.
Opposition to Iran unites Israel
with Arab states including Saudi
Arabia. Casting a potential peace
package as a way to counter Iran
could help sell it within Israel aswell, where powerful right-wing
political groups oppose conces-
sions to the Palestinians but also
welcome a global hard line against
Iran.
“It is clear that Iran is deeply
invested in seeing this conflict
continue,” Greenblatt and U.S.
State Department special repre-
sentative for Iran Brian Hook
wrote in a Fox News op-ed
Wednesday. “The Iranian regime
provides $100 million annually in
support to Palestinian terrorist
groups... None of these funds [go
to] humanitarian relief.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benja-
min Netanyahu, a close Trump
ally, faces a crucial election in
September. The White House is
expected to try to boost his reelec-
tion prospects with a show of
strong U.S. backing, but it is not
clear whether the Trump adminis-
tration proposals would be re-
leased before the Sept. 17 vote.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth
Ahronoth reported on Wednesday
that Trump would present abroad-brush version of his peace
plan to Arab leaders at the Camp
David presidential retreat in
Maryland ahead of the Israeli elec-
tion. The newspaper reported that
Kushner would extend invitations
for the session on his Arab tour
this week. He is visiting Egypt,
Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and
the United Arab Emirates.
The White House official, who
spoke on the condition of ano-
nymity to describe aspects of
Kushner’s agenda, said such a
summit is not planned but would
not discuss the Yedioth report in
greater detail.
Kushner’s delegation would
“report back” to Trump, Vice Pres-
ident Pence and others “to discuss
the many potential next steps to
expand upon the success of the
Bahrain workshop,” the official
said.
The two-day economic session
Bahrain in June yielded no specif-
ic pledges for Arab investment or
donations for Kushner’s vision for
jobs, businesses and improvedmobility for Palestinians in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, an Israeli govern-
ment official confirmed reports
that the cabinet had approved
building permits for approximate-
ly 700 housing units for Palestin-
ian towns in the sensitive West
Bank region known as “Area C.”
There was widespread specula-
tion that Tuesday’s decision was
intended to smooth the way for
Trump’s long-anticipated Israeli-
Palestinian peace plan, which Is-
raeli media reported Wednesday
would happen as soon as next
month or in early September.
The cabinet decision to allow
Palestinians to build in the area —
where some 450,000 Jewish Is-
raelis live on settlements consid-
ered illegal by much of the world
— was slammed by leaders of the
settler movement, a small part of
Israel’s population that wields im-
mense political power.
Netanyahu toured one of the
largest Israeli settlement blocs in
Area C on Wednesday, promising“no settlement will ever be uproot-
ed.”
There were no details about
where the new Palestinian dwell-
ings would be located, but the
official said they were for new
units. The last time the cabinet
approved such plans was in 2017,
when 300 housing units received
approval.
Area C makes up about 60 per-
cent of the contested territory that
Palestinians want to eventually
become part of a nation-state and
is under full Israeli control based
on agreements reached under the
Oslo accords 25 years ago.
Israel rarely approves Palestin-
ian plans to build in the area. A
report published in February by
Israeli human rights group
B’Tselem, citing data from the
Israeli Civil Administration, not-
ed that from January 2000 to mid-
2016, Palestinians filed some 5,
applications for building permits,
but only 226 were granted.
[email protected]
[email protected]U.S. envoys invoke Iran in push for Israeli-Palestinian peace
MATTY STERN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, left, and presidential adviser Jared Kushner meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu in Jerusalem. A U.S. official says Iran is invested in the perpetuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Trump administration
wants Arab nations to
support forthcoming planBY CAROL MORELLO
AND KAREN DEYOUNGThe Trump administration im-
posed sanctions on Iranian For-
eign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif on Wednesday in a dramatic
step bound to further escalate
tensions with Tehran.
A senior administration official
said Zarif had acted more as a
“propaganda minister” than a
diplomat. “Today, President
Trump decided enough is
enough,” the official said.
The announcement came as
Trump’s national security adviser
said that nuclear-related sanc-
tions on Iran would again be
waived, despite the opposition of
some of the administration’s most
hard-line officials.
“This is a short, 90-day exten-
sion,” John Bolton said in an inter-
view with “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on
Fox Business Network. Bolton, an
Iran hawk, said Tehran would be
“under constant observation” to
ensure that nothing that contrib-
utes to a nuclear weapons capabil-ity in Iran would be permitted.
