Revelations Undermine Trust Toward Iceland’s Allies Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson. Vala Hafstað
He was referring to revelations, reported by
mbl.is and other media Sunday night, that the Danish Defense Intelligence Service (FE) helped the US National Security Agency (NSA) spy on European leaders, among them German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
“The Danish government knew of the involvement of their country’s secret service in the NSA scandal by 2015 at the latest,”
“They began to collect information on the FE’s cooperation with the NSA between 2012 and 2014 in the secret Dunhammer report following the disclosures by the former NSA employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden. The information they gathered made it clear that the FE had helped the NSA to spy on leading politicians in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and France, as well as Germany.”
Blinken Meets With Icelandic Authorities US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Minister for Foreign Affairs Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson. mbl.is/Kristinn Magnússon Vala Hafstað Morgunblaðið reports. In addition, Blinken met with Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir and President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Prime Minster Katrín Jakobsdóttir. mbl.is/Kristinn Magnússon Blinken arrived in Iceland Monday night. He will be attending the 12th Ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council at Harpa Concert Hall tomorrow – a meeting held every two years. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, participation in the meeting is limited to the foreign ministers of the eight Arctic States, as well as the foreign ministers of the Faeroe Islands and Greenland and representatives of the Indigenous Permanent Participants. Other participants will join the meeting online.
Icelander Blacklisted by China: ‘Unacceptable,’ States Foreign Minister Minister for Foreign Affairs Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson. Photo/Contributed Vala Hafstað
An Icelandic lawyer, Jónas Haraldsson, who has written articles critical of China in
Morgunblaðið, was summoned to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Reykjavík yesterday, where he was told he had been blacklisted by Chinese authorities,
mbl.is reports. Jónas is the only Icelander to be blacklisted in China.
“We were very surprised that this should be directed toward and Icelandic citizen who was simply exercising his constitutional right of freedom of speech,” Minister for Foreign Affairs Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson tells
Foreign Minister Calls Assault on US Capitol ‘Frightening and Unacceptable’ Minister for Foreign Affairs Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson Vala Hafstað
“This was frightening and unacceptable,” Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson tells
mbl.is, speaking of the assault yesterday by US President Donald Trump’s supporters on the US Capitol.
“You can’t define this as a demonstration. People who behave like this are simply a mob,” he continues.
When asked whether he believes the situation in the US will hurt democracy there, he responds, “The positive aspect of this is the reactions of former and present leaders of both parties, which were very strong. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel, for example, gave a very good speech, and that tells us that democracy remains strong in the US.”