[Peace-discuss] JFP stmt: House bars transfer of MANPADS to Syria

[Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss]

[image: Just Foreign Policy]
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?key=-1&url_num=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.justforeignpolicy.org>

June 20, 2014
10:30 AM
CONTACT: Just Foreign Policy
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?key=-1&url_num=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.justforeignpolicy.org>
Robert Naiman: (202) 448-2898 x1, Naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

*Statement of Robert Naiman, Policy Director of Just Foreign Policy, on
House passage of Conyers-Yoho amendment to prohibit transfer of MANPADS to
Syria*

WASHINGTON - June 20 - “The House took an important step last night by
prohibiting
the transfer of MANPADS to actors in Syria
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?key=-1&url_num=3&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.rollcall.com%2Ffive-by-five%2Fhouse-votes-to-ban-some-but-not-all-weapons-for-syrian-rebels%2F>.
House passage of the Conyers-Yoho-Welch-Amash-Grayson-DesJarlais-Nolan
amendment by voice vote with the agreement of bipartisan leadership shows
that Members of the House understand that these are particularly dangerous
weapons due to the possibility that they could be used by terrorists
against civil aviation in Israel and elsewhere and that Members are
concerned by press reports that the Administration has been considering
authorizing their transfer to actors in Syria. These concerns were
highlighted in a June 5 letter
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?key=-1&url_num=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.justforeignpolicy.org%2Fnode%2F1517>
signed by 19 Representatives, led by Reps. Welch, Jones, Mulvaney, and
Nolan, and in a petition at MoveOn
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?key=-1&url_num=5&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpetitions.moveon.org%2Fsign%2Fcongress-back-welch-jones%3Fsource%3Dc.tw%26r_by%3D1135580>
signed by 14,000 Americans.

“The fact that 167 Members of the House voted for Rep. Fortenberry’s
amendment to prohibit all arming of Syrian insurgents shows that there is
significant concern in the House about the present policy of arming Syrian
insurgents. Recent events in Iraq have shown that there is no border
separating Sunni insurgents fighting the government of Syria from Sunni
insurgents fighting the government of Iraq, nor any boundary between
different groups of Sunni insurgents. We thank Representative Fortenberry
for forcing a House vote on this issue. Arming Syrian insurgents is an act
of war that should be debated and voted on by the whole Congress in open
session, not just considered by the intelligence committees in closed
session.

“We look forward to working with Members of the Senate to pass companion
legislation to the Conyers-Yoho amendment so that there will be no doubt
that transferring MANPADS to actors in Syria will not be possible without
explicit approval by the whole Congress.”

###

Just Foreign Policy
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?key=-1&url_num=6&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.justforeignpolicy.org>
is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that engages Americans in
working to reform U.S. foreign policy so that it reflects the values and
interests of the majority of Americans.


 © 2014 Just Foreign Policy
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20140620/03c0a2f7/attachment.html>