"Trump’s legacy on foreign policy, and the challenges facing Biden" PBS NewsHour 12/31/2020
Excerpt
SUMMARY: During the early days of the 2016 campaign trail, then-candidate Donald Trump assured supporters he would pursue an "America First" approach to foreign policy. But what legacy will President Trump leave behind, and what are the challenges for President-elect Biden? Judy Woodruff spoke with four foreign policy experts to learn more.
SUMMARY: The New START treaty is the only remaining limit on U.S. and Russian offensive nuclear weapons. It is set to expire next February.
So far, the Trump administration has been unwilling to begin negotiations. Instead, the U.S. says it wants to explore a broader agreement, to include China, but critics fear that strategy, that it might risk the treaty altogether.
SUMMARY: The White House has unveiled part of its Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, a $50 billion economic blueprint designed to double Palestinian GDP and create a million jobs. Jared Kushner likened the proposal to the Marshall Plan, which revitalized Western Europe after World War II, but the response among Palestinians was not enthusiastic. Nick Schifrin talks to Gwyn Lewis and Mattias Schmale of UNRWA.
SUMMARY: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has endured for over half a century, through violent eruptions and pushes for peace. A weak Palestinian government is grappling with economic crisis as Israel retains control of the West Bank. But Palestinians are not optimistic the Trump administration’s new peace plan will yield a solution. Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports and talks to Judy Woodruff.
SUMMARY: The Trump administration designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization Monday, with the goal of rendering the IRGC “radioactive” to other countries and organizations. The unprecedented move represents one more step in the administration's ongoing “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, but what does it mean for future attempts at diplomacy? Nick Schifrin reports.
SUMMARY: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu slammed the United States’ Syria strategy and Middle East peace plan, saying Wednesday that one was underdeveloped and the other might not exist.
“It seems that there is no clear strategy yet” by the U.S. to dial back its military presence in Syria, Cavusoglu said in an interview with PBS NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff.
Cavusoglu said Turkey was getting different signals from President Donald Trump and other U.S. departments, including the military. Trump tweeted last December that the United States was withdrawing all of its troops from Syria, but since then he has gradually dialed back that declaration and committed to keeping a residual force in the country.
Turkey’s foreign minister also said he doubted the existence of a U.S. peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians — an effort that Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner has been leading for the U.S.. “Until today, there is no peace plan,” Cavusoglu said. “We are not sure whether there will be.”
He added that Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem showed the President’s bias towards Israel. Trump’s recent policy change recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria during the Six-Day war in 1967, was another decision that “everybody has been concerned about,” Cavusoglu said.
“Everybody believes the U.S. is no longer a balanced or objective” leader on the world stage, he said.
SUMMARY: U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 meant that Iran didn't receive some of the billions of dollars of economic benefits it was promised when it entered the agreement. Now, France, Germany, and the U.K. have formed a company intended to direct funds and goods to Iran, bypassing U.S. sanctions. Nick Schifrin talks to David O’Sullivan, EU Ambassador to the U.S., about their motivation.
SUMMARY: Secretary of Defense James Mattis held a rare, on-camera press briefing today, fielding questions on Yemen, North Korea, and the trans-Atlantic alliance. In Europe, meanwhile, top leaders voiced renewed concern about the outlook for their relationship with the U.S. Foreign affairs correspondent Nick Schifrin joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the three policy areas, including how Russia fits into them.
