Tag Archives: President Joe Biden

Biden proposes 15% corporate minimum tax to win Republican backing of infrastructure plan

By David Shepardson and Jarrett Renshaw

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden offered to scrap his proposed corporate tax hike during negotiations with Republicans, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday, in what would be a major concession by the Democratic president as he works to hammer out an infrastructure deal.

Biden offered to drop plans to raise corporate tax rates as high as 28% and instead set a minimum 15% tax rate aimed at ensuring all companies pay taxes, sources said.

In return, Republicans would have to agree to at least $1 trillion in new infrastructure spending, one source said. And Biden has not given up on seeking as much as $1.7 trillion.

With the change, funding for the plan would lean heavily on increased tax enforcement, scrapping inheritance tax breaks for wealthy families as well as other sources like $75 billion in unspent COVID-19 relief funds, one source said.

Biden’s 15% tax floor seeks to stop large, multinational companies like Amazon.com Inc from paying little to no U.S. taxes. Currently many of these companies show large profits on earning statements but shift their liability to more tax-friendly countries.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Biden’s proposal “should be completely acceptable” to Republicans that want to leave 2017 corporate tax cuts in place, she said. “We’re open to other options,” Psaki said, as long as they do not hike taxes on people making less than $400,000.

The Biden alternative assumes $1.7 trillion in revenues over 15 years to pay for new spending over eight years.

The funds would include $700 billion from stepped-up enforcement of existing taxes, $200 billion from ending a capital gains tax break on large inheritances and $75 billion in unspent COVID-19 funds. The remainder would come from other proposals including ending certain fossil fuel subsidies, a new fee on commercial truck mileage and the 15% minimum corporate tax.

Biden’s initial plan called for $2.25 trillion in infrastructure spending and new revenue, including $857.8 billion from the prior proposal to raise corporate income tax from 21% to 28%.

“He is personally leaning in, willing to compromise, spending time with senators – Democrat and Republican – to find out what is the art of the possible,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told CNN in an interview on Thursday.

“The only thing he won’t accept is inaction,” she said. “It has to be big and bold, $1 trillion or more.”

Biden has a previously scheduled meeting with Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito, the party’s main negotiator on infrastructure, on Friday.

At an appearance in Kentucky, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “We’re still hoping that we can come to an agreement on a fully paid for and a significant infrastructure package.”

He added that the discussions are focused on “maybe $1 trillion.” “I don’t know whether we’re going to reach an agreement or not,” he said.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renfrew, David Shepardson, DAvid Lawder, Steve Holland and David Morgan; Writing by Doina Chiacu and Heather Timmons; Editing by Susan Heavey, Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)

Analysis: Hacks force Biden into more aggressive stance on Russia

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A ransomware attack on JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, by a criminal group likely based in Russia has strengthened the Biden administration’s resolve to hold Moscow responsible for costly cyber assaults – even if they are not directly linked to the Kremlin.

U.S. President Joe Biden has launched a review of the threat posed by ransomware attacks and he will discuss the issue of harboring such hackers with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month, the White House said on Wednesday.

“President Biden certainly thinks that President Putin and the Russian government has a role to play in stopping and preventing these attacks,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday.

The JBS hack is the third major cyberattack linked to hackers from Russia since Biden took office in January, following attacks aimed at Colonial Pipeline Co and software made by SolarWinds Corp. JBS is a Brazilian company with extensive U.S. operations.

“Biden has indicated his willingness to hold Russia accountable in some way for the pipeline attack, even though it was carried out by a criminal organization,” said Tom Bossert, a top homeland security adviser to former President Donald Trump. “That’s a big leap forward.”

The White House plans to use a June 16 summit between Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin to deliver a clear message to the Russian leader, officials said. A next step could be destabilization of the computer servers used to carry out such hacks, some cyber experts say.

Biden has launched a review of the threat posed by ransomware attacks and he will discuss the issue of harboring such hackers with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month, the White House said on Wednesday.

Russia joined U.N. member states in endorsing a March report agreeing to voluntary norms around cyber crime, including a pledge to not conduct or knowingly support cyberattacks in violation of international law that intentionally damage or impairs critical infrastructure.

