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Friday's global agenda: Frenzied talks as Syria slides into sectarian war
Your morning global affairs speed-read
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with U.N. envoy to Syria Kofi Annan today to try to salvage his peace plan. The talks come amid reports that Syrian troops are blocking monitors' access to Qubeir, site of a new alleged massacre of civilians. [The New York Times].
While Clinton on Thursday issued the strongest statement yet that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has to go, members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization — led by U.N. Security Council members Russia and China — made it clear they're against foreign intervention. [Voice of America]
As a result, the Obama administration has come under withering criticism by some in Congress for its failure to take the lead. Bill Clinton's former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg added his voice to the mix in an interview on "Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer" Thursday evening. “The bottom line is that this administration is more comfortable with ‘No, we can’t,’ instead of ‘Yes, we can,’ ” said Ginsberg, adding that the United States could push for harsher, Iran-like sanctions on the country and find more creative ways of supplying humanitarian aid.
Green zone or red district? President Obama's nominee to be ambassador to Iraq faces renewed trouble after allegations that he carried on an extramarital affair with a Wall Street Journal reporter — now his wife — when he was stationed in Baghdad in 2008. [Foreign Policy]
Brett McGurk, 39, was already facing questions about his lack of experience from some Republicans but the leaking of a batch of torrid emails, allegedly sent from his government email account, raise fresh doubts about his judgment. The emails were first reported by The Washington Free Beacon.
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