Rubio grilled over foreign policy, SA ‘refugees’ in heated Senate hearing

Washington — US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Tuesday insisted that the country is not withdrawing from the world, as he batted away criticism of cuts to aid and diplomatic budgets from former colleagues in Congress, some of whom regret voting to confirm him because he has not stood up to President Donald Trump.

In sometimes feisty first testimony as the country's top diplomat, Rubio was challenged over his role in the administration's crackdown on immigration, Trump's engagement with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the decision to prioritise the resettlement in the US of white South Africans over refugees from elsewhere.

Rubio said the intent of changes he is overseeing was “not to dismantle American foreign policy, and it is not to withdraw us from the world”, citing his travel since taking office.

“I just hit 18 countries in 18 weeks,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “That doesn't sound like much of a withdrawal.”

The Trump administration has blocked mostly nonwhite refugee admissions from the rest of the world but has begun to resettle Afrikaners, the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers in SA, saying they faced discrimination and even genocide. SA’s government denies the allegation of genocide.

“While you’ve turned away from a genocide in Sudan and invented one in South Africa, you’ve teamed up with President Trump to throw the Ukrainian people under the bus, and have been played like a fiddle by Vladimir Putin,” Democratic senator Chris van Hollen of Maryland said in a blistering critique of Rubio’s about-face on issues he embraced as a senator, adding that he regretted his vote for Rubio’s nomination.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is due to meet Trump at the White House on Wednesday.  

“Right now, the US refugee programme allows a special programme for Afrikaner farmers, the first group of whom arrived at Dulles airport in Virginia not long ago, while shutting off the refugee programme for everyone else,” said Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator from Virginia. “Do you think Afrikaner farmers are the most persecuted group in the world?”

Rubio replied: “I think those 49 people that came surely felt they were persecuted, and they’ve passed … every sort of check mark that had to be checked off in terms of meeting their requirements for that. They live in a country where farms are taken, the land is taken, on a racial basis.”

On Russia, Rubio said Putin had not received any real concessions in the US effort to initiate talks to end the war in Ukraine and Russia sanctions remain in place.

During a second hearing, several Republicans voiced support for aid and other forms of soft power.

“This to me is national security in another form. And to the people who don't get that, you’re missing a lot,” said Republican senator Lindsey Graham, chair of the Senate appropriations foreign affairs subcommittee.

Rubio insisted many of the programmes he has cut did not serve US interests, and that Washington would remain the world’s most generous donor of humanitarian aid.

The administration proposed a new $2.9bn America First Opportunity Fund that would take on foreign aid, building on “lessons we learnt from USAID,” Rubio said.

Rubio said the $28.5bn budget request by the Trump administration for the 2025/2026 fiscal year will allow the state department to continue enacting Trump's vision while cutting $20bn of “duplicative, wasteful, and ideologically driven programmes”.

Rubio defended cuts to foreign aid — he was an advocate of such aid during his 14 years in the Senate — while slashing state department staff and the US Agency for International Development, which used to spend roughly $40bn a year and is being folded into the state department.

Senators also asked Rubio about Trump’s plans to unwind Syria sanctions, Rubio’s role in the administration's immigration crackdown, the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

“I believe (Israel) can achieve their objective of defeating Hamas while still allowing aid to enter in sufficient quantities,” Rubio said.

Rubio said the state department would allow staff in Turkey, including the ambassador there, to work with local officials in Syria, which could be only weeks away from "potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions".

He said his objective over time was to change Syria’s state sponsor of terrorism designation “if they meet the standard”.

A few protesters interrupted the hearings with shouts of “Stop the genocide”, before police bundled them out of the hearing rooms. Protesters have been regularly interrupting congressional hearings during Israel’s war in Gaza.

Rubio welcomed Israel’s decision to let in some humanitarian aid after a weeks-long blockade, and said he sees Israel's actions in Gaza as targeting Hamas militants.

Washington had asked other countries in the region if they would be open to accepting Palestinians from Gaza who want to move voluntarily, Rubio said, though he denied reports there were talks for Libya to take in Gazans.

Republicans praised Rubio, who has become a crucial figure in the Trump administration. He is also serving as Trump’s acting national security adviser, the USAID administrator, and the acting archivist of the US.

Rubio is the first person since Henry Kissinger in the 1970s to hold the secretary of state and national security adviser positions simultaneously.

“When I have a problem, I call up Marco. He gets it solved,” Trump said.

On Wednesday, Rubio is due to testify at two more hearings, both in the House of Representatives. With Staff Writer

Reuters