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State Department criticizes South Africa's direction, cites land law and foreign policy choices
Summary
At a press briefing, the State Department spokesperson outlined U.S. concerns about South Africa's recent law on land and its foreign policy posture toward Israel and Iran, saying those factors informed White House discussions and that the U.S. remains attentive to violence and property-rights issues in South Africa.
The State Department on Tuesday said a range of developments in South Africa ' including a recently passed law on land and the country's foreign-policy choices ' have raised U.S. concerns and were among the topics discussed by U.S. leaders.
"When we think about...a law that says, oh, those people that you're calling to have be killed...let's take their land," the State Department spokesperson said, arguing the combination of rhetoric and the law gave cause for heightened concern. The spokesperson also linked South Africa's diplomatic choices, including referrals of Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and ties to Iran, to U.S. assessments of that country's trajectory.
Reporters pressed the Department on whether the White House's public comments about South Africa were based on an internal State Department finding, such as a genocide determination. The spokesperson did not announce a legal finding and said the president and secretary were "aware of what the concerns have been." The briefing included repeated assertion that multiple factors ' not a single event ' informed U.S. positions.
The spokesperson disputed characterizations that the U.S. had "ambushed" South African officials, saying the president and his team made their concerns known and that the matters raised were part of an ongoing set of observations about governance, security and human-rights trends. The briefing also emphasized that the contested land law had not yet been implemented.
No new U.S. policy actions, sanctions, or legal determinations were announced at the briefing. The Department described its posture as monitoring South Africa's behavior and engaging diplomatically.