Biden, who has repeatedly taken aim at Russia for its jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and a military buildup near Ukraine, will urge NATO allies, EU leaders and the Group of Seven rich countries to back a strong, unified stance on Russia at separate summits before he meets Putin, U.S. officials say.

Consensus is growing among Western allies that stronger action is needed, they say.

The White House said Tuesday it was engaging directly with the Russian government. The statement marks a clear shift toward a new and more assertive U.S. policy against Russia on hacking, say former and current U.S. security officials and analysts.

The White House response came after Senator Lindsey Graham and other Republicans criticized the Biden administration for a “weak” response to last month’s ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the United States, by DarkSide, a group with ties to Russia.

U.S. officials said they sprang into action after both incidents. The White House also started a review of ransomware attacks, including a push to work with allies to “hold countries who harbor ransom actors accountable.”

James Lewis, a cyber expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said people who brief Biden had told him they expect strong language from Biden at the meeting.

“Biden is tough. He’s going to tell Putin, ‘This is enough. You’ve got to stop or we’ll do something back,'” Lewis said.

DISABLING HACKER INFRASTRUCTURE

The U.S. intelligence and military community has long had the capability to damage computer servers used by private hackers in other countries, but largely refrained, given diplomatic concerns about the consequences.

The JBS hack could signal a turning point.

Lewis said a surge in ransomware attacks had overshadowed diplomatic concerns in recent months.

“The Russians don’t see any reason to stop. Until we do something, this is going to keep happening,” he said. Biden’s experts are working on a new doctrine.

Bossert said Russian-based hackers could well increase their attacks on U.S. companies in response to any foreign policy decisions taken at the upcoming G7, NATO and EU summits. That would give the United States more reasons to take down the infrastructure used to launch such attacks.

“The U.S. government should be prepared to use its capabilities to directly take down the infrastructure that would be used – whether belonging to a government or a proxy group – should cyber attacks escalate,” he said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Heather Timmons and Nick Zieminski)

Biden eyes grants, federal purchasing to narrow racial wealth, home ownership gaps

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden will announce steps on Tuesday to narrow the large and persistent racial wealth gap that divides Black, Latino and white Americans, although he will stop short of a cancellation of student loan debt demanded by civil rights groups.

Biden, a Democrat, will call for billions of dollars in grants and investments to benefit poor minority communities, as well as a big increase in federal procurement from small, disadvantaged businesses, and a crackdown on housing discrimination, administration officials told reporters.

He will unveil the measures during a visit to the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where hundreds of Black Americans were massacred by a white mob 100 years ago. They are part of a broader push to reverse systemic racism, and build on executive actions he took during his first week in office, one the officials said.

Administration officials said they had no further news about any plans to cancel high levels of student debt.

KEY STEPS

The measures include:

– Expanding federal contracting with small, disadvantaged businesses by 50% to some $100 billion over five years, harnessing the buying power of the federal government, the world’s single biggest purchaser of goods

– Using $10 billion of Biden’s infrastructure plan – which must still be passed by Congress – to revitalize communities like Greenwood that suffer from persistent poverty, historic disinvestment and the ongoing displacement of longtime residents

– Targeting $15 billion in competitive grants to reconnect minority neighborhoods cut off in the past from schools, jobs and businesses by the building of highways

– Spending $31 billion to support minority-owned businesses

– Publishing new rules by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to aggressively combat housing discrimination

– A new inter-agency push to use standards, enforcement and regulatory action to reduce the gap in appraised values in minority and white communities that nearly doubled between 1980 and 2015, according to research by the University of Pittsburgh

– A new tax credit for development and rehabilitation of homes in minority neighborhoods to close the gap in pricing on the open market

WHY ARE THESE MEASURES NEEDED?

– Racial disparities persist over generations, limiting opportunities for wealth creation for Black and Latino families and reducing their ability to pass on property to their children.

– Data from the Survey of Consumer Finances show that the median Black household had a net wealth of $24,000 in 2019, or nearly 90% less than the median white household.

– Home ownership rates are much lower in communities of color, with just 49% of Latinos and 45% of Black Americans owning their own homes, compared with 74% of white Americans.

