Ukraine's Comedian President Takes Office, Says He's Dissolving Parliament - NPR

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New Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy took his oath of office and delivered an inaugural speech in which he announced the dissolution of parliament in Kiev. Anadolu Agency/Getty Images hide caption

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Ukraine now has a new president, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy was sworn into office on Monday — and the famous comedian immediately said one of his first actions will be to dissolve parliament. Fulfilling a campaign promise, Zelenskiy announced a snap election to choose new lawmakers.

"Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem," Zelenskiy said in his inauguration speech, quoting Ronald Reagan — another actor-turned-president — from his 1981 inaugural address.

As Zelenskiy dismissed the Supreme Rada, he said new national elections will be held in two months — and that politicians should use that time to prove their worth. He called on legislators to adopt anti-corruption laws, including measures that would strip legislators of their immunity from prosecution and increase transparency.

"Glory to Ukraine!" Zelenskiy, 41, said after announcing he will dismiss parliament's current body.

While Zelenskiy quickly got to work, lawmakers were also busy, arranging new coalitions in a bid to block his move under parliamentary rules, according to the Kyiv Post newspaper. For the dissolution to become official, the president must first consult with lawmakers and issue a decree, according to the UNIAN news agency.

Despite those complications, a battle with opposition lawmakers could be the easiest item on the new president's to-do list. In addition to fighting corruption, Zelenskiy has pledged to end the bloody conflict in eastern Ukraine and broker the return of prisoners of war — without ceding any territory to Russian-backed separatists. On Monday, he also said Ukrainians are burdened by a lackluster economy, citing tariffs and low salaries.

Zelenskiy defeated incumbent Petro Poroshenko in a landslide 73% victory last month. It was a stunning result for the political novice, whose previous experience in government is almost entirely fictional: On Ukrainian TV, Zelenskiy is famous for playing a high school history teacher who is elected as Ukraine's president after a video of him ranting against the status quo goes viral.

In his inauguration address, Zelenskiy urged ministers and government officials to resign if they aren't willing to work for change. And he urged cabinet leaders and others not to put his portrait on their office walls.

"I really do not want my pictures in your offices, for the President is not an icon, an idol or a portrait," he said. "Hang your kids' photos instead, and look at them each time you are making a decision."

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Ukraine's new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, paused on the way to his inauguration to take a selfie with his supporters in Kiev. Gleb Garanich/Reuters hide caption

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Zelenskiy arrived at his inauguration Monday after walking through Kiev's Mariinsky Park, where cheering supporters thronged barricades marking his path to the parliament building. Walking with a camera crew and a small security detail, he leaned over the railing at one point to take a selfie with a young fan, using the crowd as a backdrop.

Addressing the people of Ukraine, Zelenskiy finished his inaugural speech by saying, "All my life I tried to do all I could so that Ukrainians laughed. That was my mission. Now I will do all I can so that Ukrainians at least do not cry any more."

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https://www.npr.org/2019/05/20/724961911/ukraines-comedian-president-takes-office-says-he-s-dissolving-parliament

2019-05-20 13:25:00Z
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Ukrainian president disbands parliament minutes after inauguration - New York Post

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian TV star Volodymyr Zelenskiy has sought to capitalize on his huge popularity, dissolving the country’s parliament Monday minutes after he was sworn in as president.

Zelenskiy, who won 73% of the vote last month in his landslide victory, slammed parliament as a hot-bed of self-enrichment, and promised to stop the war in the east against Russian-backed separatists.

The president’s bold move to dissolve the Supreme Rada followed the failure of a majority of lawmakers to use parliamentary ruses to hamper Zelenskiy’s plans.

Zelenskiy’s victory reflected Ukrainians’ exhaustion with widespread corruption and the country’s political elite. Even before he disbanded parliament, which had been one of his campaign promises, the 41-year-old Zelenskiy upended other Ukrainian political traditions on inauguration day.

