Iran rejected a European Union offer to arrange direct nuclear talks with the U.S., senior diplomats say, risking fresh tension between Tehran and Western capitals.
Two senior Western diplomats said Iran has ruled out attending a meeting in Europe for now, saying it wanted a guarantee first that the U.S. would lift some sanctions after the meeting.
The U.S. had said it would attend the talks, which the EU had hoped to host in the coming days. However, Washington had refused to provide sanctions relief before face-to-face negotiations with Iran had taken place.
Diplomats said Iran’s rejection didn’t kill off all hopes of direct negotiations in coming months and that Tehran’s move might be an attempt to gain leverage in future talks. Those talks could yet start before the Iranian new year in late March.
Still, Iran’s move is likely to exacerbate tensions in the coming days.
A State Department spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.
At stake are efforts by the EU to revive the 2015 nuclear deal from which the Trump administration withdrew and whose limits Iran has subsequently breached. Both the Biden administration and Iran say they want to restore the accord, but the two sides have been stymied by a debate on which should move first.
As that dispute has festered, France, the U.K. and Germany are working on a resolution they plan to present to the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency next week that would censure Iran for its recent steps to expand its nuclear activities and its failure to cooperate with the agency’s probe into its nuclear work.
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Iran has warned if the censure move goes ahead it might end an agreement it struck earlier this month with the IAEA that would allow most international inspections to continue. Iran had previously said it would significantly curtail inspectors’ access to its nuclear activities, but it scaled back that move after IAEA Director General
Rafael Grossi
visited Tehran.
If Iran follows through on that threat, it would greatly reduce international oversight of Iran’s nuclear work, a situation that Mr. Grossi has said would gut the agency’s ability to keep Iran’s nuclear program in check.
The Biden administration has said it wants to return to the nuclear deal but won’t suspend its sanctions on Iran until Tehran reverses the multiple steps it has taken to breach the 2015 nuclear deal.
European diplomats had warned that if Iran stayed away from the talks, which the EU hoped to arrange for this coming week, it could leave Tehran more isolated diplomatically. One senior European diplomat said that Iran was however fearful of going home empty-handed from a meeting with the U.S., which could have sparked a major backlash in Iran.
Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com and Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com
In mid-March, Sadeka Bibi set off with a small bundle of her belongings for an unmarked spot on the side of a road in southeast Bangladesh, filled at once with hope and fear.
A truck would meet her there, drive her to a place near the shore about an hour south, and she’d get on a boat that would ferry her illegally to Malaysia, where a man she had never met was waiting to marry her.
She knew it was dangerous. The boat could capsize. She could be beaten, starved or extorted by human traffickers. She could die. Or, like the 10 previous attempts she had made to get across, her escape could be thwarted by rough seas or border authorities. Still, to Sadeka, a 21-year-old Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, making the journey seemed like the only way for a fresh start.
It was either that or languish behind barbed wire, potentially for the rest of her life, in the world’s largest refugee camp, her immediate family scattered across three countries.
Sadeka’s story is the Rohingya’s in microcosm. Driven to the brink of destruction by rampaging soldiers, human traffickers and hostile governments, a community that was once believed to have numbered well over a million in Myanmar has been sundered, not by a single action, but by a series of blows that have left a people with no place to call home.
Several alleged members of the far-right Proud Boys were arrested Thursday on conspiracy and other charges for their alleged involvement in the U.S. Capitol riot, as prosecutors continue to home in on far-right groups and examine what planning might have gone into the attack.
Kansas resident William Chrestman and four others were arrested in Missouri and Arizona, authorities said, describing in two complaints allegations that the five people coordinated their efforts to advance together onto the Capitol grounds, dressed in tactical gear bearing strips of orange tape.
According to several of Mr. Chrestman’s friends and former classmates, he grew up in California, developing more radical views in recent years. They said that before his Facebook page was deleted he posted conspiracy theories there about vaccines and QAnon, and engaged with people in heated online debates.
Affidavits for the arrest of the five people said they marched as a group with other known members of the Proud Boys, which describes itself as an organization for “Western chauvinists.” Several of those members have been previously arrested on similar charges, and, according to the affidavits, worked to prevent law enforcement from securing the area.
Since the riot on Jan. 6, more than 200 participants have been arrested on charges ranging from unlawful entry of a restricted building to assaulting federal officers. Prosecutors have also focused more specifically on alleged members of the Proud Boys and several militia groups including the Oath Keepers, building cases that accuse small subsets of the larger group of rioters of coordinating their actions and planning the assault in advance.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan—After decades of work, polio had been wiped out almost everywhere in the world. All that was left were pockets in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Medical experts hoped 2020 would be the last year that the main form of the virus, which can permanently paralyze or cause death, posed a threat.
