Congress starts to question UN arms embargo on Libya
The shift follows a heavy push by Egypt and Jordan after the Islamic State beheading of Coptic Christians.
Some US lawmakers are starting to question the United Nations weapons ban on Libya following a lobbying blitz by regional powers after the Islamic State (IS) announced last week it had beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians.
Jordan, which saw one of its pilots burned alive by the Islamist group, began circulating a draft resolution at the UN Security Council on Feb. 18. Libya and Egypt immediately jumped on board and have since both pressed their case on Fox News, whose viewership consists largely of politically active conservative Americans.
"It is time to rethink the UN's arms ban, and it's time to come up with a comprehensive approach," the powerful chairman of the Senate foreign aid panel, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Al-Monitor on Feb. 24. "We're going to have to take some risks and make some bets here, because without a dynamic change on the ground Libya's going to be the new Syria."
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs panel on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats, echoed those remarks.