– The home ownership rate for Black Americans has declined 5% since 2001, compared with a 1% drop for white Americans, and is now the same as in 1968, the year the Fair Housing Act was passed by Congress.

– The Biden administration has not set any specific targets for home ownership rates, an administration official said, adding that closing the current gap “will take significant effort and time.”

– The COVID-19 relief plan, already passed by Congress, included $10 billion in mortgage relief for some 2 million borrowers who are seriously delinquent, many of whom are homeowners of color.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Biden says nearly 14% of his 1,500 agency appointees identify as LGBTQ

By Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly 14% of U.S. President Joe Biden’s 1,500 federal agency appointees identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer, he said on Tuesday in a proclamation marking the start of Pride Month celebrating the LGBTQ community.

A Democrat, Biden urged Congress to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination by passing the Equality Act. Donald Trump, his Republican predecessor, did not officially recognize Pride Month during his four years in office.

“For all of our progress, there are many States in which LGBTQ+ individuals still lack protections for fundamental rights and dignity in hospitals, schools, public accommodations, and other spaces,” Biden said.

“We will not rest until full equality for LGBTQ+ Americans is finally achieved and codified into law.”

Biden cited what he called a tragic spike in violence against transgender people, especially transgender women of color and LGBTQ youth who face bullying and harassment in academic settings and run the risk of self-harm and death by suicide.

Biden recognized the service of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first openly LGBTQ person to serve in the Cabinet, and Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine, the first openly transgender person confirmed by the Senate.

Activists describe the Biden administration as the most pro-LGBTQ in U.S. history.

On his first day in office, Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to protect LGBTQ people under all federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on sex. Biden also reversed a ban on transgender people openly enlisting and serving in the military.

The Biden White House also reversed an order issued by Trump’s then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on flying the Pride flag and some U.S. embassies, including in India and Australia, are highlighting their support for LGBTQ people.

In Florida on Tuesday, Governor Ron DeSantis, who is closely aligned with Trump, signed into law banning transgender women and girls from participating in school sports, part of a campaign in state houses nationwide this year that equal rights activists assail as discriminatory.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Howard Goller)

Money is cheap, let’s spend it -White House $6 trillion budget message

By Andrea Shalal, Jarrett Renshaw and Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House on Friday unveiled a $6 trillion budget proposal that would ramp up spending on infrastructure, education and combating climate change, arguing it makes good fiscal sense to invest now, when the cost of borrowing is cheap, and reduce deficits later.

The first comprehensive budget offered by Democratic President Joe Biden faces strong opposition from Republican lawmakers, who want to tamp down U.S. government spending and reject his plans to hike taxes on the rich and big corporations.

Biden’s plan for fiscal year 2022 calls for $6.01 trillion in spending and $4.17 trillion in revenues, a 36.6% increase from 2019 outlays, before the coronavirus pandemic bumped up spending. It projects a $1.84 trillion deficit, a sharp decrease from the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but up from 2019’s $984 billion.

White House officials said the Biden’s $4 trillion plans to address historic U.S. inequality, climate chance and provide four more years of free public education would be completely paid for in 15 years, with tax increases starting to chip away at deficits after 2030.

Cecilia Rouse, the chair of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, says Biden’s plan is front loaded and that the administration was willing to live with budget deficits amid low-interest rates to make significant investments in the nation’s economy. She projected a drop in deficits by over $2 trillion in the following years.

“That is a sharp departure from unpaid tax cuts under the prior administration that seriously worsened our long-term fiscal problem,” she said. “The most important test of our fiscal health is real interest payments on the debt. That’s what tells us whether debt is burdening our economy and crowding out other investments.”

Rouse said the economy could see short-term inflation spikes, fueled by the sharp growth in the economy, but added she expected it to settle down to an annual rate of around 2% over time.

Increased investment would boost U.S. economic growth, with the current conservative White House forecast calling for 2% gross domestic product growth in 2031, compared with the Federal Reserve’s estimate of 1.8%.

Biden’s first full spending outline since taking office in January serves as the fiscal blueprint for his political priorities, and is likely to kick off months of difficult negotiations with Congress, which needs to approve most of the spending.

