Policy & Strategy

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he believes the U.S. is moving quickly to arm Syrian opposition forces.

“I do think we’ll be arming the opposition shortly,” Corker said Tuesday on “CBS This Morning.” “We’re doing a lot more there on the ground than really is known, but we do have to change the equation … we’ve got to change the balance there and I do think we will be arming the rebels soon.”

Menendez (D-N.J.) introduced legislation on Monday that would provide arms to vetted opposition groups.

The Topline: The White House on Monday said that Israel had a right to defend itself amid concerns that the airstrikes in Syria could spark a wider regional conflict.

White House press secretary Jay Carney defended President Obama’s “red line” toward Syria, and the cautious approach that the administration has taken since the administration revealed it has evidence of chemical weapons use in Syria.

Carney said that Obama’s warning last August was a deliberate signal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, rejecting a New York Times report this weekend that the president was improvising.

“What he never did — it would be simplistic to do so — was say, ‘If X happens, Y will happen,’ ” Carney said at Monday’s White House press briefing. “He never said what reaction he would take at a policy level to the proved crossing of the red line in Syria.”

Congress is putting pressure on Obama to act in response to the alleged chemical weapons use by Assad’s forces. Administration officials said last week they were reconsidering whether to provide weapons to vetted rebel groups.

Chinese military and intelligence officials are ramping up efforts to secure sensitive U.S. military technologies, as part of Beijing's plans to bolster its own arsenal of next-generation weapons. 

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Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on Monday introduced a bill that would provide arms to vetted rebel groups.

The escalating crisis in Syria will likely be at the top of Secretary of State John Kerry's agenda during his first meeting with Defense Department Secretary Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon. 

The White House on Monday defended President Obama's “red line” on Syria. 

Pyongyang has hit the pause button in its aggressive rhetoric toward the Washington and its allies in the Pacific, calming tensions between the United States and North Korea. 

A U.N. commission says it has no conclusive findings of chemical weapons use by any parties.

A key Senate panel hears this week from President Obama's nominee to replace slain Ambassador Christopher Stevens, giving Republicans an ideal platform to demand answers to their questions about last year's terror attack in Benghazi, Libya.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has announced it will hold a hearing Tuesday on the nomination of Deborah Kay Jones to serve as ambassador to Libya. The hearing comes as Republicans are relaunching their investigation into the attack. The House oversight panel hears from three State Department witnesses on Wednesday, and some senators have threatened to hold up Jones's nomination.

“Unfortunately it seems like that’s the only vehicle we can use to get answers,” panel member Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told The Hill shortly after crossing swords with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she testified in January. 

“I’d like to cooperate with the president and make sure that his administration is staffed and these important ambassadorships are filled. But if that’s the only avenue we have in terms of eliciting information from the administration, that might be something we have to do.”