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washington — House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted Friday he is sticking with the bipartisan spending deal he struck with the other congressional leaders, but he offered no clear path for overcoming hard-right opposition within his own party to prevent a partial government shutdown next week.

Johnson emerged from days of testy meetings behind closed doors at the Capitol to read a terse statement. Just months on the job, the new speaker is trying to set the record straight that he will not renege on the budget deal he made earlier this week. But in his first big test as the new leader, he has yet to show how he will quell the revolt from his right flank that ousted his predecessor.

“Our top-line agreement remains,” Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said, referring to the budget accord reached January 7.

“We are getting our next steps together, and we are working toward a robust appropriations process,” he said. “So, stay tuned for all that.”

It’s the same intractable political dilemma that led a core group of right-flank Republicans to boot Representative Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s office last year as they revolted against the deal he struck with the other congressional leaders and President Joe Biden signed into law.

Lawmakers during the first work week of the new year are furious that, after spending much of 2023 watching hard-right Republicans fight the leaders, they are quickly careening toward another crisis with just a week to go before the January 19 deadline to fund parts of the government or risk a shutdown yet again.

As some Republicans from the Freedom Caucus again raise the threat of a motion to oust the speaker over the deal, other Republicans are furious they are starting 2024 with the same problems of governing.

In the morning before Johnson made his statement, he met with about two dozen House Republicans, more of them centrist-leaning voices, urging him not to go back on his word and stick with the deal.

The centrists assured Johnson they have his back.

“I just can’t imagine the House wants to relive the madness,” said Representative French Hill of Arkansas, who had helped McCarthy negotiate the initial agreement with Biden and the other leaders.

“This concept of trying to break a deal that was negotiated, it’s a foreign concept,” said Republican Representative Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida. “What you would be asking is for the speaker to basically break his word and lie. That’s just something you can’t ask him to do.”

Since Congress resumed from the holiday break, Johnson has been holed up in his office at the Capitol receiving a steady stream of Republican lawmakers trying to force his hand.

Just two days into the workweek, the House hit a crisis Wednesday when hard-right Republicans forced the chamber to a standstill. They voted against a routine procedural rules package as a way to demand the speaker’s attention.

They are pressing Johnson to refuse the deal, with its $1.66 trillion in spending for the year, and to instead consider a temporary measure that would keep the government open but force 1% across-the-board cuts that are required to kick in if the broader package falls apart.

The hard-right flank is also insisting that new immigration policies be included, which they say would stop the record flow of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Republican Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona said in floor remarks that Republicans should “shut the government down until you shut the border down.”

But by Friday it was more centrist lawmakers making their way to Johnson’s office, many of them who serve on the appropriations panels writing the spending bills, urging him to hold firm to the deal he struck.

Some have suggested that Johnson should consider trying to pass a temporary measure that would fund the government for several more weeks, into March.

Biden signed the spending framework into law as part of a deal he struck last spring with McCarthy. It was agreed to by the other congressional leaders from both parties and approved by the House and Senate as part of an effort to raise the nation’s debt limit to avert a federal default.

In the time since, congressional leaders have been working to devise the top-line spending numbers. McCarthy could never deliver on the final numbers before he was ousted after reaching across the aisle to pass a temporary measure in September and prevent a shutdown at that time.

Johnson and the other leaders, Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate, picked up where they left off and reached a top-line deal at the start of the year that the speaker is now trying to have approved.

Johannesburg, South Africa — South Africa has gone to the ICJ, or International Court of Justice, in The Hague, charging that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. On Thursday and Friday the court will hear arguments from both sides and will then decide whether to issue an interim order that Israel stop its bombardment of Gaza.

“There are ongoing reports of crimes against humanity and war crimes being committed as well as reports that acts meeting the threshold of genocide or related crimes as defined in the 1948 ‘Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide’ have been and may still be committed in the context of the ongoing massacres in Gaza,” said Clayson Monyela, spokesman for South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation

South Africa and Israel are both signatories to the convention. Legal experts say the full case to prove Israel is guilty of genocide could take years, but the hearings this week are an urgent measure to seek a quick order against Israel in the meantime.

