…foreign diplomats said they were stunned by what they described as “nasty” & “very personal” threats made by #State Department officials, which were mostly aimed at leaders from poorer or small countries that are economically dependent on the #UnitedStates. Some of the delegations were summoned to the #US Embassy in London for these discussions, these people said.
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More than 100 nations were poised last month to approve a historic deal to slash #pollution from cargo #ships. That’s when the #UnitedStates launched a pressure campaign that officials around the world have called extraordinary, even by the standards of the #Trump admin’s combativeness, according to 9 diplomats on its receiving end.
An ambassador from #Asia was told that, if he voted in favor of the plan, his country’s sailors would no longer be allowed to disembark at #US ports. #Caribbean diplomats were told that they could be #blacklisted from entering the US. And #MarcoRubio, the secy of #state, personally called officials in several countries to threaten financial penalties & other punishments if they continued to support the agreement to cut ship #pollution.
These & other #threats, including #tariffs, #sanctions & the revocation of diplomats’ #US #visas, effectively killed the deal, according to the 9 American, European & developing-nation diplomats directly involved in the negotiations. They spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of #retribution from the #Trump admin.
…foreign diplomats said they were stunned by what they described as “nasty” & “very personal” threats made by #State Department officials, which were mostly aimed at leaders from poorer or small countries that are economically dependent on the #UnitedStates. Some of the delegations were summoned to the #US Embassy in London for these discussions, these people said.
…“It was like a bunch of gangsters coming into the neighborhood & smashing windows and threatening shop owners,” said Senator #SheldonWhitehouse, #Democrat of Rhode Island, who was briefed on the events by negotiators who were directly involved. Mr. Whitehouse called the Trump administration’s strategy a “shock-and-awe thuggery approach.”
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