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International News Title: Russia Warns Senate Not to Amend Arms Control Treaty WASHINGTON — Russia warned the United States Senate on Monday not to rewrite the new arms control treaty being debated on Capitol Hill as American lawmakers clashed about the politics of ratification in the waning days of the Congressional session. Republican critics of the treaty, known as New Start, offered more amendments to the treaty’s language on verification and launcher limits. But any change to the treaty text would require both countries to return to the negotiating table, and Moscow made it clear that senators had to accept the treaty or reject it as it is, without amendments. “I can only underscore that the strategic nuclear arms treaty, worked out on the strict basis of parity, in our view fully answers to the national interests of Russia and the United States,” Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, told the Interfax news agency on Monday. “It cannot be opened up and become the subject of new negotiations.” The Russian statement provoked a sharp response from the leading Republican treaty opponent, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona. “What’s wrong with that?” he asked of returning to the negotiating table to improve the treaty. “Unless you think the U.S. Constitution was really stupid to give the Senate a role in this, it doesn’t seem there’s anything wrong with the Senate saying, ‘You got about nine-tenths of it right.’ ” The Senate floor debate on New Start turned increasingly harsh as supporters of the treaty prepared for a procedural vote on Tuesday to close off further discussion. The treaty’s fate appeared to be entangled by unrelated factors, including an acrimonious deadlock over a spending bill, anger among some Republicans over passage of legislation ending the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military, and the widespread view that approval of the treaty would help rejuvenate a weakened president. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, went to the floor on Monday to elaborate on why he would vote against the treaty, a stance he declared on Sunday. He said the treaty’s verification measures were inadequate, citing a classified report by a fellow Republican senator. And he warned that nonbinding language in the treaty preamble could ultimately inhibit development of American missile defense systems. Mr. McConnell accused President Obama and the Democrats of politicizing the treaty by pressing to ratify it before a new Senate takes office in January, with five more Republicans than the current Senate. “We should wait until every one of them is addressed,” Mr. McConnell said of his criticisms of the treaty. “Our top concern should be the safety and security of our nation, not some politician’s desire to declare a political victory and host a press conference before the end of the year.” Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, responded heatedly to the notion that the treaty was being rushed. He said that Democrats had already put off consideration of the treaty 13 times at the request of Republicans, and that even after those delays, the Senate had already spent more time debating it than it had the first Start treaty or the Treaty of Moscow signed by President George W. Bush. “This treaty is in front of the United States Senate not because of some political schedule,” Mr. Kerry said. “It’s because the Republicans asked us to delay it. We wanted to hold this before the election. And what was the argument then by our friends on the other side of the aisle? ‘Oh no, please don’t do that. That’ll politicize our treaty.’ ” Mr. Kerry added: “Having accommodated their interests, they now come back and turn around and say: ‘Oh, you guys are terrible. You’re bringing this treaty up at the last minute.’ I mean, is there no shame, ever, with respect to the arguments that are made sometimes on the floor of the United States Senate?” The treaty would limit each side to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and 700 deployed launchers seven years after ratification. It would also resume onsite inspections that lapsed last December when the original Start treaty expired. The Senate planned to vote on Monday on two amendments to the treaty that were proposed by Republicans. One, from Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, would triple the number of inspections each year, to 54 from 18. Republicans have criticized the treaty for calling for fewer inspections than the original Start treaty, which specified 28 a year. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread |
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