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Trump Considers Ex-Intelligence Chief Richard Grenell for Iran Envoy, Sources Say
Richard Grenell, a top adviser to Donald Trump and former acting US director of national intelligence, speaks to the attendees of a Muslims and Bangladeshi Americans for Trump outreach event in Hamtramck, Michigan, US, Nov. 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
US President-elect Donald Trump is now considering tapping Richard Grenell, his former intelligence chief, to be a special envoy for Iran, according to two people familiar with the transition plans.
“He’s definitely in the running,” said a person familiar with transition deliberations, who asked not to be identified.
No final decisions on either personnel or strategy on Iran have been made official yet by Trump, including whether to slap fresh sanctions on the country, pursue diplomacy, or both in order to halt their nuclear program.
Trump‘s plans for the role have not previously been reported. Neither Trump‘s team nor Grenell responded to requests for comment.
“Richard Grenell is a fabulous person, A STAR. He will be someplace, high up!” Trump said in a post on his social media platform late Wednesday following the Reuters report.
Grenell, in a separate post on X, called the report “wrong” but gave no other details.
Still, Trump‘s consideration of a key ally for such a posting sends a signal to the region that the new US president may be open to talks with a country he has previously threatened and whose elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have sought to assassinate him, according to the US government. Iran has denied the claim.
In the role, Grenell is expected to be tasked with speaking with countries in and beyond the region about the Iran issue as well as taking Tehran’s temperature on possible negotiations, said one of the people.
Iran‘s President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is viewed as relatively moderate, said following Trump‘s election that Tehran must “deal with the US” and “manage” relations with its arch-foe.
Iran has suffered a series of strategic setbacks, including Israel’s assault on Tehran’s terrorist proxies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon and the ouster of Iranian ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
But tensions remain high more than a year after Hamas attacked southern Israel, launching the Gaza war. Meanwhile, other Iranian proxies have attacked US, Israeli, and other Western targets, and Tehran has accelerated its nuclear program while limiting the UN nuclear watchdog’s ability to monitor it.
It’s not the first job Trump has considered for Grenell, who served as Trump‘s ambassador to Germany, a special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations, and as acting director of national intelligence during Trump‘s 2017-2021 term.
After campaigning for Trump in the lead up to the Nov. 5 election, he was a top contender to be secretary of state and for special envoy for the Ukraine war. Those jobs went to US Senator Marco Rubio and retired lieutenant general Keith Kellogg, respectively. Trump takes office next month.
During his first term in office, in 2020, Trump ordered a US air strike that killed Iran‘s top military commander, Qassem Soleimani.
Trump in 2018 also reneged on a nuclear deal struck by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 and re-imposed U. economic sanctions on Iran that had been relaxed. The deal had limited Iran‘s ability to enrich uranium, a process that can yield fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Iran now is “dramatically” accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent level that is weapons grade, the UN nuclear watchdog chief told Reuters last week. Iran says its nuclear program only serves peaceful purposes.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.