US President Barack Obama ramped up his push on Thursday for the Senate to pass a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia, calling it a national security imperative that the pact be ratified this year.
Obama held a high-profile meeting with former Republican and Democrat secretaries of state at the White House to bolster his case for ratification in the Senate, where some Republican senators are expressing doubts about it.
The new agreement commits the US and Russia to cutting deployed nuclear weapons by about 30 percent, to no more than 1,550, within seven years. It also includes verification measures.
“The stakes for American national security are clear and they are high,” Obama told reporters at the White House, sitting with former Republican secretary of state Henry Kissinger at his side.
He assigned US Vice President Joe Biden to work “day and night” to enlist support for the treaty with the aim of gaining Senate ratification by the time Congress ends its work for the year next month.
“I’m confident that we should be able to get the votes. Keep in mind that every president since Ronald Reagan has presented a arms treaty with Russia and been able to get ratification,” Obama said.
Biden’s goal is to try to gain the backing of eight out of 15 Republican senators who might be willing to vote for it. Ratifying the treaty will require 67 votes in the 100-member Senate.
A key obstacle is Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl, who has insisted the Obama administration spend more money to make sure existing US stockpiles are well maintained. Administration officials are scrambling to answer his concerns.
The fear is that if the treaty does not get ratified this year and it is held over until next year, a larger contingent of Republicans in the Senate could make it even more difficult to gain passage.
Obama said the treaty was a cornerstone of US relations with Russia, noting that Moscow had been “fundamental” in helping to put strong sanctions in place against Iran to deal with its nuclear program.
“We cannot afford to gamble on our ability to verify Russia’s strategic nuclear arms and we can’t jeopardize the progress that we’ve made in securing vulnerable nuclear materials or in maintaining a strong sanctions regime against Iran,” Obama said.
The White House wants the Senate to bring the deal to a vote during the final weeks of the current Congress — the so-called “lame-duck” session.
Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the new START treaty in April to replace the previous START accord, which expired in December last year.
“As Ronald Reagan said, we have to trust, but we also have to verify. In order for us to verify, we’ve got to have a treaty,” Obama said. “This is not a Democratic concept, this is not a Republican concept. This is a concept of American national security that has been promoted by Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and now my administration.”
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS