START treaty passage bolsters Obama

WASHINGTON - The Senate ratified an arms control treaty with Russia Wednesday that reins in the nuclear weapons, giving President Barack Obama a major foreign policy win in Congress' waning hours.

Thirteen Republicans broke with their top two leaders and joined 56 Democrats and two independents in providing the necessary two-thirds vote. The vote was 71-26, with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) showing up just two days after cancer surgery.

The accord, which still must be approved by Russia, would restart on-site weapons inspections. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow welcomed the vote but needed to study the accompanying Senate resolution.

Vice President Joe Biden presided over the Senate and announced the vote. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton observed the vote from the Senate floor. Both former senators had lobbied for the treaty's approval.

"The question is whether we move the world a little out of the dark shadow of nuclear nightmare," Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) told colleagues moments before the historic tally.

Calling the treaty a national security imperative, Obama had pressed for its approval before a new, more Republican Congress assumes power in January.

The administration argued that the treaty was critical to any rapprochement with Russia. The White House is counting on Russia to help pressure Iran over its nuclear ambitions.

The New START treaty, signed by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April, would limit each country's strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550, down from the current ceiling of 2,200. It also would establish a system for monitoring and verification. U.S. weapons inspections ended last year with the expiration of a 1991 treaty.

START stands for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

Obama overcame the opposition of the Senate's top Republicans, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Jon Kyl of Arizona, the GOP point man on the treaty.

Peeved by the Democrats' interruption of the eight days of treaty debate for other legislation, McConnell accused the White House of politicizing the process. He said national security was the main concern, "not some politician's desire to declare a political victory and hold a press conference before the first of the year."