Foreign Policy

Mississippi Sens. Thad Cochran (R) and Roger Wicker (R) said Wednesday that the Obama administration should not agree to the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty because the Senate won’t ratify it.

“The Senate has already gone on record in stating that an Arms Trade Treaty has no hope, especially if it does not specifically protect the individual right to bear arms and American sovereignty,” Cochran said. “It would be pointless for the president to sign such a treaty and expect the Senate to go along. We won’t ratify it.”

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is demanding that the Organization of American States launch an investigation into the death of Cuban activist Oswaldo Payá last year.

The call follows accusations that the car Payá was riding in was forced off the road by a car with government license plates. His daughter urged the United Nations Human Rights Council to open an investigation earlier this month. 

“Oswaldo Payá was a brave man trying to peacefully advocate for greater political freedom for his fellow Cuban brothers and sisters,” the senators wrote in a letter to Emilio Álvarez Icaza, the executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. “It increasingly looks like he paid for that effort with his life. His memory and his family deserve an honest and independent accounting of what happened.”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that a “failure” of U.S. leadership has left Syria’s democratic opposition weakened.

McCain’s latest warning came after Moaz al-Khatib, the President of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, resigned.

Sens. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.) have introduced legislation that calls on the federal government to offer money to foreign countries to help them improve prison conditions.

Their Foreign Prison Conditions Improvement Act, S. 657, is a reaction to their visits to prisons in Africa and Haiti. Inhofe found poor conditions in African prisons, including a high incidence of HIV/AIDS, and Leahy found overcrowding in Haiti.

A group of GOP senators wrote a resolution expressing their concerns that the United Nations's Arms Trade Treaty could endanger Second Amendment rights.

On Friday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) urged President Obama’s administration to vote against the treaty later this month.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said “the world is failing” the Syrian people by not helping rebels topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

On the Senate floor Thursday, McCain marked the two-year anniversary of the start of the uprising in Syria. He pointed to reports that say more than 70,000 people have died and nearly 1 million refugees have fled the country because of the brutality of Assad over the last two years.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said Thursday that the United States needed to strengthen trade relations with Africa.

“We have an opportunity to strengthen the economy,” Coons said on the floor Thursday. “But don’t fool yourself, today we are falling short. We are failing to grasp this opportunity.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution Thursday that says the United States should help Israel militarily and economically if it’s forced to act in self-defense.

“We have no better friends in that part of the world than Israel,” Graham said. “Last year President Obama told the people of Israel, ‘We have your back.’ Our resolution builds upon that statement and makes it clear that if Israel is one day forced to protect themselves we will stand with Israel.”

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said the United States should lead a coordinated effort to stop the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from killing his own people.

Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday after Cardin visited the region during last week’s recess, Cardin said leaders in Israel and Turkey expressed frustration “that there hasn’t been a more unified humanitarian response to what Assad has done to his own people.”

The Senate passed a bill Monday to prevent nuclear proliferation in North Korea.

Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) introduced the North Korea Nonproliferation and Accountability Act, which passed by unanimous consent Monday evening before the Senate adjourned for the day.