The coronavirus pandemic put a halt to that progress.
In March, house-to-house vaccination teams working across Pakistan were forced to stop their work because of Covid-19. As a result, polio resurged, including a mutated form of the virus. It has now been detected in samples taken from sewers in 74% of Pakistan in late 2020, up from just 13% in early 2018.
“Now the virus isn’t just in select pockets. The risk is everywhere” in the country, said Rana Safdar, the doctor in charge of Pakistan’s polio campaign.
The decadeslong battle to eradicate polio around the world is one of the most ambitious and expensive public-health campaigns in history. The mass-vaccination drive and its progress toward arresting a malady that has disabled or killed millions of people point to the success possible in the efforts to inoculate people around the world against Covid-19.
The rally in Washington’s Ellipse that preceded the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was arranged and funded by a small group including a top Trump campaign fundraiser and donor facilitated by far-right show host
Alex Jones.
Mr. Jones personally pledged more than $50,000 in seed money for a planned Jan. 6 event in exchange for a guaranteed “top speaking slot of his choice,” according to a funding document outlining a deal between his company and an early organizer for the event.
Mr. Jones also helped arrange for
Julie Jenkins Fancelli,
a prominent donor to the Trump campaign and heiress to the Publix Super Markets Inc. chain, to commit about $300,000 through a top fundraising official for former President
Donald Trump’s
2020 campaign, according to organizers. Her money paid for the lion’s share of the roughly $500,000 rally at the Ellipse where Mr. Trump spoke.
Another far-right activist and leader of the “Stop the Steal” movement,
Ali Alexander,
helped coordinate planning with
Caroline Wren,
a fundraising official who was paid by the Trump campaign for much of 2020 and who was tapped by Ms. Fancelli to organize and fund an event on her behalf, organizers said. On social media, Mr. Alexander had targeted Jan. 6 as a key date for supporters to gather in Washington to contest the 2020-election certification results. The week of the rally, he tweeted a flyer for the event saying: “DC becomes FORT TRUMP starting tomorrow on my orders!”
Alex Jones addressed protesters on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.
Photo:
Jon Cherry/Getty Images
The Ellipse rally, at which President Trump urged supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol, was lawful and nonviolent. But it served as a jumping-off point for many supporters to head to the Capitol. Mr. Trump has been impeached by the Democrat-led House of Representatives, accused of inciting a mob to storm the Capitol with remarks urging supporters to “fight like hell.”
Few details about the funding and organization of the Ellipse event have previously been revealed. Mr. Jones claimed in a video that he paid for a portion of the event but didn’t offer details.
Messrs. Jones and Alexander had been active in the weeks before the event, calling on supporters to oppose the election results and go to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Mr. Alexander, for instance, tweeted on Dec. 30 about the scheduled Jan. 6 count for lawmakers to certify the Electoral College vote at the Capitol, writing: “If they do this, everyone can guess what me and 500,000 others will do to that building.”
Julie Jenkins Fancelli, shown in 2019, donated more than $980,000 in the 2020 election cycle to a joint account for the Trump campaign and Republican Party, records show.
Photo:
Barry Friedman/LKLND NOW
A hodgepodge of different pro-Trump groups were planning various events on Jan. 6. Several of them, led by the pro-Trump Women for America First, helped coordinate the Ellipse event; another group splintered off to lead a rally the night before, at which Mr. Jones ended up speaking, and the group organized by Mr. Alexander planned a protest outside the Capitol building.
Mr. Jones, who has publicized discredited conspiracy theories, has hosted leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, two extremist groups prominent at the riot, on his popular radio and internet video shows.
Mr. Jones declined to respond to requests for comment. In a statement, Mr. Alexander said Stop the Steal’s motto is “peaceful but rowdy,” that the violence at the Capitol wasn’t planned by his group and said none of his rhetoric incited violence. Messrs. Alexander and Jones said on Mr. Jones’s show that they tried to prevent protesters from entering the Capitol and sought to de-escalate the riot. Neither has been accused of wrongdoing.
A spokesman for the Trump campaign said it had no role in financing or organizing the Ellipse event and didn’t direct former staffers to do so. A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump declined to comment. At least five former Trump campaign staffers besides Ms. Wren assisted on the logistics of the Jan. 6 rally, according to the permit and Federal Election Commission records.
Ali Alexander, activist and leader of the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, helped coordinate planning of the Ellipse rally.
