Iran
Less than three weeks before stringent American sanctions intended to reduce Iran’s oil exports take effect, the Obama administration announced on Monday that it would exempt seven major importers of Iranian oil — but not China — from the measures because these countries had “significantly reduced” their oil purchases from Iran. – New York Times
The Obama administration is continuing “good faith” talks with China about applying pressure on Iran to come clean on its nuclear program, senior officials said Monday. – Politico
The White House, echoing a late March finding, again concluded Monday that global oil markets have enough supplies to accommodate expanded sanctions aimed at curbing exports from Iran. – The Hill’s E^2 Wire
A state-sponsored Russian defense firm with ties to the Pentagon is also supplying Iran with critical components that could be used to develop a new long-range missile system. – DEFCON Hill
The wide gap that remains between Iran and world powers over Iran’s nuclear program is being filled by a diplomatic blame game, a week before talks are due to resume in Moscow. – Christian Science Monitor
The tensions that have bubbled up between Iran and world powers over the future of the Iranian nuclear programme appear to have significantly eased, according to senior European Union figures. – Financial Times
Iran’s state finances have come under unprecedented pressure and the resilience of ordinary people is being tested by soaring inflation as oil income plummets due to tightening Western sanctions and sharply falling oil prices. – Reuters
Indian state-owned refiners will halt planned oil imports of 173,000 barrels per day from Iran when European sanctions take effect in July, unless the government permits them to use insurance and freight arranged by Tehran, industry sources said. – Reuters
Turkey steeply reduced its imports of Iranian crude oil in May, bowing to international pressure ahead of planned EU and U.S. sanctions, shipping data seen by Reuters showed. – Reuters
Syria
The United Nations reported intense fighting between the Syrian military and opposition forces in multiple locations across Syria on Monday and expressed alarm about civilians trapped in besieged rebel strongholds in the central city of Homs and northwestern village of Al Heffa. – New York Times
The secretary general of the NATO alliance, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Monday that the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s illustrated what might befall Syria unless Russia and the West agreed on a “unified, clear message” to the Syrian government to stop the violence. – New York Times
Opponents of the Syrian government disputed a Vatican report that Christians had fled the town of Qusair after an “ultimatum” from the rebel leader, denouncing it as government propaganda. – LA Times’ World Now
The United States accused the Syrian government of using “new horrific tactics” Monday, as U.N. observers reported Syrian helicopters were firing on rebellious areas and concerns mounted that civilians were trapped in besieged cities. – Associated Press
Russia called on Monday for Iranian involvement in efforts to end the conflict in Syria, putting it at odds with the United States, and said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would travel to Tehran on Wednesday. – Reuters
Rival Lebanese politicians overcame deep divisions on Monday to agree at their first National Dialogue meeting in over 18 months to give the army financial resources to try to prevent violence in Syria from spilling over the border. – Reuters
Rebels in Syria’s embattled western town of Haffeh said on Tuesday they were struggling to smuggle out civilians trapped in fierce fighting that has drawn international condemnation. – Reuters
Syrian rebels are having to find new and more difficult routes to smuggle refugees and wounded civilians and fighters into Turkey after Syrian government forces began torching wooded areas along the border this month. – Reuters
Egypt
A movement to boycott this week’s runoff presidential election is gaining momentum, threatening Egypt’s restive transition to democracy and revealing a sharpening disdain by voters over the choice between a conservative Islamist and a holdover from the old guard. – Los Angeles Times
Egypt’s highest court will begin considering two challenges this week that have the potential to force reruns of the country’s historic elections, just days before Egyptians are due to choose their president. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
A group of liberal and leftist political parties decided on Monday to forgo their seats in the assembly that will write Egypt’s new constitution, in protest at what they called the over-representation of Islamists in the body. – Reuters
Hosni Mubarak’s health worsened Monday, with doctors twice having to use a defibrillator on the imprisoned former leader, adding to the tumult in Egypt before this weekend’s runoff election for president. – Associated Press
Libya
Four delegates from the International Criminal Court have been detained since Thursday in the remote Libyan town of Zintan after an arranged meeting with the imprisoned son of the late strongman Moammar Kadafi. – LA Times’ World Now
