Monday's global agenda: Clinton wraps up Middle East tour with visit to Israel

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman this morning for talks about Iran's nuclear ambitions and other regional issues, Bloomberg reports. The trip follows visits over the past week by White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns and comes just two weeks before a visit from GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who hopes to shore up his foreign-policy credentials and draw a contrast with President Obama, who hasn't visited Israel since taking office.

Clinton's visit comes right on the heels of her trip to Egypt, where she pressed newly elected President Mohammed Morsi and the head of the military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, to respect the 1979 peace treaty with Israel. Soon after meeting with Clinton, Tantawi stepped up the military's feud with Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood by vowing to prevent Egypt from falling to a “certain group.” [The New York Times]

Clinton, for her part, reaffirmed that the United States wasn't picking sides in Egypt's democratic transition.

She met with Egyptian Christians and other civil-society groups on Sunday in an effort that a senior State Department official described as “a chance ... to make absolutely clear where we stand on this political transition, which is that we support a full transition to civilian democratic rule and a constitution that protects the human rights and freedoms of all Egyptians — majority, minority, regardless of religion or lack of religion, regardless of background. There has been in the body politic here in the last period some suspicion, some assertion, and we heard some of that today. And there’s been a statement put out that somehow the U.S. has put its finger on the scale in favor of one side or another in this transition, and she wanted in very, very clear terms — particularly with the Christian group this morning — to dispel that notion and to make clear that only Egyptians can choose their leaders, that we have not supported any candidate, any party, and we will not, but what we do support is a full transition to democratic civilian governance here, including equal rights under the law for all groups.”

Help wanted: U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan arrives in Moscow today to ask for Russian President Vladimir Putin's help in ending the bloodshed in Syria. Announcing that Putin would meet with Annan on Tuesday, following talks between the U.N. envoy and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday, the Kremlin press service said only that Putin would underline his support for the envoy's peace plan, Reuters reports.

We've got your back: The commander of the United States Pacific Command, Samuel Locklear, met with Filipino President Benigno Aquino and reiterated the United States' commitment to help the Philippines establish a “minimum credible defense posture," especially in the wake of China's growing ambitions in the South China Sea. The three-day visit is Locklear's first to Manila since assuming command of the U.S. military forces in the Asia Pacific region in March. [ABS-CBN]

In other news: 

The International Red Cross says there is now a "non-international armed conflict" — or civil war — across more parts of Syria, widening its earlier designation. [Voice of America]

The African Union elected its first female leader, South Africa's Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, to lead the 54-nation bloc after a hotly contested election. [CNN]

North Korea on Monday announced the dismissal of its top military leader, the latest in what analysts describe as a series of increasingly bold shake-ups to strengthen support for young leader Kim Jong Eun. [The Washington Post]

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