Bolton and Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo had advocated end-
ing the waiver, which allows Rus-
sia, China and Europe to partici-
pate in Iran’s civil nuclear pro-
gram, as permitted under the 2015
agreement from which the ad-
ministration withdrew last year.
Five current waivers were due to
expire Thursday, and the Treasury
Department expressed concern
about collateral effects of ending
them on other signatories of the
deal.
In a statement about the sanc-
tions on Zarif, Pompeo said the
foreign minister was “complicit”
in Iran’s support of terrorists, tor-
ture and other malign activity
around the world.
Zarif mocked the designation
in a tweet.
“The US’ reason for designat-
ing me is that I am Iran’s ‘primary
spokesperson around the world,’ ”
he tweeted. “Is the truth really
that painful? It has no effect on
me or my family, as I have no
property or interests outside of
Iran. Thank you for considering
me such a huge threat to your
agenda.”
A Treasury Department state-
ment said Zarif was sanctioned
because he “acted or purported to
act for or on behalf of, directly or
indirectly” Iran’s supreme leader,Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was
sanctioned in late June. At that
time, Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin said measures would
also be taken against Zarif, but
they were delayed after State De-
partment officials argued that
they would close the door to diplo-
macy.
Trump has frequently ex-
pressed a desire to talk with Irani-
an leaders, even as his adminis-
tration deepens a “maximum
pressure” campaign that has dev-
astated the Iranian economy.
The administration official
said Trump remains ready to
speak with Iranian leaders — just
not Zarif.
“If we do have an official con-
tact with Iran, we would want to
have contact with someone who is
a significant decision-maker,” the
official said when asked whether
sanctioning Iran’s chief diplomat
would limit U.S. ability to negoti-
ate with Iran, if negotiations ever
take place.
Zarif “would not be the presi-
dent’s selected point of contact,”
said the official, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity under
rules set by the administration.
While Trump has continued to
say he is open to negotiations
without preconditions, both
Pompeo and Bolton have indicat-
ed that the list of conditions islong. Pompeo said in a statement
that the administration “contin-
ues to seek a diplomatic solution,”
but that “the only path forward is
a comprehensive deal that ad-
dresses the full range of [Iranian]
threats.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a Trump
confidant who met with Zarif re-
cently to discuss back-channel
communications, tweeted his
concern: “If you sanction diplo-
mats you’ll have less diplomacy.”
The sanctions freeze all U.S.
assets and prohibit any U.S. per-
son or entity from financial deal-
ings with Zarif, and threatens
sanctions against those in other
countries that deal with him.
The sanctions also prohibit
travel to the United States, which
is already banned for Iranian offi-
cials. Under international agree-
ment, the United States must ad-
mit those traveling to the United
Nations in their official capacity.
Zarif visited the United Nations in
July, although the State Depart-
ment limited him to U.N. head-
quarters and the Iranian diplo-
matic mission in New York near-
by.
Zarif, who speaks fluent Eng-
lish and has a ready smile and
generally calm demeanor, “has
the veneer, the masquerade if you
will, of being the sincere and rea-
sonable interlocutor for the re-gime,” the administration official
said. “Our point today is he is no
such thing.”
While serving as the “interna-
tional face of this regime,” the
official said, Zarif has been “head-
ing propaganda and disinforma-
tion campaigns” while “defending
the regime’s persecution of the
Iranian people... as well as sup-
pression of free speech,” and sup-
port for the imprisonment of
Washington Post correspondent
Jason Rezaian for 18 months,
from 2014 to 2016.
Tensions between Washington
and Iran have been growing since
the Trump administration with-
drew from the 2015 international
nuclear deal last year and began
its “maximum pressure” cam-
paign. Initially, Tehran appeared
to be exercising a policy of “maxi-
mum patience,” hoping it could
outlast Trump’s time in office. But
Iran became more aggressive as
the United States tightened sanc-
tions, breaching some elements of
the nuclear agreement and chal-
lenging oil tankers traversing the
Strait of Hormuz.
Following U.S. withdrawal
from the nuclear deal, Trump re-
imposed sanctions on Iranian oil
exports that had been lifted as
part of the agreement.