A convoy carrying Britain’s ambassador to Libya was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade on Monday, injuring two of his bodyguards in the most serious of a spate of assaults on foreign targets. – Reuters
Libya’s first national election in a generation was designed to heal the divisions laid bare by the revolt that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, but bureaucratic bottlenecks could derail the vote and push the country deeper into chaos. – Reuters
Mark Garlasco writes: The action in Libya was launched for principled ends, succeeded in protecting Libyans from Moammar Gaddafi’s atrocities and did so while causing very few civilian casualties. Still, NATO is wrong to say it does not have to investigate civilian casualties. – Washington Post
Tunisia
In many ways, [Manouba University’s Dean Kazdaghli] troubles offer a window into the forces at work in Tunisia today as the country tries to build a new order, balancing the freedoms of democracy and religion and the complex yearnings of people who, after living under repressive rulers for nearly 60 years, have little experience in accommodating their diversity. – New York Times
Tunisian police have detained 86 people after Salafi Islamists, angered by an art exhibition they say insults Islam, rioted overnight and clashed with police who tried to disperse them, an interior ministry media official said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Yemen
Al Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate has posted several messages on jihadist forums in a recruitment campaign directed at supporters already living in the West. – CNN
The Yemeni army has retaken the southern town of Jaar from al Qaeda-linked militants after heavy fighting that killed at least 24 people, the Defense Ministry and residents said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Peter Bergen writes: In just three months, the United States launched an estimated 20 strikes. By comparison, there were just 18 attacks in the previous two years. Johnsen asks: “What happens if this ‘missile surge’ doesn’t work? What happens next? Does the U.S. fire more and more missiles in the hopes that it will reach a tipping point?” Given the Obama administration’s embrace of drone strikes, the answer to that question seems likely to be: Yes. – CNN
Iraq
Wall Street Journal reporter Gina Chon’s repeated use of anonymous, high-level sources in her dispatches from Iraq has raised further concerns that her sexual relationship with former National Security Council member Brett McGurk—now President Obama’s nominee for ambassador to Iraq—won her unprecedented insider access. – Washington Free Beacon
Gulf States
Likening a recent increase in oil output to a stimulus measure for the global economy, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi vowed Monday to continue to pump oil as needed and implied that he favors a higher production ceiling for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Kuwait’s minister for social affairs and labor has resigned, local media reported on Tuesday, making him the second cabinet member to step down in the last several weeks under pressure from opposition lawmakers. – Reuters
Omani riot police on Monday detained some 30 activists during a peaceful protest near police headquarters in Muscat to demand the release of prisoners and faster reforms, witnesses said. – Reuters
Steven Miller writes: The data from the FDD study suggests that the Saudi government’s efforts to restrict or reduce the amount of militant online content have been somewhat effective. This indicates that when the Saudis are sufficiently motivated, they can temper the radicalism that has long percolated in the kingdom. But the data also shows that the Saudi campaign has not been able to eliminate radicalism, even, and perhaps most significantly, at the highest levels of the Saudi religious establishment. – Long War Journal
Israel
President Obama’s decision to award Israeli President Shimon Peres the Presidential Medal of Freedom is being viewed here as the latest opportunity to ask Washington for the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard from prison in the U.S. – LA Times’ World Now
Afghanistan
The decision by the top U.S. commander here to stop using aircraft to bomb Afghan homes, while striking in tone, actually represents only a subtle shift in the ground realities of the war against the Taliban, according to U.S. military officials in Kabul. – Washington Post
U.S. airstrikes accidentally hit Afghan civilian compounds less than 1 percent of the time, but there is a 1-in-4 chance that civilians will be killed when they are hit, according to the deputy U.S. commander in Afghanistan. – Washington Times
A roadside bomb explosion struck an ambulance in a bucolic and usually peaceful area of northern Afghanistan on Monday, killing at least three passengers and the driver, but miraculously sparing the life of the patient, a pregnant woman, who was traveling to deliver her child at a health clinic, government officials said. – New York Times
