WASHINGTON: Donald Trump tapped respected Army lieutenant general H.R. McMaster as his national security adviser Monday, hoping to course correct after his first pick resigned and his second turned down the vital post.
Trump announced the counterinsurgency strategist’s appointment at his Florida holiday estate Mar-a-Lago, ending a one-week search to replace Michael Flynn, who lasted less than a month on the job.
Flynn was forced to resign on February 13, after questionable contacts with the Russian government and revelations that he lied about them to the vice president and the FBI.
Trump scrambled to replace Flynn after retired vice admiral Robert Harward turned down the post, amid a wrangling over lower-level NSC appointments and a meandering Trump press conference.
The White House said that Trump “gave full authority for McMaster to hire whatever staff he sees fit.”
The 54-year-old McMaster is know for his criticism of the US military’s handling of Vietnam War and his own service as a commander in northern Iraq in 2005.
A 1997 book he authored is pointedly titled “Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies That Led to Vietnam.”
His experience in Iraq’s Tal Afar is likely to come in useful as US and allied forces attempt to retake nearby Mosul from the Daesh group.
McMaster, still dressed in uniform, appeared with Trump on a sofa in the glitzy living room of Mar-a-Lago as music played overhead.
Trump described McMaster as “man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience.”
“He is highly respected by everyone in the military and we’re very honored to have him.”
McMaster is another name on the long list of Trump advisers who have been plucked from the military.
Among others, Trump has named retired officers as his defense secretary and homeland security secretary.
McMaster was most recently the deputy commanding general of the Futures Center at US Army Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Eustis.
Trump said McMaster would work in a “very, very special” collaboration with Keith Kellogg, a retired three-star general who had served as acting national security adviser since Flynn resigned a week ago.
Kellogg will act as National Security Council chief of staff.
The post of national security adviser is a crucial, if discreet, engine for White House power and the smooth functioning of government.
Henry Kissinger and Colin Powell are among those who previously held the post.
The national security adviser manages hundreds of staff members, arbitrates between sometimes feuding government departments, balances foreign policy and military policy and ensures the president’s national security agenda gets implemented.
Current and former staffers fear that under Trump the council is currently being bypassed as political aides like strategist Steve Bannon seize the agenda.
They point to an ill-conceived ban on travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations that further complicated counterterrorism partnerships in the Middle East and sullied America’s image abroad, but was ultimately struck down by US courts anyway.
If policy is “being done over dinner with the president, or in Steve Bannon’s office or haphazardly via e-mail or phone calls” said Loren DeJonge Schulman — a veteran of Barack Obama’s NSC — then “they are shooting themselves in the foot because you can’t implement foreign policy from the White House.”
“This is something that President Obama learned, this is something that every administration goes through,” she told AFP.
“Being on Fox News and announcing a policy doesn’t mean that policy is going to be executed.”
Current NSC spokesman Michael Anton said that although the full National Security Council — chaired by Trump — had not met since he became president, the deputies and principals committee had.
Peter Feaver, a veteran of George W. Bush’s national security council, said that under current circumstances the administration could struggle to handle crises that have both diplomatic and military components.
“Some kind of crisis will be more challenging for this team until they fix there process,” he said.
The more difficult potential problems “that would stress them would be (those where) you have to integration across cabinet, departments and agencies,” Feaver added.
Trump names H.R. McMaster as national security adviser
Trump names H.R. McMaster as national security adviser
Iraq, US sign deal on projects including power plants
- Another MOU between Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity and US company UGT Renewables will establish solar energy project
DUBAI: Iraq and the United States signed on Wednesday a memorandum of understanding for projects in the Gulf country, including 24,000 megawatts of power plants, the Iraqi prime minister’s media office said.
Another MOU has been inked between Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity and US company UGT Renewables to establish an integrated solar energy project with a capacity of 3,000 MW, the media office said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump’s administration last month rescinded a sanctions waiver that since 2018 has allowed Iraq to pay Iran for electricity as Washington presses on with its “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.
Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia, uses Iranian power imports to generate electricity and has been under pressure from the US to reduce its reliance on power and gas imports from Iran.
$170 million raised in Pakistan’s largest-ever IPO for Lucky Islamic Money Market Fund
- Lucky Investments says investors demonstrated “overwhelming confidence” in its first Shariah-compliant offering
- State Bank of Pakistan has set the target to increase the share of Islamic banking system to 35 percent by 2025
ISLAMABAD: Lucky Investments Limited said on Wednesday it had successfully raised Rs50 billion ($170 million) during the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of its debut fund, the Lucky Islamic Money Market Fund, the largest ever mutual fund launch in Pakistan.
The Fund had declared the launch of its IPO for April 9, inviting all interested investors to become part of a historic interest-free, Shariah-compliant Pakistan initiative, as per a notice issued by the company.
“This landmark achievement marks an extraordinary milestone in Pakistan’s financial sector, where investors nationwide demonstrated overwhelming confidence in the company’s first Shariah-compliant offering,” Lucky Investments said in a statement.
“The record-breaking subscription underscores robust demand for Islamic financial products and firmly positions Lucky Investments’ place as a promising new player in Pakistan’s Asset Management Industry.”
Lucky Investments, a subsidiary of Pakistan’s Lucky Group, focuses on investment and portfolio management across sectors like energy, real estate and manufacturing. Originally known as Interloop Asset Management Limited, the company was acquired by Yunus Brothers Group in December 2024 and rebranded as Lucky Investments Limited.
The company listed Lucky Islamic Money Market Fund as the first in a planned series of Shariah-compliant mutual funds set to be introduced by the company.
“We are profoundly grateful for the extraordinary trust placed in us by investors across Pakistan,” Lucky Investments Chief Executive Officer Mohammad Shoaib was quoted as saying in the statement.
