Foreign Policy

Three Cuban-Americans lawmakers wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry to press him to keep Cuba on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The State Department is mandated by law to provide Congress by April 30 of each year an updated report on terrorism around the word. Cuba is one of four countries currently on the list, along with Syria, Iran and Sudan.

The letter was spearheaded by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and signed by Reps. Albio Sires (D-N.J.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.). The only other Cuban-American in the House, Rep. Joe Garcia (D-Fla.), did not sign on to the letter but also supports keeping Cuba on the list and is drafting his own letter to Kerry, The Hill has learned.

The Obama administration should make progress on human rights a “central part” of U.S.-Mexican relations, a bipartisan group of 24 lawmakers said Friday ahead of President Obama's trip next week.

The letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, spearheaded by Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), comes as President Enrique Peña Nieto has vowed to ensure that “rights established on paper become reality.” The State Department is withholding $18 million in security assistance pending progress on human rights, and the lawmakers urged Kerry to keep the cuts in place until the country shows an increase in the number of official abuse allegations that are prosecuted.

“Now is an opportune moment to work with the Mexican government to improve the situation in that country,” wrote the lawmakers. “We are encouraged by President Enrique Peña Nieto’s strong statements affirming his commitment to human rights and we believe they provide the United States with an important opening to raise our concerns with the Mexican government. We believe that a measurable increase in the number of cases of abuses that are investigated and prosecuted in civilian jurisdiction should be a key benchmark by which the State Department assesses the progress made by the Peña Nieto government on human rights.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Thursday urged all members of the House to attend a classified briefing from the Obama administration on the apparent use of chemical weapons by Syria.

"Today, the administration has confirmed that the Assad regime in Syria has crossed a dangerous, game-changing red line, using chemical weapons against its own citizens," Cantor told members on the House floor.

"The Syrian conflict has raged for many months, and nearly a hundred thousand Syrian civilians have been killed," he said. "The conflict now threatens to spill over Syria's borders, destabilizing key American allies.

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Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) is demanding that President Obama personally intervene to have the United Nations fire an American official who described the Boston bombings as “blowback” for the “American global domination project."

Richard Falk, a controversial Princeton professor who serves as the U.N.'s special rapporteur for Palestinian issues, made the remarks in an essay for Foreign Policy Journal. Obama's ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, tweeted in response that she was “outraged” by the “highly offensive” comments. 

“Someone who spews such vitriol has no place at the U.N.,” she said. “Past time for him to go.”

The Senate approved the resolution with no debate by unanimous consent, just in time for Thatcher's funeral on Wednesday.

Sens. Menendez and McConnell have stopped working together on a resolution to honor the former British prime minister.

In a letter obtained by The Hill, an official wrote that educational trips to Cuba are allowed under "people-to-people" licenses.

The House on Tuesday evening passed a resolution in honor of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died yesterday at the age of 87.

H.Res. 141, offered by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), expresses the House's "profound sorrow" at the death of Thatcher, who was Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990 and forged a strong personal and political bond with President Ronald Reagan.

Treasury declined to comment on whether the celebrities had a license to travel to Cuba.

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.”