Republicans’ opposition is growing to much of Biden’s push to spend more to revamp the U.S. economy, as they argue it could fuel inflation and tamp down corporate competitiveness.

Biden has tussled with Republicans over the price of his initiatives, recovery from the pandemic and improvement of roads and bridges. No Republicans voted for his $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, but some touted its benefits later, drawing some chiding from the president.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday that the budget would push U.S. debt above the size of the U.S. economy but would not contribute to inflationary pressures.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Peter Cooney, Heather Timmons and Steve Orlofsky)

Microsoft, Mastercard sign on to VP Harris’s Central America strategy

By Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Twelve companies and groups including Microsoft Corp, Mastercard and Nestle’s Nespresso on Thursday will commit to making investments in Central America – a win for Vice President Kamala Harris as she aims to lower migration from the region into the United States.

President Joe Biden has tasked Harris with leading U.S. efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Since then, Harris has taken a series of steps aimed at improving conditions and lowering migration from the region.

Harris, who met with officials from these companies and groups on Thursday, said economic opportunities in the region can be boosted via partnerships with the private sector.

“In order for us as an administration, the United States government, to maximize the potential of our work, it has to be through collaboration, through public-private partnerships,” Harris told reporters at the start of the meeting.

The meeting was attended by top executives from yogurt maker Chobani, food giant Nestle’s Nespresso unit, financial companies Bancolombia and Davivienda as well as language-learning website Duolingo.

Commitments by the companies include Microsoft agreeing to expand internet access to as many as three million people in the region by July 2022 and Nespresso’s plans to begin buying some of its coffee from El Salvador and Honduras with a minimum regional investment of $150 million by 2025, a White House official said.

Chobani has agreed to bring its incubator program for local entrepreneurs to Guatemala while Mastercard will aim to bring five million people in the region who currently lack banking services into the financial system and give one million micro and small businesses access to electronic banking, the official said.

The U.S. vice president’s push to spur regional economic growth will focus on six areas.

These include expanding affordable internet access, combating food shortages by boosting farm productivity and backing regional efforts to fight climate change and make a transition to clean energy.

It will also aim to expand job training programs and improve public health access.

In April, Harris unveiled an additional $310 million in U.S. aid to Central America. She is expected to visit Guatemala and Mexico on June 7 and 8 – her first overseas trip as vice president.

U.S. officials see corruption as a major contributor to a migrant exodus from the region, along with gang violence and natural disasters, issues that represent hurdles for companies investing in the region.

Some Central American leaders recently pushed back on the Biden administration’s anti-corruption strategy, which included releasing a list labeling 17 regional politicians as corrupt.

On his trip next week to Costa Rica, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to use meetings with his Central American and Mexican counterparts gathered there to address corruption, governance and rule-of-law issues, said Julie Chung, acting assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

“These are some of the issues that are the drivers of why people leave their homes in the first place,” Chung told reporters in a briefing ahead of Blinken’s June 1-2 trip. “They don’t have confidence in their governments.”

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Humeyra Pamuk, Editing by Devika Syamnath and Alistair Bell)

Biden plans action to thwart construction supply issues

By Andrea Shalal and Trevor Hunnicutt

CLEVELAND (Reuters) -President Joe Biden said on Thursday he will soon take action to ease U.S. supply pressures in construction materials, eliminate transportation bottlenecks and stop anti-competitive practices in the economy.

“In the coming weeks, my administration will take steps to combat these supply pressures, starting with the construction materials and transportation bottlenecks, and building off the work we’re doing on computer chips,” Biden said in a speech at Cuyahoga Community College in Ohio.

“We’re also announcing new initiatives to combat anticompetitive practices that hurt small businesses and families.”

Biden, a Democrat eager to build on the U.S. economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, delivered the speech as he works to sell trillions in new spending on infrastructure, manufacturing subsidies, childcare and other investments.

The president will release a budget plan on Friday for fiscal-year 2022 that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said will push U.S. debt above the size of the national economy but not contribute to inflationary pressures.

Republicans object to Biden’s main plans to help pay for the extra spending: tax hikes on high-income earners and the biggest corporations.

