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Luxembourg is among Europe’s smaller nations but that is not stopping its leaders from speaking their minds about recent events in the US.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday cancelled a trip to Europe at the last minute after top diplomats and European Union officials refused to meet with him, and Luxembourg’s foreign minister appeared to be leading the charge in this regard, per Reuters. Allies were reportedly too “embarrassed” to meet with America’s top diplomat.
Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn had skewered President Donald Trump over the riot at the US Capitol in an interview on January 7, making it clear that any visit from Pompeo could prove awkward.
“Trump is a criminal, a political pyromaniac who should be sent to criminal court. He’s a person who was elected democratically but who isn’t interested in democracy in the slightest,” Asselborn said in the interview with RTL Radio, per France 24 reporter Philip Crowther. “The 6th of January 2021 was a 9/11 attack on democracy itself, and Trump was the one who egged it on.”
“The people who are truly responsible are Trump and members of the GOP. People like Ted Cruz and other elected Republicans are responsible because they acted like Trump’s poodles,” Asselborn added.
Pompeo was first meant to visit Luxembourg, a NATO ally, according to Reuters, but apparently struggled to set up meetings with any officials. That leg of the trip was then scrapped, followed by the planned visit to Brussels.
The cancellation of Pompeo’s final European trip as top US diplomat is yet another example of the fallout from the events of January 6, when Trump provoked a mob of his supporters into swarming the US Capitol in what amounted to an attempted coup.
The Capitol siege was among the most stunning events in US history, representing a startling attack on the heart of American democracy.
In Washington, lawmakers from both parties are pushing for Trump to be removed from office either via the 25th Amendment or impeachment.
Pompeo has spent his dwindling time as secretary of state attacking the United Nations and issuing fresh terrorism designations aimed at the Cuban government and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The latter move prompted bipartisan criticism in Congress over concerns it will make delivering life-saving assistance to Yemenis far more difficult. Yemen is the site of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The Trump administration has taken a unilateral, antagonistic approach to foreign affairs since day one. Trump’s decisions to withdraw from the Paris climate accord and 2015 Iran nuclear deal, as well his frequent attacks on NATO allies and mischaracterizations of how the alliance is funded, drove a wedge between Washington and its traditional allies in Europe.
Asselborn was also not alone among European allies who condemned Trump after the Capitol siege. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for example, blamed Trump.
“I deeply regret that since November, President Trump has not accepted that he lost, and did not do so again yesterday,” Merkel said last Thursday, a day after …read more
Source:: Business Insider
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