Photo:
carlos barria/Reuters
Starting in mid-December, Mr. Alexander began publicizing plans “to march and peacefully occupy DC with #StopTheSteal,” according to organizers and a message saved by
Devin Burghart,
who directs an organization that tracks extremist groups. Mr. Trump on Dec. 19 urged supporters through Twitter to come for Jan. 6 protests that he said would be “wild.”
Mr. Alexander created a website called WildProtest.com, writing: “We the People must take to the US Capitol lawn and steps and tell Congress #DoNotCertify on #JAN6!” He planned and publicized a rally to take place on the Capitol grounds that day. The website was taken offline after the riot.
A representative of Women for America First had applied for a permit to host a separate rally just after the inauguration in January, but the group rescheduled for Jan. 6 after the Dec. 19 Trump tweet, organizers said.
Women for America First’s permit for the Ellipse rally listed several names and positions, including Ms. Wren as “VIP coordinator.” In the 2020 election cycle, the Trump campaign and a joint GOP committee paid Ms. Wren and her fundraising consulting firm $730,000, according to FEC records.
The Ellipse rally, during which Donald Trump spoke, was lawful and nonviolent, but it served as a jumping-off point for his supporters to head to the Capitol.
Photo:
Shawn Thew/Bloomberg News
Ms. Wren had been tapped to handle funding by Ms. Fancelli, the major donor to the Ellipse event, according to organizers. Ms. Fancelli, who didn’t respond to several requests for comment, donated more than $980,000 in the 2020 election cycle to a joint account for the Trump campaign and Republican Party, records show.
Ms. Fancelli, daughter of the Publix Super Markets founder, contacted Mr. Jones and offered to contribute to a Jan. 6 event, organizers said. Mr. Jones connected her to an organizer through Ms. Wren, who handled the funding as she helped coordinate the logistics of a rally with Women for America First. A Publix spokeswoman said Ms. Fancelli isn’t involved in the company’s business operations and doesn’t “represent the company in any way.”
The Ellipse setup cost roughly $500,000, with a concert stage, a $100,000 grass covering and thousands of feet of security structures.
Ms. Wren played a central role in bringing together the disparate group of activists planning events on Jan. 6. She suggested to Mr. Alexander that he reschedule his Capitol rally to 1 p.m. and put into place a list of about 30 potential speakers, including Messrs. Alexander and Jones, who had been listed on websites as associated with the day’s events, according to organizers.
In a statement, Ms. Wren said her role for the event “was to assist many others in providing and arranging for a professionally produced event at the Ellipse.”
The involvement of Messrs. Jones and Alexander triggered debate among the organizers.
Amy Kremer,
chairwoman of Women for America First, said in a statement: “We were concerned because there was an aggressive push to have fringe participation in our event.”
In text messages Ms. Wren sent to another organizer and reviewed by the Journal, Ms. Wren defended Mr. Jones. “I promise he’s actually WAY nicer than he comes off…I’m hoping you’ll [sic] can become besties,” Ms. Wren wrote.
Ms. Wren’s spokesman said the message is “evidence of Ms. Wren assisting in executing an event while also having to diplomatically get people with different agendas on the same page.”
None of the groups obtained a march permit, though Women for America First called the event “March to Save America Rally” and Mr. Alexander’s Stop the Steal promoted a march to the Capitol online.
The Women for America First Ellipse permit said the group wouldn’t conduct a march but noted: “Some participants may leave to attend rallies at the United States Capitol to hear the results of Congressional certification of the Electoral College count.”
Kylie Kremer,
co-founder of Women for America First, said the group didn’t file for a march permit because it went against Covid-19 guidelines and a march wasn’t in its plans.
When Mr. Trump met on Jan. 4 with former campaign adviser
Katrina Pierson,
who had begun working with rally organizers, he said he wanted to be joined primarily by lawmakers assisting his efforts to block electoral votes from being counted and members of his own family, aides said.
Messrs. Alexander and Jones spoke instead at a Jan. 5 rally organized by the Eighty Percent Coalition, a group founded by
Cindy Chafian,
an early organizer of the Jan. 6 event who struck the initial deal with Mr. Jones.
She said she was willing to work with Mr. Jones because “it’s unreasonable to expect to agree with everything a group or person does.”
Mr. Jones’s seed money in the end was used for that Jan. 5 rally, for which he ultimately paid about $96,000, an organizer said. In his speech at that event, Mr. Jones said: “I don’t know how all this is going to end but if they want to fight, they better believe they’ve got one.”