The main crossing point between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, Sher Khan Bandar—a few years ago just a village of fly-infested mud houses—is booming these days…. Sher Khan Bandar’s real stroke of luck, however, came in November, when Pakistan shut its border to coalition supplies in response to the accidental killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers by U.S. airstrikes. Since then, the Northern Distribution Network has become the coalition’s only land route into Afghanistan. – Wall Street Journal
U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan can still call for allied aircraft to drop bombs on enemy forces inside civilian-populated areas, but only as a last resort, says a senior American general. – DOTMIL
The drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan has required an expansive effort to sort, identify and ship unused equipment stored in theater as the Marine Corps withdraws thousands of troops from Helmand province this summer. – Defense News
In 2014, when the last U.S. and NATO forces are gone, Afghanistan’s defense will fall to troops like these. President Hamid Karzai said his army is ready. The soldiers at Chinari outpost agree but feel seriously ill-equipped. Twenty of them share a single helmet, which they passed from one to another as they posed for photos. – Associated Press
The Afghan government said on Monday militia loyal to army chief of staff General Abdul Rashid Dostum were disrupting oil exploration by a Chinese state firm, underlining the challenges facing foreign investors in Afghanistan. – Reuters
Afghanistan’s National Directorate Security, long reviled for abuse and torture of detainees, says it is trying to draw the poison out of the young minds by teaching them the Koran, taking the men to mosques in Kabul to show people praying peacefully and proving their instigators were wrong. – Reuters
An earthquake in Afghanistan triggered a landslide which buried mud homes in a mountain village and rescuers feared at least 80 people had been killed, provincial officials said on Tuesday – Reuters
South Asia
A judicial commission has ruled that Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States secretly approached the Obama administration last year requesting help to stave off a possible military coup. – New York Times
The United States has withdrawn a low-level negotiating team from Pakistan in the latest sign that talks to reopen NATO supply routes into neighboring Afghanistan remain stalemated, American officials said Monday. – New York Times
ICYMI – Analysis: Ties between the United States-India have progressed dramatically over the past decade, as the two nations now cooperate on a wide range of regional, global, and economic issues. Moving forward, the Obama administration has correctly noted that India will play a greater—and positive—role in the Asia-Pacific. However, in order to achieve a more robust and cooperative partnership, leaders in Washington and New Delhi must continue to move this relationship forward. – Foreign Policy Initiative
Jonathan Hillman writes: Approached correctly, India can still become a key ally in advancing U.S. strategy in the Asia Pacific. But forging a stronger partnership requires first admitting that America’s love for India remains largely unrequited. – Los Angeles Times
East Asia
Days after a massive crowd filled Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to mourn those killed in the Tiananmen Square crackdown, thousands of demonstrators took the streets again to protest the death of a participant in 1989 demonstrations. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Taiwan’s military said June 11 that it is looking into how a top-secret computer from a “stealth” warship went missing, amid concerns it might have fallen into Chinese hands. – AFP
Koreas
The U.S. government has reached an agreement with South Korea on Seoul’s development of longer-range missiles beyond limits set by an international accord. – Washington Free Beacon
Chinese firms are providing North Korea with firing systems and other ballistic missile parts in contravention of U.N. Security Council rules, the London Telegraph reported on Friday, citing classified information from an unidentified regional spy service – Global Security Newswire
The United Nations is optimistic it can get the United States to provide aid for isolated North Korea where chronic problems with its agriculture remain a huge stumbling block to development, the top UN official in the country said on Tuesday. – Reuters
The United States called on North Korea on June 11 to end all “provocative” statements after the communist state lashed out at neighboring South Korea as it denied planning a nuclear test. – AFP
Southeast Asia
Fresh from a trip to the World Economic Forum in Bangkok last week, Aung San Suu Kyi will take the next step in her world tour Wednesday when she departs for Europe. On her itinerary: a speech to formally receive her Nobel Peace Prize, addressing Britain’s Houses of Parliament, and receiving a human-rights award from Irish rocker Bono. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
In the early years of China’s rise to economic and military prowess, the guiding principle for its government was Deng Xiaoping’s maxim: “Hide Your Strength, