{"id":10850,"date":"2024-02-15T11:30:33","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T11:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=10850"},"modified":"2024-02-15T11:30:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T11:30:33","slug":"sa-us-relations-will-be-scrutinized-as-us-lawmakers-seek-to-review-ties-cite-icj-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/10850\/sa-us-relations-will-be-scrutinized-as-us-lawmakers-seek-to-review-ties-cite-icj-case\/","title":{"rendered":"SA-US relations will be scrutinized as US lawmakers seek to review ties, cite ICJ case"},"content":{"rendered":"

For how long will South Africa remain a “solid” and “strategic” US partner on the continent?<\/em><\/p>\n

The U.S. State Department terms its relations with the southern African nation as\u00a0“strong”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, US congressmen John James and Jared Moskowitz\u00a0would like the ties to come under review.<\/p>\n

They introduced\u00a0a bill<\/a>\u00a0in the US House of Representatives on Feb.06 that seeks to undergo a review of the bilateral ties between the United States and South Africa.<\/p>\n

Rep. John James accuses\u00a0Pretoria of \u201cbuilding ties to countries and actors that undermine [the US’s] national security and threaten [the US] way of life through its military and political cooperation with China and Russia and its support of U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n

It calls\u00a0South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel “a politically\u00a0motivated” one and claims it is “wrongfully\u00a0accusing Israel”.<\/p>\n

Speaking to South African newspaper\u00a0Mail & Guardian<\/a>, the country’s top diplomat Naledi Pandor said\u00a0 she believes \u201cSouth Africa offers quality products to the US market and I wish that relationship to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have different views on many foreign policy matters but as a democracy, we affirm the sovereign right of states to frame their foreign policy. I am concerned at the bill drafters attempt to associate our country with terrorism and the atrocious attack against civilians in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vincent Magwenya, spokesman for President Cyril Ramaphosa, told Bloomberg on Monday (Feb. 12) that \u201ca lot of the issues raised by the members of Congress are issues that have either been dealt with through our own judicial processes or clarified in public communication.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the ICJ ruling on our application, the argument that our case was wrongful or politically motivated can no longer be sustained,\u201d Magwenya added.<\/p>\n

The bill still has to be discussed and passed.<\/p>\n

Previous move by US lawmakers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Last June, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers asked the Biden administration\u00a0in a letter<\/a>\u00a0to punish South Africa by relocating the 20th African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum set to place in Johannesburg in November 2023 to another country.<\/p>\n

The lawmakers claimed South Africa supported Russia\u2019s invasion and called into question its eligibility to receive trade benefits from the U.S. under a law that improved U.S. market access to qualifying sub-Saharan African countries.<\/p>\n

At the time, South African foreign ministry spokesperson Clayson Monyela said in a statement that the letter had been \u201cnoted\u201d but South Africa still \u201cenjoys the support of the U.S. government\u201d for its hosting of the African Growth and Opportunity Act meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For how long will South Africa remain a “solid” and “strategic” US partner on the continent? The U.S. State Department terms its relations with the southern African nation as\u00a0“strong”. However, US congressmen John James and Jared Moskowitz\u00a0would like the ties to come under review. They introduced\u00a0a bill\u00a0in the US House of Representatives on Feb.06 that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"AP + Mail & Guardian + Bloomberg","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"0","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,30],"tags":[122,2101],"class_list":["post-10850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-southern-africa","tag-south-africa","tag-us-south-africa-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}