If South Africa wins at what is often dubbed “the World Court,” it will be an international embarrassment for Israel, lawyers told VOA this week.

However, while decisions by the court are binding, they are not always followed. Russia for example has still not obeyed a 2022 ICJ order that it halt its invasion of Ukraine.

“Enforcement is typically the Achilles heel of international justice at the ICJ,” said Mia Swart, a visiting international law professor at South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand. “It’s probably highly likely that Israel will not, you know, immediately desist from all military action should the court order this and this will then have to go to the Security Council.”

As a permanent member of the top U.N. body the U.S. has veto powers and is a firm ally of Israel. Washington, like the Israeli government, has called South Africa’s lawsuit “meritless.”

South Africa’s support for the Palestinian cause is longstanding, said Gerhard Kemp, a South African law professor at the University of the West of England, Bristol.

“There’s also an historic reason for this, the African National Congress, the governing party of South Africa has a very longstanding relationship with the people of Gaza, Palestine, with the Palestinian liberation movements,” Kemp said. “So therefore, there’s also historical significance in that South Africa is taking the lead on this by bringing Israel to the ICJ.”

The African National Congress, or ANC, was itself once a banned liberation movement that led an armed struggle against the racist white apartheid regime in South Africa, and says it sees echoes of that in the plight of the Palestinians.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela was a close friend of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and famously said South Africa’s freedom would not be complete until the Palestinians were also free.

Jakarta — Disputes in the South China Sea and how Indonesia should deal with China was a key focus at a nationally televised presidential debate earlier this week. Indonesians will elect a new president on February 14, and during the latest debate, the country’s three candidates exchanged views on security, geopolitics and international relations. 

When it comes to how they will deal with China, analysts tell VOA’s Indonesian service that all three candidates’ different experiences with Beijing are likely to have an impact on the way they handle bilateral relations, including disputes in the South China Sea.

“The various steps taken to resolve disputes in the South China Sea, including the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea that led to the arrangement of a code of conduct document, have failed,” said Ganjar Pranowo, candidate of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle. 

Ganjar proposed three solutions: endorsing a temporary agreement with China, strengthening Indonesia’s naval capacity and patrols, and starting the exploitation of gas reserves in the North Natuna Sea, which is between Indonesia and Vietnam and south of the South China Sea. He said Indonesia needs to prioritize developing its naval weaponry and resupplying naval ships patrolling the region. 

“Allocating [a defense budget] of 1 to 2% of GDP, I believe, is a strong necessity,” Ganjar said. 

Similarly, third-time candidate Prabowo Subianto, a former special forces commander and current defense minister who has been leading in the polls, said disputes in the South China Sea underline the need for a strong defense force, platforms for patrols and additional satellites.

“We understand our country is very huge and rich; hundreds of years ago, countries from far away came to this archipelago to intervene and pit us against each other, to fight and to steal our wealth, until we became independent. And now we have to deal with our natural wealth being taken cheaply,” Prabowo said. 

Meanwhile, candidate Anies Baswedan, a former Jakarta governor, said that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations needs to play a bigger role in resolving disputes, including those in the South China Sea. 

“Instead of acting as a single nation, we should stand together as ASEAN. We should deal with other countries as a unified region, and Indonesia must lead the way for ASEAN,” he said. 

According to Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, a researcher on China-Indonesia-Middle Eastern studies at the Center of Economic and Law Studies, of the three candidates, Ganjar is likely to be more aligned with China. 

During his term as governor of Central Java, Ganjar dealt with Chinese investment in manufacturing towns such as Tegal and Batang. China invested heavily to develop the Batang Integrated Industrial Zone, with investments valued at $1.5 billion.  

Zulfikar added that Prabowo would also likely continue the current pro-China policies of President Joko Widodo. 

Prabowo believes China’s expansive maritime claim in the South China Sea is inconsistent with international law, and he wants to keep Indonesia as a nonaligned country amid the power struggle in the region between the U.S. and China. 

