The United States might consider lifting financial and travel sanctions on Zimbabwe if the South African nation makes political reforms and allows foreigners to monitor next year's presidential elections, President Obama's nominee to be ambassador to Harare told Congress.

Bruce Wharton's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee late last week comes as international investors are eyeing the resource-rich country with new-found interest ahead of next year's elections. The United States and the European Union are both considering relaxing their sanctions regimes, imposed after President Robert Mugabe's crackdown on political opponents and the seizure of white-owned farms in the former British colony a decade ago.

“I believe though that we do need to make it clear that our policies are flexible, they are not static, and we should be able to adjust them in response to democratic progress, progress on the rule of law on the ground in Zimbabwe,” Wharton said. “Some of the benchmarks that I think would be important ... [include] continued progress on the global political agreement, clear progress towards setting a roadmap on elections and ... an express commitment from the government of Zimbabwe to welcome international as well as national election monitoring groups. Those are some of the benchmarks that I think would be critical as we look to adjusting our own policy.”

Russia and China are both hosting high-level United Nations envoys on Tuesday as the world body prepares for another showdown on U.S.-backed sanctions against Syria.

Kofi Annan, the U.N.-Arab League special envoy for peace in Syria, kicked off his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin by declaring that Syria was at a “crossroads” amid reports of clashes in the capital, Damascus. Annan met with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday, but hopes for a breakthrough were tampered when Lavrov declared ahead of the meeting that western powers were trying to “blackmail” Russia with the threat of sanctions.

"To our great regret, we are seeing elements of blackmail," Lavrov told a news conference, Reuters reported. "This is a counter-productive and a dangerous approach."

Separately, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon headed to China on Tuesday for meetings with President Hu Jintao, Voice of America reports. China and Russia have both vetoed U.N. resolutions on Syria in the past, and Ki-moon is seeking to ensure that the observer mission to Syria can be reauthorized.

Sen. Rand Paul's measure would block all aid until Pakistan releases a doctor who helped the U.S. locate bin Laden.

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) share the presidential candidates' views on U.S. engagement with the world this afternoon at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition's annual conference in Washington. The coalition of more than 400 businesses and nonprofit organizations supports continued U.S. investment in development and diplomacy.

Before Coleman and Kerry take the stage, former political party chairmen Ed Gillespie and Terry McAuliffe look ahead to the conventions and the final stretch of presidential and congressional campaigns. And Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will be honored at a Tribute Dinner, followed by a discussion with former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell.

Authorize this: The House is looking to approve legislation today that would authorize the State Department and the U.S. Foreign Service for the first time in a decade. The outlook for the spending bill that would actually appropriate funds to the authorized programs is dim, however.

 The Foreign Relations Authorization Act, H.R. 6018, mostly authorizes spending at current levels, but the bill also gave the House Foreign Affairs Committee a chance to make specific policy changes, including authorizing some activities that already exist, without explicit congressional approval.

Tunisia's central bank on Monday closed on a $485 million bond offering, leaving the United States on the line for the principal and interest under a deal approved in April.

The Treasury Department touted the accelerated loan guarantee process as the best way to reintegrate Tunisia into the world financial system. The seven-year sovereign bond marks the first time the country has tapped international bond markets since 2007.

“We welcome today’s $485 million bond issuance by Tunisia, an important milestone in its efforts to re-enter the international capital markets and advance its democratic transition,” said Lael Brainard, Under Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. “This U.S.-backed issuance demonstrates the U.S. government’s commitment to help restore Tunisia’s economy and supports the Tunisian government’s effort to finance key development goals at affordable rates, which is vital to its economic and political transition.”

Tunisia's revolt against then-President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in December 2010 ignited a wave of protests across the Arab world that came to be known as the Arab Spring. Islamists won the legislative elections in October 2011.

The Senate champion of the United Nations's maritime convention declared himself unfazed Monday by reports that opponents have garnered enough Republican opponents to kill the Law of the Sea Treaty if it ever comes up for a vote on the floor.

The conservative Heritage Foundation, which is leading the fight against the treaty on the grounds that it would violate U.S. sovereignty, declared victory after 34 Republicans vowed to oppose it, depriving Democrats of the two-thirds majority needed to pass a treaty.

But Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) vowed to continue pushing the treaty and hold a vote after the November election, predicting that Republicans would cave to industry groups and the Navy, who back treaty provisions.

"Senator Kerry has been here long enough to know that vote counts and letters are just a snapshot of where our politics are in this instant, and it's not news to anyone that right now we're in the middle of a white hot political campaign season where ideology is running in overdrive,” Kerry spokeswoman Jodi Seth said in a statement. “That's why Senator Kerry made it clear there wouldn't be a vote before the election and until everyone's had the chance to evaluate the treaty on the facts and the merits away from the politics of the moment.”

The State Department on Monday released its annual digest of U.S. views on international law for the year 2011, which covers the raid against Osama bin Laden and the NATO intervention in Libya.

The digest, unsurprisingly, concludes that the May 1, 2011, raid in Pakistan was “lawful.” While most of the administration's legal justifications are well known, the report does offer some insights into the disagreements with some U.S. allies about the geographic scope of the conflict against al Qaeda — the administration thinks it extends beyond “hot” battlefields like Afghanistan — while providing new details about the U.S. reaction to the so-called Arab Spring.

“The Arab Awakening presented a variety of challenges for the practice of international law in 2011,” reads the introduction to the 2011 Digest of United States Practice in International Law. “In addressing events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, and elsewhere, the United States government carefully applied what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called 'smart power,' utilizing a wide array of foreign policy tools to fit the needs of the particular circumstance.”

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Opponents of the controversial Law of the Sea Treaty have secured the 34 votes needed to block ratification.

The U.S. State Department doesn't have enough experienced diplomats to fill increasing demands for overseas postings, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report Monday.

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