"John Kerry To Sign U.N. Arms Treaty: Diplomats"

[applegrove]

John Kerry To Sign U.N. Arms Treaty: Diplomats

By Paul Eckert, Louis Charbonneau and Arshad Mohammed at Reuters

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/john-kerry-un-arms-treaty_n_3983318.html

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UNITED NATIONS, Sept 24 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in a move that puts the Obama administration at odds with the powerful American gun lobby, will sign the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty regulating the $70 billion international conventional arms business, diplomats said on Tuesday.

A senior State Department official said President Barack Obama's administration would notify the U.S. Senate on Tuesday and Kerry would sign the treaty on Wednesday on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Obama gave a speech to the assembly on Tuesday that focused on Syria, Iran and other Middle East hot spots.

The arms treaty, which requires ratification by the Senate and has been attacked by America's pro-gun National Rifle Association, would help Western countries press to curtail Russian arms sales to Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad's government has been accused of widespread abuses in more than two years of civil war.

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