New START treaty runs into trouble

The White House scrambled this week to save a nuclear arms pact with Russia after Republican opposition to the deal hardened. The New START treaty, which the administration had hoped to see ratified by the Senate this year, calls for the U.S. and Russia to reduce their nuclear warheads by about 30 percent. The treaty, one of Obama’s top foreign policy goals, would also facilitate mutual weapons inspections, which ceased after the START I treaty expired nearly a year ago. Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, whose support the White House had courted, said he is opposed to a swift vote on the treaty, arguing that more attention must be directed to modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

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