Today, the United States welcomes the release of Professors Kevin King and Timothy Weeks. King, an American, and Weeks, an Australian, were professors at the American University of Afghanistan when they were kidnapped at gunpoint in August 2016.
Today, the United States welcomes the release of Professors Kevin King and Timothy Weeks. Both men were successfully recovered this morning, are in the care of the U.S. military, and will soon be reunited with their loved ones.
ARABIAN GULF – The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group (ABECSG) completed a scheduled transit through the Strait of Hormuz into the Arabian Gulf, Nov. 19.
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, with one-fifth of the world’s energy supply transiting through the strait annually. This waterway is critical to ensuring and safeguarding the stability of global commerce.
“It is important to be clear on serious matters, and today’s announcement regarding Israeli settlements is a serious matter. Israel is a beacon of democracy in a region where other leaders—from Hamas to Iran—do not even acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.
Today, the United States sanctioned nine individuals and organizations who were providing material support to the terrorist group ISIS in the Middle East and South Asia. ISIS remains a threat to global security and stability, and the United States continues to work closely with the countries of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS (D-ISIS) to ensure we are protecting our people from this heinous terrorist group.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY CROWLEY: It is critically important work of the W-GDP Fund, especially today, as we're here to announce some exciting new partnerships and programming. I'm really proud to stand before you today, because watching that video is evidence that all of us that the incredibly important work that W-GDP is doing in connection with all these various partners around the world and here at home is unleashing women's economic potential in ways that we have never seen before. And when we do that, you know, we change the world.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Good afternoon, everyone. I have several statements I want to make today, starting with a statement about the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The United States supports the Iranian people in their peaceful protests against the regime that is supposed to lead them.
The U.S. Embassy calls for the immediate release of Dr. Vazha Gaprindashvili, a well-known Georgian physician and president of the Association of Orthopedists and Traumatologists of Georgia, who was sentenced by the de facto authorities in Georgia’s South Ossetia region on November 15 to two months of pretrial detention.
Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State
The Department is publicly designating Julio Cesar Gandarilla Bermejo, Minister of Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior (MININT), under Section 7031(c) of the FY 2019 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, as carried forward by the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2020, due to his involvement, by command responsibility, in gross violations of human rights in Venezuela.