He ditched the idea of a traditional motorcade to his inauguration, walking to the parliament Kiev through a park packed with people. Flanked by four bodyguards, the beaming president-elect gave high-fives to some spectators, even stopping to take a selfie with one of them.

After he was sworn in but before he moved to dissolve parliament, Zelenskiy asked the Supreme Rada to adopt a bill against illegal enrichment and support his motions to fire the country’s defense minister, the head of the Ukrainian Security Service and the Prosecutor General. All of them are allies of former President Petro Poroshenko, who lost the election to the comedian with no previous political experience but who played the Ukrainian president on a popular TV show for years.

In a feisty speech after his inauguration, Zelenskiy told the Rada that his main goal for the presidency is to bring peace to eastern Ukraine, where government troops have been fighting Russia-backed separatists for five years in a conflict that has left at least 13,000 dead.

“I’m ready to do everything so that our heroes don’t die there,” he said. “It wasn’t us who started that war. But we need to be the one to finish it.”

As ministers and lawmakers listened with dismay, Zelenskiy urged everyone in the cabinet to resign, asking them to “free the spot for people who will think about the future generations, not about the future elections.”

Defense Ministry Stepan Poltorak promptly published his letter of resignation on Facebook.

Zelenskiy is hoping to ride the wave of his electoral success to get his supporters into parliament.

Many lawmakers viewed Zelenskiy’s inauguration with apprehension. Political factions allied with Poroshenko and his party have been maneuvering for weeks, even collapsing the ruling coalition.

Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kiev-based think-tank Penta, said Zelenskiy’s announcement shows “political will for radical change.”

“The legally dubious decision to disband parliament will certainly be contested in court but Zelenskiy has shown that it is going to be him who will lay down the agenda and that he will dominate the political landscape.”

A representative of the Ukrainian Election Commission told the Ukrainian media that if a snap election is called, no court ruling can cancel it.

In a bid to deprive Zelenskiy of the opportunity to call an early election, a faction in the Rada announced its departure from the ruling coalition last week, technically collapsing Poroshenko’s government. The parliament’s rules envisage that it cannot be disbanded within 30 days following the announcement of a collapse of the ruling coalition.

Zelenskiy’s supporters argued, however, that the motion was legally void because the coalition had long ceased to exist and that the Constitution, unlike the Rada regulations, does not contain such a rule.

The new president wrapped up his speech at parliament by referring to his career as a comedian.

“Throughout all of my life, I tried to do everything to make Ukrainians laugh,” he said with a smile. “In the next five years I will do everything, Ukrainians, so that you don’t cry.”

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2019-05-20 12:32:00Z
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Trump issues harsh warning to Iran, tweeting it would meet its "official end" if it wants to fight U.S. - CBS News

Dubai, United Arab Emirates -- President Trump warned Iran early on Monday not to threaten the United States again or it would face its "official end," shortly after a rocket landed near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad overnight.

Mr. Trump's tweet came after he seemingly sought to soften his tone on Iran following days of heightened tension sparked by the sudden deployment by the U.S. of bombers and an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf over still-unspecified threats.

In the time since, officials in the United Arab Emirates allege four oil tankers sustained damage in a sabotage attack. Yemeni rebels allied with Iran launched a drone attack on an oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia. U.S. diplomats relayed a warning that commercial airlines could be misidentified by Iran and attacked, something dismissed by Tehran.

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All the tensions are the culmination of Mr. Trump's decision a year ago to pull the U.S. out of Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. And while both Washington and Tehran say they don't seek war, many worry any miscalculation at this fraught moment could spiral out of control.

Mr. Trump's tweet has already been met with reaction out of Tehran, with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeting that the U.S. president hopes to achieve what "other aggressors" like violent Mongolian ruler Genghis Khan "failed to do."

