NEW YORK TIMES: …After two days of tense discussions, including a dinner debate that went into the morning hours, Mr. Obama left without forging an international consensus behind military action as other leaders urged him not to attack without United Nations permission. But he won agreement from some allies on blaming Syria’s government for a chemical weapons attack and on endorsing an unspecified response.
The deep divisions on display here at the Group of 20 summit meeting raised the stakes even further for Mr. Obama as he seeks authorization from Congress for a “limited, proportional” attack. While aides said he never expected or sought a more explicit endorsement of military action during the meeting, the president hoped to use the statement from allies condemning Syria to leverage more domestic support, but he acknowledged that he had a “hard sell” and might fail to win over an American public that polls show still opposes a strike…
During a long, late-night discussion about Syria, the two presidents effectively competed for the support of the other leaders, each man arguing his position and soliciting peers as if they were voters. At the end, Mr. Putin said a majority of the leaders joined him in opposing a military strike independent of the United Nations, including the leaders of China, India, Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Germany and South Africa… (more)