The spending could help push down lingering unemployment following a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and put millions more out of work.

But signs of higher inflation from gasoline to lumber, and lingering shortages of supplies like computer chips, have threatened to derail that recovery by making critical goods and labor more expensive or hard to come by.

The Biden administration has been eager to head off suggestions that its spending polices could exacerbate rising prices and spark inflation that could worsen economic inequality.

“Now, as our economy recovers, there’s gonna be some bumps in the road,” Biden said. “You can’t reboot a global economy like flipping on a light switch. There’s gonna be ups and downs in jobs and economic reports. There’s going to be supply-chain issues – price distortions on the way back to a stable and steady growth.”

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Peter Cooney)

What to watch for in Biden’s budget: Israel, student loans, growing deficits

By Andrea Shalal and Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden will unveil his first full budget on Friday, setting the stage for a pitched battle with Republicans opposed to his plans to spend trillions on infrastructure, childcare and other public works.

The Democratic president in April provided a partial wish list for about $1.5 trillion in government spending for the fiscal year that starts on Oct. 1, just a sliver of the total budget.

Friday will see more details, from foreign aid to immigration and policing, and could include jumps in funding for Medicaid and other social programs that consume most federal government spending.

Including his already announced hopes to pass new bills worth over $4 trillion over ten years as well as the $1.9 trillion in deficit-fueled stimulus already passed, Biden’s budget is expected to reflect soaring spending and a larger debt in an attempt to remake the economy.

NO SURPRISE INITIATIVES

Do not expect any previously undisclosed major policy initiatives, said Rob Friedlander, spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget.

Instead, look for details on Biden’s $4 trillion plans to bring more women back into the workforce, fund home care for the aging and disabled, expand broadband coverage to underserved and rural areas and combat climate change, by raising taxes on companies and the wealthy.

“The president’s budget will … include the American Jobs Plan, the American Families Plan, and the president’s proposals to reinvest in research, education, clean energy, public health, and other critical priorities,” Friedlander said.

Congress, where Democrats have a narrow majority, must pass any budget. Biden hopes to secure Republican support for some of that investment – but may rely on a congressional procedure known as reconciliation to pass it without Republican backing.

Biden will need to corral the often-warring progressive and moderate wings of his own Democratic Party to do so.

PROGRESSIVE PROMISES?

Biden made sweeping campaign promises to progressive voters about what he would get done during his presidency, from cutting student loan debt to adding a public option to the Obamacare health insurance law.

They may be disappointed.

“Every entity may not be reflected in this budget,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week, when asked about pledges on drug pricing and health insurance.

PENTAGON PRIORITIES

Biden’s initial proposal to keep Pentagon spending roughly flat in inflation-adjusted terms angered liberals who want to cut the funding and hawks who want it raised.

Friday’s budget may show how sharply Biden plans to shift focus away from the Middle East, as well as the cost impact of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and the level of funding for emerging threats like China.

It will also show how much Biden wants the Pentagon to invest in fighting cyber crime, climate change and environmental mediation.

The budget will ask for 85 fifth-generation F-35 jets made by Lockheed Martin Co. Recently, U.S. governors have written to Biden urging him to support the program and the jobs it creates.

AFTER GAZA

Some progressive lawmakers, such as Senator Bernie Sanders, want Biden to cut military aid to Israel following its air strikes in Gaza that killed dozens of civilians in response to rocket fire from Hamas militants.

But White House aides said they were happy with the program and expect to keep funding consistent.

Egypt, which was a key intermediary for U.S. diplomacy during 11 days of fighting, is also expected to remain a major recipient of U.S. aid despite concerns over Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s crackdown on political dissent.

DEBT, ECONOMIC GROWTH

The budget is likely to include detailed economic growth assumptions and deficit projections that will be heavily scrutinized by economists, political opponents and investors.

Biden argues his investment plans would expand the economy by creating jobs, funding research and freeing up more workers.