Goaded by #B_Team, @realdonaldTrump hopes to achieve what Alexander, Genghis & other aggressors failed to do. Iranians have stood tall for millennia while aggressors all gone. #EconomicTerrorism & genocidal taunts won't "end Iran". #NeverThreatenAnIranian. Try respect—it works!

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) May 20, 2019

"Iranians have stood tall for millennia while aggressors all gone. Economic Terrorism & genocidal taunts won't 'end Iran,'" Zarif added. 

Mr. Trump's early Monday tweet was posted just hours after a Katyusha rocket fell in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone near the statue of the Unknown Soldier, less than a mile from the U.S. Embassy, causing no injuries. Iraqi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul told The Associated Press the rocket was believed to have been fired from east Baghdad. The area is home to Iran-backed Shiite militias.

Later, Iraqi forces said they recovered the rocket in front of the Technological university in Baghdad.

The Reuters news agency reported the blast was heard across central Baghdad and pointed out that the embassy and U.S. consulate in the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital of Erbil had already moved out non-emergency staffers "out of apparent concern about perceived threats from Iran."

Mr. Trump tweeted, "If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!" The president didn't elaborate, nor did the White House.

Hours later, two influential Shiite figures in Iraq warned about pulling their country into a war between the United States and Iran, saying it would turn Iraq into a battlefield and inflict much harm.

Iraq's populist Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said in a statement on Monday that any political party that would involve Iraq in a U.S.-Iran war "would be the enemy of the Iraqi people," and Qais al-Khazali, the leader of an Iranian-backed group, said he is opposed to operations that "give pretexts for war."

Mr. Trump campaigned on pulling the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear accord, which saw Iran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Since the U.S. withdrawal, Washington has re-imposed previous sanctions and come up with new ones, as well as warned nations around the world they would be subject to sanctions as well if they import Iranian oil.

Iran just announced it would begin backing away from terms of the deal, setting a 60-day deadline for Europe to come up with new terms or it would begin enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels. Tehran long has insisted it does not seek nuclear weapons, though the West fears its program could enableit to build atomic bombs.

In an interview aired Sunday on the Fox News Channel, Mr. Trump called the nuclear deal a "horror show."

"I just don't want them to have nuclear weapons and they can't be threatening us," Mr. Trump said.

However, the nuclear deal had kept Iran from being able to acquire enough highly enriched uranium for a bomb. U.N. inspectors repeatedly certified that Iran was complying with the accord.

In Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's military said it intercepted two missiles fired by the Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen. The missiles were intercepted over the city of Taif and the Red Sea port city of Jiddah, the Saudi-owned satellite channel Al-Arabiya reported.

The channel cited witnesses for its information. The Saudi government has yet to acknowledge the missile fire, which other Saudi media also reported. Hundreds of rockets, mortars and ballistic missiles have been fired into the kingdom since a Saudi-led coalition declared war on the Houthis in March 2015 to support Yemen's internationally recognized government.

Between the two targeted cities is Mecca, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray toward five times a day. Many religious pilgrims are now in the city amid the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet on Sunday announced it would begin "enhanced security patrols" in international waters with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Already, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge and others are in the Arabian Sea, waters close to the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a third of all oil traded at sea passes.

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2019-05-20 11:05:00Z
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Iraqi Shiite figures warn US-Iran war could 'burn' Iraq - Fox News

Map locates the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq.;

BAGHDAD – Leading Iraqi Shiite figures warned Monday against attempts to pull their country into a war between the U.S. and Iran, saying it would turn Iraq into a battlefield yet again, just as it is on the path to recovery.

The warning came hours after a rocket slammed into Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, landing less than a mile from the sprawling U.S. Embassy. No injuries were reported and no group immediately claimed the Sunday night attack.

Shortly after, President Donald Trump tweeted a warning to Iran not to threaten the United States or it will face its "official end."

