communications. reporter: but the white house did not deny that it had happened. is not monitoring, will not monitor. i think you re missing a tense there. you ve got your president progressive there, you got your simple future, but you re missing your past progressive. reporter: the secretary of state has been putting out fires here, there and everywhere. especially over u.s. policy toward syria. after two years of war and the assad regime s chemical attack killing more than a thousand civilians, including children, the saudis accused president obama of backing down, even helping assad butcher his own people. the shameful way that the world community accepts the impunity of the butcher of syria is a blot on the conscience of the world. reporter: furious that the u.s. did not carry out its threat to retaliate, the saudis shocked the u.s. by refusing a
reporter: but the white house did not deny that it had happened. is not monitoring, will not monitor. i think you re missing a tense there. you ve got your president progressive there, you got your simple future, but you re missing your past progressive. reporter: the secretary of state has been putting out fires here, there and everywhere. especially over u.s. policy toward syria. after two years of war and the assad regime s chemical attack killing more than a thousand civilians, including children, the saudis accused president obama of backing down, even helping assad butcher his own people. the shameful way that the world community accepts the impunity of the butcher of syria is a blot on the conscience of the world. reporter: furious that the u.s. did not carry out its threat to retaliate, the saudis shocked the u.s. by refusing a seat on the protest.
current char raid of international control over chemical arsenal would be funny if it were not so blatantly perfidious. and designed not only to give mr. obama an opportunity to back down from military strikes and also help assad butcher his people. first of all, what do you make of the current state of u.s.-saudi fears. and second of all, is this a charade? two things. this thing has been developing over the last two years. the audis were trying to organize the arab league to come together on a solution in syria. two years ago they wanted american smart soft power engaged meaning intelligence, training, leadership. that didn t happen. everybody wanted to make sure we tried to stay as far away from what was a regional growing conflict as they could. i thought it was not a good decision by the administration at that time. and so this as it has gotten worse, and it has gotten worse,
would be funny if it were not so blatantly profidious and designed to give president obama an opportunity to back down from miment strikes and also help assad butcher his people. first of all, what do you make of the current state of u.s.-saudi fears. and second of all, is this a charade. two things. this thing has been developing over the last two years. the audis were trying to organize the arab league to come together on a solution in syria. two years ago they wanted american smart soft power engaged meaning intelligence, training, leadership. that didn t happen. everybody wanted to make sure we tried to stay as far away from what was a regional growing conflict as they could. i thought it was not a good decision by the administration at that time. and so this as it has gotten worse, and it has gotten worse, the situation on the ground today is not even close to what it was two years ago. so here s what the saudis saw.
obama of backing down, even helping assad butcher his own people. the shameful way that the world community accepts the impunity of the butcher of syria is a blot on the conscience of the world. reporter: furious that the u.s. did not carry out its threat to retaliate, the saudis shocked the u.s. by refusing a seat on the u.n. security council in protest. i think there is doubt whether the united states is really paying attention, really knows what it wants to do. reporter: the saudis and israel also worry about iran. is the u.s. too eager for a nuclear deal, too easily charmed by iran s new president, rouhani. i think no deal is better than a bad deal. i think a partial deal that leaves iran with these capabilities is a bad deal. reporter: secretary kerry said this week that the government shutdown made allies around the world ask, will america be a credible partner in the future? key allies say they re more