“Breaking the national record with a Rs50 billion subscription in a single day is not just a milestone for Lucky Investments, but a testament to the growing strength of Islamic finance in our market.”
Shariah-compliant investments are gaining traction in Pakistan as investors seek ethical, faith-based financial solutions. Supported by a growing Islamic finance sector and regulatory backing from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and the State Bank, the market continues to expand through mutual funds, sukuk, and Islamic banking products.
In 2024, Islamic banking in Pakistan held a significant market share, with assets and deposits accounting for approximately 19 percent and 24 percent of the overall banking industry, respectively, by the end of September.
The State Bank has set the target to increase the share of the Islamic banking system to 35 percent by 2025.
Sudan FM expresses disapproval at exclusion from UK conference for resolving country’s civil war
- Rapid Support Forces, who are locked in a deadly struggle with the Sudanese Armed Forces, have also been excluded from the conference
- UK, along with conference co-hosts Germany and France, is bringing together foreign ministers from nearly 20 countries
LONDON: Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Youssef has expressed his disapproval, via a letter to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, at his exclusion from a UK-hosted conference aimed at resolving the African country’s prolonged civil war.
The Rapid Support Forces, who are locked in a deadly struggle with the Sudanese Armed Forces, have also been excluded from the conference.
Instead, the UK, along with conference co-hosts Germany and France, is bringing together foreign ministers from nearly 20 countries, and organizations, in an attempt to establish a group that can drive the warring factions in Sudan closer towards peace.
The conference at Lancaster House in London on April 15 comes on the second anniversary of the start of a civil war that has led to the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, but has been persistently left at the bottom of the global list of diplomatic priorities. Half of Sudan’s population are judged to be desperately short of food, with 11 million people internally displaced.
The initiative holds risks for Lammy, since it may require him to place pressure on some of the UK’s Middle Eastern allies to make good on their promises to no longer arm the warring parties.
A harsh spotlight is also very likely to fall in London on the impact of USAID cuts on the provision of humanitarian aid in Sudan as well as the withdrawal of funding by the US from academic groups that have been monitoring war crimes and the build-up of famine.
NGOs such as Human Rights Watch are also urging the ministerial conference to emphasize the importance of civilian protection, independent of a ceasefire.
At an event previewing the conference, Kate Ferguson, the co-director of the NGO Protection Approaches, said: “The conference comes at a critical moment for civilians in Sudan as areas of control under various armed forces rapidly evolve and civilians face an increasing spectrum of varied attack.”
She added: “A new vehicle is needed to take forward civilian protection. This is a moment here to create something new that is desperately needed — whether that is a coalition of conscience or a contact group.”
Ferguson added that “citizens were facing an unimaginable triple threat of armed conflict, identity-based atrocity crimes and humanitarian catastrophe.”
Pakistanis divided as Afghan migrants face expulsion under new policy
- Pakistan has asked all “illegal foreigners” and Afghan Citizen Card holders to leave or face deportation from April 1
- Move is part of larger deportation drive that began in November 2023 and has seen over 900,000 Afghans expelled
ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan intensifies its campaign to expel thousands of Afghan migrants, opinions in Islamabad remain divided, according to interviews with residents.
Earlier this year, Pakistan’s interior ministry asked all “illegal foreigners” and holders of Afghan Citizen Cards — a document launched in 2017 to grant temporary legal status to Afghan refugees — to leave the country before Mar. 31, warning that they would otherwise be deported from April 1. The move is part of a larger repatriation drive of foreign citizens that began in November 2023, with over 900,000 Afghans expelled from Pakistan since.
While 19-year-old student Rubab Iffat called the deportations “not right,” others like teacher Pervaiz Akhtar supported the government’s decision, saying Afghans were against Pakistan and were behind terror attacks in the country. The government in Kabul denies Afghanistan is to blame for Pakistan’s security problems.
“Even on social media, they [Afghans] are against Pakistan ... They make their living here, but they are against us,” Akhtar said.
“If you look overall, even locally, if you ask someone what Afghans say about us, they are against our country. Terrorism is also being carried out from there [Afghanistan] so it is justified that they leave. And they should go by all means, their country is Afghanistan.”
But Iffat said the government was not “doing the right thing” by expelling Afghans:
“Because they have been living here [Pakistan] for a long time and their home is here now, their children are studying here, so this is their country too. They should be given the same rights as us.”
Meanwhile, Afghanistan-bound trucks have been piling up outside Pakistan migrant camps as pressure to leave mounts.
In a migrant camp in the southwestern border town of Chaman, Afghan migrant Ismail prepared to return to his home country, leaving behind an “unfinished” life after a decade in Pakistan.
“I had a stable job, I had found stability,” he said, standing in front of rows of loaded trucks bound for Afghanistan. “Then the government told us we had to leave.”
Ghulam Hazrat said he had to leave behind his house and business and in the days leading up to leaving Karachi where he has lived for years, he had faced harassment from police.
“We were harassed every day. They didn’t even spare us on the streets and threw us straight into jail,” Hazrat added.
“Because of all this, we became very desperate and decided to leave Karachi [for Afghanistan].”
King Salman receives message from Liberian President Joseph Boakai
- The spoken communication addressed the relationship between their countries and ways in which cooperation might be enhanced
RIYADH: King Salman of Saudi Arabia received a message from Liberian President Joseph Boakai on Wednesday. The spoken communication focused on relations between their countries and ways in which cooperation might be strengthened, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Liberia’s foreign minister, Sara Beysolow Nyant, delivered the message for the king to the Saudi deputy foreign minister, Waleed Al-Khuraiji, in Riyadh. During their meeting they discussed regional and international issues of common interest, the SPA added.
