Foreign Digest: Venezuela, Georgia, France and Iraq

Venezuela: A United Nations mission reported a climate of terror and the use of torture by the Socialist Venezuelan dictatorship. The European Union recognized opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzales Urrutia, a center-right former diplomatic who obtained a large majority of the votes in the elections two months ago. As I have posted, the Socialist regime declared the dictator the winner and refused to publish the precinct tallies, many of which the opposition had obtained copies of. The United States and a growing number of States around Latin America and the West have recognized Gonzales as the victor, and other States are at least not recognizing the dictator’s re-election. There were protests yesterday in more than 460 cities in Venezuela and around the world to mark two months from the election Georgia: The United States and European allies have imposed sanctions on the leaders of Georgia who are responsible for the Russian-modeled “foreign agents” law I have posted about that can be used as a tool against dissent, as in the Russian Federation. Georgia, a former Soviet Republic in the Caucuses, was invaded by Russia in 2008. Russia set up two puppet states in breakaway areas and encroached further on Georgian territory. The current Georgian Government has moved closer to Russia, despite its official goal of joining the European Union. France: The President of France appointed a Gaullist conservative former cabinet minister and diplomat as Prime Minister earlier this month. The members of the new Premier’s Cabinet are mostly centrists (especially from the party of the powerful President), some on the center-right (including three members of the Prime Minister’s Republican Party, the main conservative party) and one minister from the center-left. The centrist President of the Fifth Republic, who rules through his Prime Minister, has two years remaining in his term. The Head of State had called snap parliamentary elections for July, in which the far-right nationalists made gains, but the center, the left and the center-right surpassed early expectations and blocked the nationalists from winning a majority of votes and seats. The French President thus succeeded in keeping the extreme far right and far left from power. France’s new center-right Prime Minister will have to be approved by the French Parliament by winning a vote of confidence. Iraq: Iraq and the United States negotiated an agreement whereby the remaining American troops will withdraw by 2025, except for some bases. The U.S. forces were invited by Iraq in 2014 to combat the Islamic State terrorist organization, the successor to al-Qaeda in Iraq, which later broke with al-Qaeda and declared its own caliphate in northern Iraq and Syria after U.S.-led Coalition forces had withdrawn after remaining to support the Iraqi Government after the Liberation of Iraq in 2003 from the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein. The international coalition led by the U.S. stripped the Islamic State of all its territory, although some militants remain in the region, and there are IS affiliates around the Islamic World. The 2,500 Americans in Iraq serve in more of an advisory than combat role, although they conduct joint raids with the Iraqis, as I recently posted. The U.S. troops also have engaged with Iranian-backed militias in both Iraq and Syria. Because the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq prefers that the American troops remain, the U.S. will maintain some bases in that area to support the Kurds against the Islamist militants.