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US Declares South Africa's Ambassador Persona Non Grata

FILE - South Africa's ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool speaks at the South African Embassy in Washington, Dec. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
FILE - South Africa's ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool speaks at the South African Embassy in Washington, Dec. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
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US Declares South Africa's Ambassador Persona Non Grata

FILE - South Africa's ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool speaks at the South African Embassy in Washington, Dec. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
FILE - South Africa's ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool speaks at the South African Embassy in Washington, Dec. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday declared Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa's ambassador to the US, persona non grata, calling the envoy a "race-baiting politician" who hates America and President Donald Trump.
"South Africa's Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country," Rubio said in a post on social media platform X. "We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA," Rubio said.
Rasool presented his credentials to then-President Joe Biden on January 13, a week before Trump took office, marking the start of the envoy's tenure, according to the South African embassy's website. It said this was Rasool's second stint in Washington.
The US State Department and South Africa's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Chrispin Phiri, spokesperson for South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation, posted on X that the government "will engage through the diplomatic channel."
Ties between the United States and South Africa have deteriorated since Trump cut US financial aid to the country, citing disapproval of its land policy and of its genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Washington's ally Israel.
Trump has said, without citing evidence, that "South Africa is confiscating land" and that "certain classes of people" are being treated "very badly."
South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, who is close to Trump, has said white South Africans have been the victims of "racist ownership laws."
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a bill in January aimed at making it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest, in some cases without compensating the owner.
Ramaphosa has defended the policy and said the government had not confiscated any land. The policy was aimed at evening out racial disparities in land ownership in the Black-majority nation, he said.

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Man Who Stabbed Author Salman Rushdie on Stage Has Been Sentenced to 25 years in Prison

Hadi Matar arrives for his trial on charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault dating to an attack on Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, at Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, New York, US February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Robert Frank/File Photo
Hadi Matar arrives for his trial on charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault dating to an attack on Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, at Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, New York, US February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Robert Frank/File Photo
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Man Who Stabbed Author Salman Rushdie on Stage Has Been Sentenced to 25 years in Prison

Hadi Matar arrives for his trial on charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault dating to an attack on Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, at Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, New York, US February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Robert Frank/File Photo
Hadi Matar arrives for his trial on charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault dating to an attack on Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, at Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, New York, US February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Robert Frank/File Photo

The man convicted of stabbing Salman Rushdie on a New York lecture stage in 2022, leaving the prizewinning author blind in one eye, was sentenced Friday to serve 25 years in prison.
A jury found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of attempted murder and assault in February, The AP news reported.
Rushdie did not return to court to the western New York courtroom for his assailant’s sentencing but submitted a victim impact statement. During the trial, the 77-year-old author was the key witness, describing how he believed he was dying when a masked attacker plunged a knife into his head and body more than a dozen times as he was being introduced at the Chautauqua Institution to speak about writer safety.
Before being sentenced, Matar stood and made a statement about freedom of speech in which he called Rushdie a hypocrite.
Matar received the maximum 25-year sentence for the attempted murder of Rushdie and seven years for wounding a man who was on stage with him. The sentences must run concurrently because both victims were injured in the same event, District Attorney Jason Schmidt said.
In requesting the maximum sentence, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt told the judge that Matar “chose this. He designed this attack so that he could inflict the most amount of damage, not just upon Mr. Rushdie, but upon this community, upon the 1,400 people who were there to watch it.”
Public defender Nathaniel Barone pointed out that Matar had a otherwise clean criminal record and disputed that the people in the audience should be considered victims, suggesting that a sentence of 12 years would be appropriate.
Rushdie spent 17 days at a Pennsylvania hospital and more than three weeks at a New York City rehabilitation center. The author of “Midnight's Children,” “The Moor’s Last Sigh" and “Victory City” detailed his recovery in his 2024 memoir, “Knife.”
Matar next faces a federal trial on terrorism-related charges. While the first trial focused mostly on the details of the knife attack itself, the next one is expected to delve into the more complicated issue of motive.
Authorities said Matar, a US citizen, was attempting to carry out a decades-old fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death when he traveled from his home in Fairview, New Jersey, to target Rushdie at the summer retreat about 70 miles (112.6 kilometers) southwest of Buffalo.
Matar pleaded not guilty to a three-count indictment charging him with providing material to terrorists, attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah and engaging in terrorism transcending national boundaries.
Video of the assault, captured by the venue's cameras and played at trial, show Matar approaching the seated Rushdie from behind and reaching around him to stab at his torso with a knife. As the audience gasps and screams, Rushdie is seen raising his arms and rising from his seat, walking and stumbling for a few steps with Matar hanging on, swinging and stabbing until they both fall and are surrounded by onlookers who rush in to separate them.
Jurors in Matar's first trial delivered their verdict after less than two hours of deliberation.