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Wednesday's global agenda: House votes on Iran, Syria sanctions
Your morning global affairs speed-read
The House is scheduled to vote on new sanctions against Iran after both chambers worked out their differences on Monday. The Obama administration says it worked with lawmakers on the legislation, and announced its own new sanctions on Tuesday.
The legislation, sponsored in the House by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), also targets Syria. It would target “certain persons who are responsible for or complicit in human-rights abuses committed against citizens of Syria or their family members” and “who engage in censorship or other forms of repression in Syria” while imposing sanctions “with respect to the transfer of goods or technologies to Syria that are likely to be used to commit human-rights abuses.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will also keep the attention focused on Bashar Assad's regime with a hearing on the “next steps” in Syria. Think-tank witnesses have been invited to speak, but no one from the administration.
The return of Chen: Remember Chen Guangchen? The blind Chinese dissident will meet with House members during an event hosted by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), at which Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will also appear. Boehner in particular credits Chen for advocating against forced abortions and China's one-child policy, something Republicans have criticized the Obama administration for failing to strongly condemn in the past.
Not forgotten: Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) keeps the spotlight on Jacob Ostreicher, the American imprisoned in Bolivia, with another hearing of his House Foreign Affairs Committee panel on human rights. Smith even took the highly unusual step of visiting Ostreicher in jail last month and accompanying him to court.
In other news:
Iran has allowed the Taliban to open an office in the country and discussed furnishing it with surface-to-air missiles. [The Wall Street Journal]
More than half of India's population lost power this week in the largest blackout in history. [The New York Times]
The U.S. has given a Washington-based group clearance to provide direct financial assistance to the Syrian rebels. [Al Monitor]
What you might have missed on Global Affairs:
Obama campaign: Romney has harmed US interests abroad
Obama nominee spells out way forward for peace deal with Taliban
US signs deal with Pakistan on NATO convoys
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