GOP furious that U.S. may abstain on U.N. vote to condemn Cuba embargo

GOP furious that U.S. may abstain on U.N. vote to condemn Cuba embargo
Alan Gomez, USA TODAY 5:36 p.m. EDT September 21, 2015

Republicans in Congress reacted angrily Monday to a report that the
Obama administration is considering the unprecedented step of abstaining
from an annual U.N. vote condemning the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba.

For the past 23 years, the United Nations has voted on a symbolic
resolution that denounces the embargo. Each time, through Republican and
Democratic administrations, the United States has voted against the
resolution, with a diminishing number of countries backing it up. Last
year's vote was 188-2.

The Obama administration is considering an abstention, according to four
unnamed administration officials who spoke to the Associated Press.
That move would put international pressure squarely on Congress, which
imposed the embargo more than 50 years ago and is the only authority
that can end it. USA TODAY could not confirm the AP report.

Rep. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a Cuban-American and presidential hopeful,
said the contemplated move shows Obama is "putting international
popularity" ahead of his responsibilities to lead the nation. House
Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the administration has a
"responsibility to defend U.S. law and that's what they should do."

"To support a resolution in the U.N. aimed at criticizing U.S. law would
not only appease the (Castro) regime, but would ignore sanctions passed
by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton," said Rep. Mario
Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., a Cuban-American.

The U.N. vote, likely next month, comes as Obama tries to rally support
for broader changes to Cuba policy following his historic move to
reestablish diplomatic relations with the communist island. Since
announcing in December that the two Cold War foes would end their
54-year-long estrangement, Obama has expanded the ability of Americans
to trade with and travel to the island, and the State Department has
removed Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List and reopened the
U.S. Embassy in Havana.

But his calls for Congress to lift the economic embargo have been
ignored by Republican leaders in Congress. Carl Meacham, a former
Republican congressional staffer, said there is sufficient support among
Senate Republicans to end the embargo and that there are probably many
House Republicans who privately feel the same way. But Meacham said
Obama risks alienating those members if he uses the U.N. vote to
pressure them.

"There are Republicans that are supportive of the policy change, but
they may not be supportive of the way that he's going about it, not
going through Congress, using the U.N.," said Meacham, who is now
director of the America's Program at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies.

The latest flap is a sign of a new brand of foreign relations practiced
in the United States, said Martin Edwards, director of the Center for
United Nations and Global Governance Studies at Seton Hall University.
He cited three recent examples that show how international negotiations
have been affected by an increasingly polarized Washington.

There was the recent news that staffers in congressional offices were
calling foreign governments to explain their views on climate change and
how they would attack Obama's plans. In March, 47 Senate Republicans
sent a letter to Iran's leaders saying any nuclear agreement reached
with Obama would only be temporary. And that same month, Congress
allowed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint
session of Congress despite White House opposition because of the
Israeli leaders sharp criticism of the Iran nuclear deal..

Those incidents raise questions about "who's actually driving the van on
foreign policy, which is regrettable," Edwards said.

Edwards said chaotic foreign relations will continue because nobody
seems poised to suffer any political fallout. A fight over the Cuba vote
in the U.N. may only help the combatants come election time.

"Everybody gets what they want here," Edwards said. "The president gets
a chance to poke Congress in the eye, members of Congress get a chance
to upbraid the president for trying to poke them in the eye, and
everybody's happy."

Source: GOP furious that U.S. may abstain on U.N. vote to condemn Cuba
embargo -
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/09/21/us-mulls-cuba-abstention/72550062/