The president’s proposal to pay for home care for the elderly and disabled would boost funding for the healthcare program Medicaid, a target of deficit hawks, by $400 billion over a decade.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Biden’s budget will put meat on the bones of the U.S. pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% below 2005 levels over the next decade as its new Paris agreement target, after his “skinny budget” proposed $14 billion to fight climate change in fiscal 2022.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Trevor Hunnicutt, Valerie Volcovici and Mike Stone; Editing by Heather Timmons and Peter Cooney)

Biden says U.S. intelligence community divided on COVID-19 origin

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Wednesday said the U.S. intelligence community was divided on the origin in China of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, including whether it came from human contact with an infected animal or a laboratory accident.

Biden said in a statement that he has called for further investigation into the pandemic’s origins.

He said that U.S. intelligence are looking into two different scenarios, that they do not have high confidence in their current conclusions and that they are divided on which is most likely.

“I have now asked the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days,” Biden said.

“As part of that report, I have asked for areas of further inquiry that may be required, including specific questions for China.”

U.S. agencies have been aggressively investigating COVID-19’s origins since the U.S. government first recognized the virus as a serious health risk in early 2020.

Earlier this week, U.S. government sources familiar with intelligence reporting and analysis said a still-classified U.S. intelligence report circulated during former President Donald Trump’s administration alleged that three researchers at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology became so ill in November 2019 that they sought hospital care.

The source of this early intelligence or how reliable U.S. agencies rated it is not known. It remains unclear whether the afflicted researchers were hospitalized or what their symptoms were, one of the sources said. The virus first appeared in Wuhan and then spread worldwide.

Intelligence committees of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are investigating how U.S. agencies have reported on and gathered information about COVID-19’s origin, how it spread and how governments have responded to it.

A report issued by House intelligence committee Republicans earlier this month focused particularly on the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The Republican report asserted that there was “significant circumstantial evidence raises serious concerns that the COVID19 outbreak may have been a leak” from the institute, suggested the Wuhan lab was involved in biological weapons research, and that Beijing had attempted to “cover up” the virus’ origins.

However, the origin of the virus remains hotly contested among experts.

In a report issued in March written jointly with Chinese scientists, a World Health Organization-led team that spent four weeks in and around Wuhan in January and February said the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, and that “introduction through a laboratory incident was considered to be an extremely unlikely pathway.”

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Mark Hosenball and Timothy Ahmann; Editing by Heather Timmons and Alistair Bell)

Taliban warns nearby nations against hosting U.S. military after withdrawal

KABUL/PESHAWAR (Reuters) – The Afghan Taliban on Wednesday warned nearby nations against allowing the United States to use their territory for operations in the country after they withdraw from Afghanistan.

As foreign forces withdraw troops by President Joe Biden’s announced deadline of Sept. 11, experts and diplomats have speculated that Washington’s future role in the region could include bases in nearby countries, especially Pakistan.

“If such a step is taken, then the responsibility for all the misfortunes and difficulties lies upon those who commit such mistakes,” the insurgent group said in a statement, without specifying a country.

U.S. officials have privately said that they are exploring potential basing options in countries near Afghanistan, like Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, but have so far not come to an agreement with any of them.

In recent days, there has been a spate of talks between senior Pakistani and U.S. officials, including a meeting between Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and his Pakistani counterpart.

Pakistan shares a border with Afghanistan that runs along heavily contested areas of south and eastern Afghanistan where the Taliban have a large presence.

A spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign office said on Monday that any speculation over U.S. use of bases in Pakistan “was baseless and irresponsible”.

The U.S. embassy in Islamabad did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fighting between the Taliban and Afghan forces has escalated sharply in Afghanistan since Washington announced its decision, a slower timeframe than envisaged in a deal former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration signed with the insurgents that said troops would withdraw by May subject to security guarantees.

Many analysts have warned that the country could descend into civil war as efforts to secure a peace deal through talks in Doha have largely stalled.

Two Taliban sources said several members of the group’s political office are currently in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad for talks over the ongoing negotiations, including whether to take part in a conference due to take place in Turkey that they had previously boycotted.

Pakistan has been criticized in the past for ties to the Taliban, but in recent years has been praised by Washington for helping to bring the group to the negotiating table.

(Reporting by Afghanistan and Pakistan bureaux; Editing by Giles Elgood)