Middle East/North Africa

The House approves several amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) late Thursday that stress ongoing vigilance on Iran and North Korea, as well as Russia and other countries.

Members approved an amendment from Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) requiring an analysis on how sanctions are affecting Iran's Threat Network. Another proposal from Schneider that was approved adds a sense of Congress that the president should limit the transfer of arms from Russia, Lebanon and Iran to Syria.

The Obama administration has struggled for more than two years over what to do in Syria. Now it's Congress's turn.

The Senate passed a resolution Thursday calling for “fair and free” elections in Iran.

The Senate agreed to the resolution through a unanimous consent agreement, the day before Iran is scheduled to hold its elections.

The senators want Obama to establish a no-fly zone and “take out” Assad’s air capabilities by “cratering” runways with missiles.

The Kentucky Republican said at the Faith and Freedom Conference foreign aid should be slashed to Egypt, Libya and Pakistan.

A bipartisan group of 14 senators warned in a letter to President Mohamed Morsi of repercussions if his government doesn't overturn the conviction of 43 non-governmental organization workers.

An Egyptian court sentenced the workers, including 16 Americans, to prison sentences as long as five years for allegedly taking foreign money to destabilize the Egyptian government on behalf of Israel. The Obama administration has said it is “deeply concerned,” but stopped short of threatening to end the $1.5 billion in annual aid, most of it military.

“There are efforts underway in Congress to examine the future of the United States-Egypt relationship,” the senators warned.

The death toll in Syria is nearing 100,000, the United Nations said in a new report Thursday that comes as the Obama administration struggles with how to respond to Bashar Assad's gains in the civil war.

Some 93,000 were killed between the start of the conflict in March 2001 and the end of April 2013, the U.N. Human Rights Office said in a report released Thursday. The report found that 5,000 people are being killed every month, 82.6 percent of them male and many of them non-combatants.

“This extremely high rate of killings, month after month, reflects the drastically deteriorating pattern of the conflict over the past year,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement. “As clearly indicated in the latest report by the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, civilians are bearing the brunt of widespread, violent and often indiscriminate attacks which are devastating whole swathes of major towns and cities, as well as outlying villages.”

Former President Clinton told Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that he supports McCain's calls for more forceful action in Syria

None of the parties in Syria's civil war are winning, Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged Wednesday following months of assurances by the Obama administration that Bashar Assad's days are numbered.

“I think that nobody wins in Syria the way things are going; the people lose, and Syria as a country loses,” Kerry said. “And what we have been pushing for, all of us involved in this effort, is a political solution that ends the violence, saves Syria, stops the killing and destruction of an entire nation. 

“And that’s what we’re pushing for. So it’s not a question to me whether or not the opposition can, quote, 'win.' It’s a question of whether or not we can get to this political solution.”

The Obama administration on Wednesday made it legal for Americans to sell technology and buy oil from the Syrian rebels.

The country has come under an increasing number of sanctions since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad began more than two years ago. Wednesday's waivers aim to give the U.S.-backed opposition a boost as Assad's regime is gaining ground in the western part of the country.

“Through the Departments of State, Commerce, and Treasury, the Administration is taking several significant steps to ease U.S. economic sanctions, enable additional relief and reconstruction activities in opposition-controlled areas of Syria, and support the Syrian opposition and the people of Syria,” the State Department said in a statement.