Foreign Policy

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday that he hopes the treaty granting people with disabilities equal rights passes in the Senate quickly.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD) would ensure that countries ratifying the treaty work toward equality for persons with disabilities in accessibility, health, education and employment, among other things.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Republican attacks on United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice are “outrageous and utterly unmoored from facts and reality.”

Rice didn't convince Republican senators that she wasn't to blame for providing misleading information about the September attack in Benghazi, Libya, during meetings on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) promised that he’d make U.S. relations with South Sudan less friendly, unless their government releases one of his constituents, who he said has been wrongly accused of committing crimes.

“We’re looking at this case very seriously as a test of their judicial system and their intentions,” Vitter said on the floor Tuesday. “If this unjust detention continues, I’ll make sure there are repercussions to that relationship.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday that the Senate would move toward votes on a treaty protecting the rights of people with disabilities because Republicans still aren’t in agreement over amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act.

Reid said that while Republicans discuss what they want to do on the defense authorization, he intends bring up the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on Tuesday. 

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) on Monday blamed U.S. foreign policy — which he said favors Israel over other entities in the Middle East — for the recent escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas.

"U.S. foreign policy being so one-sided actually results in more loss of life and of security on both sides," Paul said. "Surely Israelis do not enjoy the threat of missiles from Gaza nor do the Palestinians enjoy their Israel-imposed inhuman conditions in Gaza.

"But as long as Israel can count on its destructive policies being underwritten by the U.S. taxpayer it can continue to engage in reckless behavior. And as long as the Palestinians feel the one-sided U.S. presence lined up against them they will continue to resort to more and more deadly and desperate measures."

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Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that they oppose any Palestinian attempt to pursue non-member state status at the United Nations General Assembly.

In a letter to Abbas sent Wednesday, Collins and Cardin said Palestinian statehood should come from a peace agreement with Israel, not the U.N.

Nearly 100 House Republicans on Monday called on President Obama not to nominate Susan Rice as secretary of State.

The resolution argues the treaty doesn't recognize the right of Americans to keep and bear arms.

The House passed a resolution Friday afternoon that supports Israel's right to self-defense, in the wake of attacks on Israel by Hamas and Israel's counter-attacks this week.

Members approved H.Res. 813 by a voice vote, and with no debate. The resolution was introduced Friday, and expresses "vigorous support and unwavering commitment to the welfare, security and survival of the state of Israel, as a Jewish and Democratic state with secure borders, and recognizing and strongly supporting its right to act in self-defense to protect its citizens against acts of terrorism."

The bill also paves the way for sanctions against Russian officials involved in human rights violations.