Foreign Policy

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) urged his colleagues Thursday to support a bill he introduced, which would eliminate oil exports from Iran by expanding U.S. production.

The Iran Sanctions Implementation Act, S. 965, would require President Obama to expand U.S. domestic oil production on federal lands to offset Iran’s oil exports to the international community.

Sen. Robert Menendez said Republicans should embrace his bill instead of making “politically driven” attacks.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Republicans lied to the media when they said the Obama administration engaged in a cover-up on the Benghazi attack.

“For months my Republican colleagues have argued that the Obama administration has engaged in a cover-up surrounding an attack in Benghazi,” Reid said Thursday. “The emails prove there was simply no cover-up.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) on Wednesday condemned comments from Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto that the use of "comfort women" in Japan during World War II was "necessary."

Royce described "comfort women" as a "state-sponsored program of sexual brutality" against thousands of women during the war. But this week, Hashimoto was reported as saying that these women were "necessary."

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said House Republicans needed to “look in the mirror” on who is to blame for the “Benghazi scandal.”

“Start by looking in the mirror,” Boxer said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “Admit that you cut too much from embassy security.”

A bipartisan group of senators on Thursday went to the Senate floor to call on President Obama to take tougher action against Syrian President Bashar al Assad, including arming his opposition and possibly missile strikes.

In a colloquy, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) all said Obama should put military pressure on the Syrian regime by arming rebel groups fighting the Assad regime.

Graham and McCain have long been hawkish on Syria, but the pressure from Levin and Menendez points to growing support in Congress for tougher actions against Syria.

McCain even suggested that the U.S. could use precision strikes to target Syria's ballistic missiles and chemical weapons.

"The Republic of Korea will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea," President Park Geun-hye told Congress.

President Obama on Tuesday told Congress he is extending the imposition of sanctions against Syria for another year — they were due to expire on May 11.

In a notice to Congress, Obama said Syria has reduced the facilitation of foreign fighters into Iraq, it's ongoing civil war against Syrian civilians means the sanctions will continue.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) on Monday called on Congress to pass legislation withholding aid to Pakistan until a doctor who helped the U.S. find Osama bin Laden is freed from a Pakistani prison.

Rohrabacher was responding to new reports that the next appeal hearing for Dr. Shakil Afridi will be postponed until June. In addition to starving Pakistan of foreign aid funding, Rohrabacher also called on the Obama administration to withdraw the U.S. ambassador from Pakistan.

Three Cuban-American House members said Friday they were “deeply disturbed” by the State Department's decision to grant a visa to Mariela Castro, daughter of President Raul Castro and niece of his brother Fidel. Read more...