Even at the G-20 summit in Russia, President Barack Obama has been working the phones, trying to gather up support in Congress for taking military action against Syria for the regime's alleged chemical attack on civilians.

 

President Obama at the G20 Summit
President Obama at the G20 Summit (Vladimir Astapkovich/Host Photo Agency via Getty Images)
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Obama has even called off a planned trip to California next week, so he can stay in Washington to keep up the pressure on Congress to say yes.

Syria dominated the conversation at Sen. John McCain's town hall meeting Thursday night in Phoenix.

McCain had planned to talk about immigration and other issues. He told the gathering of about 150 constituents that he's "opposed to having a single American boot on the ground in Syria."

A few people held up signs that said, "Don't bomb Syria" and "Security thru peace."

McCain told the audience the American public soon would see irrefutable evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad was behind the deadly Aug. 21 attack.

"If we open the door to the use of chemical weapons and let it go unresponded to, then I think that sends a signal to other people that want to use them, that they can do so with impunity," McCain said.

G20-SYRIA-DIPLOMACY

Leaders uncertain over who launched Syria attack

 

, (L-R) Enrico Letta, President of the Italian Council of Ministers, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and British Prime Minister David Cameron attend a meeting at the G20 Summit
, (L-R) Enrico Letta, President of the Italian Council of Ministers, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and British Prime Minister David Cameron attend a meeting at the G20 Summit (Alexey Filippov/Host Photo Agency via Getty Images)
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ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — World leaders are venting over Syria's civil war but look no closer to agreeing on international military intervention to stop it.

A French official says leaders at a summit of the Group of 20 leading world economies in Russia agreed with President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande  that chemical weapons had been used in an Aug. 21 attack in Syria, and condemned it.

But many leaders remain in doubt about whether Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime was behind the attack, or Syria's rebels. The U.S. and France are preparing possible military action against Assad, and are trying at the G-20 summit to get backing from other world powers.

The French official, speaking today in St. Petersburg, was not authorized to be publicly named according to presidential policy.


(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved)

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