Last week, the U.S. ordered the evacuation of nonessential diplomatic staff from Iraq amid unspecified threats from Iran and rising tensions across the region. The White House has also sent warships and bombers to the Persian Gulf to counter the alleged Iranian threats.

On Monday, two influential Shiite clerics and a leading politician — all with close ties to Iran — warned that Iraq could once again get caught in the middle. The country hosts more than 5,000 U.S. troops, and is home to powerful Iranian-backed militias, some of whom want those U.S. forces to leave.

Populist Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said any political party that would drag Iraq in a U.S.-Iran war "would be the enemy of the Iraqi people."

"This war would mark the end of Iraq," the black-turbaned al-Sadr warned. "We need peace and reconstruction."

Qais al-Khazali, the leader the Iranian-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous group, tweeted that he is opposed to operations that "give pretexts for war" and added that they would only "harm Iraq's political, economic and security conditions."

For the Shiite-majority Iraq to be a theater for proxy wars is not new. It lies on the fault line between Shiite Iran and the mostly Sunni Arab world, led by powerhouse Saudi Arabia, and has long been the setting where Saudi-Iran rivalry for regional supremacy played out.

After America's 2003 invasion of Iraq to oust dictator Saddam Hussein, American troops and Iranian-backed militiamen fought pitched battles around the country, and scores of U.S. troops were killed or wounded by sophisticated Iranian-made weapons.

The office of Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of a coalition of Shiite paramilitary forces backed by both Baghdad and Tehran, released a statement calling on Iraqis to work together "to keep Iraq and the region away from war."

"If war breaks out ... it will burn everyone," al-Amiri warned.

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2019-05-20 10:57:12Z
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Comedian Inaugurated as Ukraine's New President Immediately Disbands Parliament - TIME

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2019-05-20 09:03:00Z
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Comedian Inaugurated as Ukraine's New President Immediately Disbands Parliament - TIME

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2019-05-20 08:43:09Z
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Trump says war would lead to 'end' of Iran - USA TODAY

Kim Hjelmgaard USA TODAY

Published 5:06 AM EDT May 20, 2019

President Donald Trump issued a strong warning to Iran early Monday, saying that it would face its "official end" if a war broke out between the two countries. 

"Never again threaten the United States," Trump said in a tweet shortly after a rocket landed near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, overnight.

Trump's comments came after he has seemingly sought to soften his tone on Iran in recent days following heightened tension sparked by a sudden deployment of U.S. bombers and an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf over unspecified threats.

GOP lawmaker on Iran threat: Directive was to 'kill and kidnap American soldiers'

Iraq's military said the Katyusha rocket that landed in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone less than a mile from the U.S. Embassy, causing no injures, was believed to have been fired from east Baghdad. The area is home to Iran-backed Shiite militias.

Congress is expected to get a classified briefing on Iran on Tuesday after Democratic and Republican lawmakers requested more information from the White House about the intelligence that has led to the growing U.S. military footprint in the Gulf. The State Department ordered a partial evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad last week. 

In an interview with Fox News broadcast on Sunday, Trump said he was not seeking a conflict with Iran but he also vowed not to let it develop nuclear weapons. 

"I'm not somebody that wants to go into war, because war hurts economies, war kills people most importantly – by far most importantly," the president said.

Officials in Iran have also downplayed Tehran's appetite for war. 

"There will not be a war since neither we want a war nor does anyone have the illusion they can confront Iran in the region," Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the Middle East country's state news agency Irna over the weekend. 

There has been no official reaction to Trump's Monday tweet. 

Tensions between Iran and the United States have escalated one year after Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and reimposed sanctions that have severely harmed its economy. Tehran has demanded that European signatories to the nuclear accord – France, Germany and the United Kingdom – find a way of keeping the agreement alive or it will again start enriching uranium at levels sufficient to pursuing a nuclear weapons program. 

Trump says he doesn't want war: Is John Bolton driving the U.S. into a conflict?

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2019-05-20 08:37:00Z
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