The next day, Ms. Wren personally escorted Mr. Jones and Mr. Alexander off the Ellipse grounds before the two men marched to the U.S. Capitol, according to organizers. She had provided them and many others VIP passes that morning for Mr. Trump’s speech.
Messrs. Alexander and Jones were at the Capitol grounds together on Jan. 6, and Mr. Jones supported protesters with a bullhorn, video footage shows. He urged them to be peaceful and proceed to the area on the Capitol grounds where Mr. Alexander had secured a demonstration permit, according to Mr. Alexander and the footage.
Write to Shalini Ramachandran at shalini.ramachandran@wsj.com, Alexandra Berzon at alexandra.berzon@wsj.com and Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com
The Biden administration has imposed a temporary freeze on U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as it reviews billions of dollars in weapons transactions approved by former President
Donald Trump,
according to U.S. officials.
The review, the officials said, includes the sale of precision-guided munitions to Riyadh as well as top-line F-35 fighters to Abu Dhabi, a deal that Washington approved as part of the Abraham Accords, in which the Emirates established diplomatic relations with Israel.
U.S. officials said it isn’t unusual for a new administration to review arms sales approved by a predecessor, and that despite the pause, many of the transactions are likely to ultimately go forward.
But in line with campaign pledges made by President
Biden,
Washington is seeking to ensure that American weapons aren’t used to further the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, where its conflict with the Iranian-aligned Houthis has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths and widespread hunger.
Mr. Biden “has made clear that we will end our support for the military campaign led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and I think we will work on that in very short order,” Secretary of State
Antony Blinken
said at his confirmation hearing last week. Washington will continue to help defend the Saudis against Houthi attacks, Mr. Blinken said.
Officials at the Saudi and Emirati embassies in Washington didn’t immediately comment on the developments.
Congress and the U.S. defense industry were informed of the review in recent days, one U.S. official said. It is unclear how long the review will last.
Officials couldn’t offer a precise dollar figure for the weapons sales under review. But the review, they said, includes a $23 billion deal between Washington and the Emirates for the F-35 jet fighters, Reaper drones and various munitions that was finalized on Mr. Trump’s last full day in office, according to a statement on the website of the UAE’s Washington embassy.
It also includes billions in contracts with Riyadh, including a deal for $290 million in precision-guided munitions that the U.S. government approved in late December.
“The (State) Department is temporarily pausing the implementation of some pending U.S. defense transfers and sales under Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales to allow incoming leadership an opportunity to review,” a department spokesman said.
Calling it “a routine administrative action,” the spokesman said the review “demonstrates the administration’s commitment to transparency and good governance, as well as ensuring U.S. arms sales meet our strategic objectives of building stronger, interoperable, and more capable security partners.”
Write to Warren P. Strobel at Warren.Strobel@wsj.com
YANBU, Saudi Arabia—The U.S. military has been using an array of ports and air bases in Saudi Arabia’s western desert, developing basing options to use in the event of a conflict with Iran, according to the top American military commander in the region.
The use of the bases, which hasn’t been previously reported, has occurred over the past year or more as top military commanders look for alternatives to safely move troops and materiel in and out of the region and to reduce their exposure to Iran’s ballistic missiles.
Several thousand American troops, jet fighters and other weaponry have been stationed at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base since 2019 to respond to regional threats from Iran.
The troops were sent by former President Donald Trump, who cultivated close ties with Saudi leaders even after the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey in 2018.
The Biden administration has signaled that it plans to take a tougher approach to Saudi Arabia, particularly on human rights issues. However, continuing potential dangers posed by Iran have remained a leading consideration, U.S. officials indicated.
MOSCOW—The protests that swept Russia this weekend in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny show the challenge President Vladimir Putin faces in managing social discontent ahead of parliamentary elections this year.
Saturday’s unsanctioned rallies were among the largest in recent years and saw tens of thousands of people brave freezing temperatures, the threat of the pandemic and the possibility of incarceration. Security forces detained more than 3,500 people—the largest number in at least nine years, according to independent monitors.
The protests have left the Kremlin facing a dilemma: Either bow to the pressure from the street and undermine its own authority by releasing Mr. Navalny or risk inciting more backlash and unifying the opposition by keeping him behind bars.
“There are few good options for Putin,” said Abbas Gallyamov, a Moscow-based political consultant and former speechwriter for Mr. Putin. “It seems like Navalny is attacking and the Kremlin is defending.”
Mr. Putin’s approval ratings have swooned in recent years amid a sluggish economy and protest activity. Observers say the Navalny demonstrations, if sustained, could pose a threat to Mr. Putin’s dominance despite constitutional changes approved last year that could allow him to stay in power until 2036.
