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Obama Rallying Support for New START Treaty

   VOA News 18 November 2010
   President  Barack  Obama  waves  as  he  steps off Air Force One after
   arriving  at  Andrews  Air Force Base, Md., 9 April 2010, from Prague,
   where  he  signed  the  New START treaty with Russian president Dmitry
   Medvedev (file photo)

Photo: AP

   President  Barack  Obama  waves  as  he  steps off Air Force One after
   arriving  at  Andrews  Air Force Base, Md., 9 April 2010, from Prague,
   where  he  signed  the  New START treaty with Russian president Dmitry
   Medvedev (file photo)

   U.S. President Barack Obama plans to meet Thursday with former defense
   and  diplomatic leaders from both major political parties at the White
   House  to  rally  support for a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with
   Russia.
   The  White  House  said  President  Obama  will  continue  to push for
   ratification  of  the  New  START treaty with Russia by the end of the
   year, despite the opposition of a key Senate Republican.
   Senator  Jon Kyl, the Republican negotiator on the issue, has resisted
   the president's efforts to hold the vote before the new Congress takes
   office in January with a stronger Republican presence. Â
   White  House  spokesman  Robert  Gibbs  told  reporters  Wednesday the
   administration  is  confident  that  the new treaty will come up for a
   vote  in  the  U.S. Senate before the end of the year and that it will
   pass.
   President  Obama  and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the new
   agreement  in  April,  committing  to  cut deployed nuclear weapons by
   about 30 percent.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

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