Italy's populist parties to name future premier pick US to impose 'strongest sanctions in history' on Iran

Italy's populist parties to name future premier pick

AFP/File / Tiziana FABI Anti-establishment M5S leader Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, who heads the far-right League, will meet the president on Monday evening

Italy's anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and the far-right League party prepared Monday to present their pick for future premier of the country's nascent populist government after months of deadlock.
The leaders of the two parties were due to formally present their choice to President Sergio Mattarella late Monday afternoon.

After a week of haggling, M5S head Luigi Di Maio and League leader Matteo Salvini on Friday closed a coalition deal and announced a joint programme, which turns its back on austerity measures.
Both men dreamt of running the first anti-establishment government within an EU-founding nation, but a clash of egos and lack of majority in parliament forced them to opt for a third candidate.
Media reports say the pair will, however, lay claim to top ministerial posts -- interior minister for the nationalist Salvini and minister of economic development for Di Maio.
"We have agreed on the leader and ministers of government and we hope that no one will veto a choice that represents the will of the majority of Italians," Salvini said Sunday.
Rumours are also swirling around the nomination for premier with the media betting on a handful of candidates.
Giuseppe Conte, 54, a lawyer who teaches law in Florence and Rome is the rumoured top pick. Though little known in Italy, he has an impressive CV with teaching stints at Yale, Cambridge and Sorbonne.
Di Maio had presented Conte as part of his team of ministers ahead of the March 4 general election, putting him in charge of simplifying the country's infamous bureaucracy.
Andrea Roventini, a 41-year-old economist teaching at the University of Pisa, has also been touted as another contender, along with Paolo Savona, 81.
Minister for industry between 1993-94, Savona was staunchly opposed to the signing of the Maastricht Treaty which, in the M5S-League programme, is cited as the moment the EU went off track.
- 'Playing with fire' -
Never afraid of a long shot, former premier Silvio Berlusconi, who is upset with his right-wing ally Salvini, has also offered himself up as future premier.
Following a recent court ruling, the ageing billionaire is once again legally allowed to hold public office and has expressed his discontent with the coalition programme, especially the strict measures against conflict of interests in parliament which he sees as directly targeting his media empire.
"Salvini never spoke on behalf of the right-wing coalition, but only on his own behalf and on behalf of the League," he said on Friday evening.

AFP / MIGUEL MEDINA People gather at the stand of the far-right League to approve a programme which turns its back on austerity measures

Berlusconi said his Forza Italia party would present a "reasonable and scrutinising opposition" to the new coalition and suggested he could run the government if Salvini decided to ditch M5S.
Mattarella must agree to the parties' nominee before they can seek parliament's approval for their government.

The president will also examine the new M5S-League joint programme, overwhelmingly approved over the weekend in a public non-binding vote.
The 58-page programme does not mention a unilateral exit from the eurozone unlike previous versions leaked to the media. But it rejects post-financial crisis austerity policies and features hardline immigration and security proposals.

AFP/File / Tiziana FABI Berlusconi has also offered himself up as future premier

The document's costly financial measures and eurosceptic tone have got the financial markets worried.
The Milan Stock Exchange opened down by nearly two percent Monday, while the spread -- the difference between the Italian and German 10-year borrowing rates -- has gained more than 50 points in less than a week, to 182 points.

The League's bullish Salvini has responded forcefully to any criticism of the coalition's economic policy.
On Monday after a German politician warned the populists were "playing with fire" with Italy's finances, Salvini tweeted:
"Let him deal with Germany, and we'll take care of what is good for Italy."

US to impose 'strongest sanctions in history' on Iran

AFP / Mandel NGAN US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlines a tough new strategy on Iran

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday warned Iran would be hit with the "strongest sanctions in history" and cautioned European firms against continuing to do business in Tehran, toughening up Washington's policy line after its withdrawal from the nuclear pact.
In his first major foreign policy address since moving to the State Department from the CIA, the longtime Iran hawk and ardent opponent of the 2015 nuclear pact outlined an aggressive series of moves designed to counter Tehran, which he called the world's top sponsor of terror.

"We will apply unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime. The leaders in Tehran will have no doubt about our seriousness," Pompeo said in a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank.
"This sting of sanctions will be painful if the regime does not change its course from the unacceptable and unproductive path it has chosen to one that rejoins the league of nations."
Pompeo said if Iran were to abide by the stricter terms, including ending its ballistic missile program and its interventions in regional conflicts from Yemen to Syria, the United States would lift its new sanctions.
"Iran will be forced to make a choice: either fight to keep its economy off life support at home or keep squandering precious wealth on fights abroad. It will not have the resources to do both," he said.
President Donald Trump has long said the original 2015 deal with Iran -- also signed by Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- did not go far enough, and now wants the Europeans and others to support his hardline strategy.
The deal was designed to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The international community, including top US officials, have said Tehran had been in compliance.
But Trump despised the deal, pointing to other aspects of Iranian behavior not covered in the pact, and on May 8 he pulled America out despite intense diplomatic efforts by European allies who had beseeched him to stick with it by adding tougher new elements.
"Iran's leaders saw the deal as a starting gun for the march across the Middle East," Pompeo said.
Pompeo said the bet the deal would increase Middle East stability had been a bad one for America, Europe, the Middle East "and indeed for the entire world."
- 'Carte blanche' -

AFP / Iran's main ballistic missiles

Instead of suggesting a re-negotiation of the Iran deal, Pompeo outlined 12 tough conditions from Washington for any "new deal" with Tehran to make sure it "will never again have carte blanche to dominate the Middle East."
These essentially address every aspect of Iran's missile program and what the US calls its "malign influence" across the region, including support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Hezbollah and Huthi rebels in Yemen.

"It must cease its threatening behavior against its neighbors," Pompeo said.
"This certainly includes its threats to destroy Israel, and its firing of missiles into Saudi Arabia" and the United Arab Emirates, he added.
European allies heard how he expects their support for the new US plan -- but he offered nothing in return, and threatened economic fallout for anyone still dealing with the Islamic Republic.
"We understand that our re-imposition of sanctions and the coming pressure campaign on the Iranian regime will pose financial and economic difficulties for a number of our friends," he said.
"We want to hear their concerns. But you know, we will hold those doing prohibited business in Iran to account."
The re-establishment of the US sanctions will force European companies to choose between investing in Iran or trading with the United States.
In reality, there is no choice -- European companies cannot afford to forsake the US market.
For now, the European Union is trying to persuade Iran to stay in the 2015 agreement, even without Washington's participation.
Critics rounded on Pompeo's speech, saying his demands could have been made without pulling America from the nuclear deal.
"Pompeo has not outlined a strategy, but rather a grab bag of wishful thinking that can only be interpreted as a call for regime change in Iran," Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings' Center for Middle East Policy wrote on Twitter.

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