[email protected]
[email protected]Sanctions imposed on Iranian foreign minister
U.S. accuses Zarif of
complicity in support
of terror and tortureBY LORI ROZSAwest palm beach, fla. — Flori-
da judges and prosecutors are
working with felons and public
defenders to find ways to register
former inmates to vote, a process
approved by voters last year that
Republican legislators have made
more difficult.
To work around a law passed
this spring that requires individu-
als to pay all fines, fees and
restitution before they can regis-
ter, court officials in cities such as
Miami and Tampa are modifying
sentences and making plans to
allow some debts to be converted
to community service. In smaller
towns, volunteers are holding
fundraisers to pay off penalties
for residents.
Voting-rights activists applaud
these efforts but say they’re wor-
ried that a patchwork of changes
may confound hundreds of thou-
sands of potential voters in the
months leading up to the state’s
March 17 presidential primary.
“There is a lot of confusion,”
said Patricia Brigham, president
of the League of Women Voters of
Florida. “The legislature did notrespect the will of the voters and
did their own interpretation of
Amendment 4.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed
the law in June — a change
immediately affecting between
500,000 and 800,000 people who
together owe more than $1 billion
in charges stemming from their
convictions.
Florida voters overwhelmingly
passed the constitutional amend-
ment, which automatically re-
stored voting rights to most indi-
viduals with felony records upon
completion of their sentences.
The result, covering as many as
1.5 million people, represented
the country’s largest expansion of
voting rights in a half-century.
But the GOP-led legislature
added caveats. Supporters defend
them as a way to ensure that
criminal sentences are fully com-
pleted.
On Monday, Miami-Dade
County officials announced a
plan to modify sentences for fel-
ons who still owe fines or fees so
they can vote. Restitution — mon-
ey that offenders owe victims — is
less common and cannot be
waived under the new statute.Across the state in Tampa,
Hillsborough County State Attor-
ney Andrew H. Warren views his
“rocket docket” strategy as a way
to keep people from being
trapped in the system by sums
that can reach into the thousands
of dollars.
“Florida disproportionately
burdens poor people coming
through the court system,” he
said, noting that expecting them
to pay “excessive fines and fees” is
unrealistic.
Released felons owe Hillsbor-
ough County an estimated
$500 million — and typically
about 3 percent is collected, War-
ren said. Without intervention,
such as converting most felons’
fines and fees into community
service, he fears that thousands of
“returned citizens” will never be
able to vote.
“You end up with a two-tiered
criminal-justice system,” he said
Monday. “We’re trying to avoid
creating two classes of voters:
people who can afford to vote and
people who cannot.”
Of the state’s 20 judicial cir-
cuits, just a few have announced
any plan to help felons deal withoutstanding fines so they can
register.
A Restoration of Voting Rights
Work Group, required in the new
law, has yet to meet, even though
it must be running by Thursday.
Sarah Revell, spokeswoman for
the Florida Department of State,
said the agency “is on track to
fully comply” with the law, which
also mandates a report to the
legislature by Nov. 1.
Neil Volz is the political direc-
tor for the Florida Rights Restora-
tion Coalition, the group that
organized the campaign to pass
Amendment 4. He lives in Lee
County in southwestern Florida,
where no system has yet been set
up to help felons get past the
financial hurdle.
But volunteers there are rais-
ing money to pay off some of
those debts.
“There are folks trying to be
creative and operate under the
law to get returned citizens
plugged in and registered,” Volz
said. “We have returned citizens
across the state working with
local officials to manage this.”
Volz’s organization offers assis-
tance on its website for peoplewho want to apply to have their
sentences modified in Miami-
Dade, Broward and Palm Beach
counties.
Palm Beach County State At-
torney Dave Aronberg said in a
statement Monday that his office
wants to develop a system “that
fulfills the promise of Amend-
ment 4.”
The American Civil Liberties
Union, the Brennan Center for
Justice, the Florida State Confer-
ence of the NAACP and the
League of Women Voters of Flori-
da sued the state soon after De-
Santis signed the law adding
those financial caveats. The
groups want the state to adhere to
the language of the amendment
approved by voters. The amend-
ment exempted only felons con-
victed of murder or felony sex
offenses.
“If you’re in Miami-Dade or
Hillsborough and you’ve got offi-
cials trying to help returned citi-
zens to register, that’s great,” said
Brigham of the League of Women
Voters. “But what if you live in a
part of the state where that isn’t
happening?”
[email protected]Voting-rights advocates help ex-cons clear Fla. law’s hurdles