As Indonesia’s defense minister, Prabowo met with his Chinese counterpart on five occasions from 2019 to 2023 and sought to enhance bilateral ties in defense and security through the 2+2 Indonesia-China forum and the Defense Industry Cooperation Meeting in June 2023. 

Meanwhile, Anies Baswedan, from his time as governor of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, has stronger relations with Western countries than with China and had the fewest meetings with Chinese representatives, said Wahyu Dhyatmika, a senior journalist and chairman of the Indonesia Cyber Media Association. 

Wahyu said that if Anies is elected as president, big development projects such as the plan to relocate and establish a new capital and plans to expand Indonesia’s high-speed railway will be reevaluated.

“Chinese government projects will be under threat of further scrutiny,” he said. 

While Indonesia is not a territorial claimant in the South China Sea, its exclusive economic zone around the Natuna Islands overlaps with Beijing’s territorial claims. Bilateral diplomatic tensions have grown in recent years as Chinese naval patrols have been more aggressive and encroached into Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone. 

At a news conference in Manila, ahead of a visit by Indonesia’s current president, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said Tuesday that Indonesia is ready to work with ASEAN, to finalize a long-delayed code of conduct for the South China Sea, where many of its neighbors have overlapping claims with China. 

tehran, iran — Iran condemned strikes on Yemen by U.S. and British forces Friday, saying that the attacks against Tehran-backed Houthi rebels were “arbitrary” and a violation of international law. 

The overnight strikes followed weeks of missile and drone attacks by the Houthis against Red Sea shipping, which they say have been in solidarity with Palestinians in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. 

Foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani said Iran “strongly condemns the military attacks of the United States and the United Kingdom this morning on several Yemeni cities.” 

He said the strikes were “an arbitrary action, a clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yemen, and a violation of international laws and regulations.” 

The United States, Britain and their allies said in a joint statement after the airstrikes that their goal “remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea.” 

The attacks by the Houthis have disrupted traffic along the vital trade route, with many firms rerouting their vessels around the tip of Africa, with knock-on effects for the world economy. 

Kanani warned that the attacks “will have no result other than fueling insecurity and instability in the region,” as well as “diverting the world’s attention from the crimes” in Gaza, where Israel has been fighting the Palestinian territory’s Hamas rulers. 

The spokesperson urged the international community to take action “to prevent the spread of war.” 

Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian voiced support for the Houthis’ campaign in support of the Palestinians. 

“Yemen’s action in supporting the women and children of Gaza and confronting the Israeli regime’s genocide is commendable,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.  

Hundreds rallied after Friday prayers in Tehran in support of the people of Gaza and Yemen, chanting slogans against the United States, Britain and Israel, an AFP journalist reported. 

State television aired footage of similar rallies in other Iranian cities, and later broadcast images from a protest outside the British Embassy in Tehran with people waving the Palestinian and Yemeni flags. 

Protesters chanted “Down with Israel,” “Down with the U.S.” and “Down with Britain” as they burned the three countries’ flags, an AFP journalist said.  

The Israel-Hamas war erupted with attacks by Palestinian militants on southern Israel on October 7, that resulted in about 1,200 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. 

Iran, which supports Hamas financially and militarily, has hailed the attack but denied any involvement. 

Israel has responded with a relentless military campaign that has killed more than 23,700 people in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. 

Yemen’s Houthi rebels — part of a Tehran-aligned “axis of resistance” against Israel and its allies — seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014 and still control large swaths of the country despite a protracted Saudi-led military intervention. 

Washington had said Iran was “deeply involved” in the Houthis’ maritime attacks, a claim Tehran has denied. 

President Ebrahim Raisi has said Iran sees it as “its duty to support the resistance groups,” but insisted that they “are independent in their opinion, decision and action.” 

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to meet with Liu Jianchao, a veteran Chinese diplomat and a top contender to be China’s next foreign minister, in Washington on Friday, a day before Taiwan’s elections, as the United States continues to caution China against using the elections as a pretext for instability. 

