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Sen. Lindsey Graham confirmed that he blocked a resolution that would have formally recognized Turkey's Armenian genocide at the request of the White House.

After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with President Trump and a group of Republican senators in the Oval Office on Nov. 13, Graham rushed back to the Senate floor and blocked the resolution. Prior to his return to the Senate, a senior White House official told him that Sen. Bob Menendez was planning to present the resolution and asked if Graham could "please object."

"After the meeting, we kind of huddled up and talked about what happened," the South Carolina Republican told Axios on Sunday. "I said, sure. The only reason I did it is because he [Erdogan] was still in town. ... That would've been poor timing. I'm trying to salvage the relationship if possible."

When asked if he was uncomfortable with the request, Graham said, "Yeah. Because I like Bob [Menendez]. He's been working on this for years, but I did think with the president of Turkey in town that was probably more than the market would bear."

He added, "I'm not going to object next time."

Erdogan likely would have been infuriated had the resolution passed, but senators got their chance to do just that last week when Menendez and Sen. Ted Cruz introduced the resolution again. This time, the White House asked Republican Sen. David Perdue to block it.

"Senator Perdue objected due to concerns that passage of the resolution would jeopardize the sensitive negotiations going on in the region with Turkey and other allies," a Perdue representative told Axios.

The Trump administration has been trying to convince Turkey to surrender its Russian-made S-400 air defense system. As the negotiations continue, White House officials are trying to block Congress from condemning Turkey’s human rights atrocities. Despite the delay in the Senate, the resolution passed in the House last month.