Cruz: No on envoys till he gets ban details

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Ted Cruz vowed Thursday to continue blocking confirmation of a series of ambassadorial and other diplomatic nominees despite the Federal Aviation Administration lifting a ban on U.S. airline flights to Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport. The State Department criticized the Republican lawmaker.

Cruz said he wouldn't release the holds until President Barack Obama's administration answers his questions about the FAA's prohibition, which went into effect Tuesday after a rocket landed about a mile from the airport in Tel Aviv. The FAA ended the ban late Wednesday, after Cruz accused Obama of imposing an economic boycott of Israel while it is fighting the militant group Hamas in Gaza.

"There are still serious questions as to the decision-making that went into the ban on flights and whether it was driven by political consideration at the White House or by objective expert opinion at the agency," the U.S. senator from Texas said Thursday.

Obama said in an interview on CNBC on Thursday that decisions on airline safety are not made on the basis of politics or alliances. He noted that the FAA ban came on the heels of last week's downing of a passenger jet in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russia separatists are fighting the government.

Obama said that before lifting the ban, the FAA worked with Israel on a "checklist of concerns and mitigation measures" to ensure the safety of U.S. airlines. The FAA said the ban was imposed out of concern regarding the risk of planes being hit by Hamas rockets.

Cruz is demanding to know why Israel was singled out, while commercial flights can still pass over Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Ukraine -- where 298 people were killed aboard the downed Malaysia Airlines jet. The FAA prohibited flights over Ukraine's Crimea in April and has ruled out flights over the east of the country since last week's crash.

Cruz also wants to see any communication between the FAA, White House and State Department to see if the ban on landings in Tel Aviv was designed to punish Israel or advance cease-fire efforts.

For the second-straight day, the suggestion of political motivation behind the flight ban drew a sharp response from the State Department.

"It's just perplexing," spokesman Marie Harf said of Cruz's action. "The notion that he would put a hold on State Department nominees when he really has questions for the FAA just doesn't really make sense."

The objective of the flight ban "was purely security and safety of American citizens, pilots, people on these planes," she said. "The nominees we have up in the Senate are for some very critical positions. They need to move forward. If everybody's concerned about our foreign policy, we need people in those positions."

A day earlier, Harf called Cruz's comments "ridiculous and offensive."

Catherine Frazier, Cruz's spokesman, fired back that Obama's foreign policy was itself "ridiculous and offensive."

The holds mean Senate Democrats would have to persuade at least five Republicans to join them to approve a new ambassador to Russia as well as ambassadors to key U.S. allies including France, Norway, South Korea and Turkey. Envoys involved in arms control and nuclear nonproliferation also are affected.

However, a larger Senate logjam over issues unrelated to foreign policy already has brought confirmations to a crawl, prompting complaints from Secretary of State John Kerry and White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that he recently spoke by telephone with Obama about the issue. There has been a slight uptick in confirmations in the past couple of weeks.

A Section on 07/25/2014

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