Communication between the world’s two largest economies will continue after Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections on Saturday, as senior officials from the United States and China are slated to attend next week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 

On Friday, Blinken will hold talks at the U.S. State Department with Liu, who heads the Chinese Communist Party’s international department responsible for maintaining relations with foreign political parties. 

“Liu is a trusted member of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s inner circles of advisers. He is a leading candidate for foreign minister,” according to former CIA top China analyst Dennis Wilder, now a professor at Georgetown University.

Wilder told VOA on Thursday that Liu’s visit is “designed in part to make sure Washington and Beijing understand each other before the new Taiwan leader is elected.” 

Daniel Kritenbrink, the State Department’s top diplomat on East Asian and Pacific affairs, will join the hourlong meeting, according to people familiar with the planning. 

“Liu has taken on a more active diplomatic role and has been performing tasks typically handled by China’s foreign minister,” said Chechuan Lee, a research fellow at the Taipei-based quasi-official Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

Lee told VOA that “it is not unimaginable” that Liu could be selected as China’s next top diplomat, and his meetings in Washington this week with senior U.S. officials may be paving the way for his next position.

Next week, Blinken and Chinese Premier Li Qiang will attend the annual economic meetings at the Swiss mountain resort.

The State Department said in a statement that Blinken would discuss issues of global concern, including the U.S. commitment to the rules-based international order, while attending meetings in the World Economic Forum in Davos. 

Blinken’s talks with Chinese officials are described as ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication, responsibly manage differences between the two nations and address a host of issues. These include global and regional security concerns such as tensions on the South China Sea. Taiwan will also be among the topics. 

Washington has voiced its opposition to “outside interference or malign influence” in Taiwan’s elections.

 

On Thursday, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said the U.S. has “a deep confidence in Taiwan’s democratic process and believe it is for Taiwan voters to decide their next leader, free from outside interference.” 

The winner of Taiwan’s presidential election will be inaugurated on May 20. The transition period in the upcoming months is seen as sensitive in cross-strait relations. 

A senior U.S. administration official told reporters late Wednesday that Beijing would be “the provocateur” if it chose to respond to Taiwan’s election results with additional military pressure or coercion. 

“Throughout this election and transition period, we will ensure that channels of communication remain open with Beijing, including diplomatic and the recently reopened military-to-military channels, in keeping with past precedent and our unofficial relationship with Taiwan,” said the U.S. official. 

A number of meetings 

This week, U.S. and Chinese officials are holding numerous meetings. The U.S. principal deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, held lengthy talks with Liu on Wednesday. 

The White House said the two sides discussed the ongoing implementation of key outcomes from last November’s summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Xi, challenges in the Middle East and Russia’s war against Ukraine. Finer stressed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea. 

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas held virtual talks on Wednesday with Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong, discussing the combating of the illicit flow of synthetic drugs. 

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo also held a call with China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao late Wednesday to follow up on leveraging the working group that the two sides have established to address commercial issues of concern. 

Science and technology agreement 

At the State Department, officials from the two countries discussed the extension of the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement, or STA, which is due to expire next month. Officials will meet again during the week of January 22 to discuss the extension. 

Late last August, Washington agreed to extend the agreement with China for six months. The short-term extension came as several Republican congressional members voiced concern that China has previously leveraged the agreement to advance its military objectives and may continue to do so. 

At that time, the State Department stated the brief extension would maintain the STA’s validity while the U.S. negotiated with China to amend and strengthen the agreement. 

A call for reciprocity 

Some former U.S. officials are skeptical about whether frequent talks can fundamentally change Beijing’s behaviors, which are deemed as harming Washington’s national interests. They also advocate for reciprocity. 

“Every time a People’s Republic of China emissary is allowed to address the American people, an American emissary needs to be able to directly address the Chinese people. If the PRC won’t accept this, then we are foolish to keep giving people like Liu direct access,” said David Stilwell, a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. 

Liu delivered a speech on Tuesday during an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. 

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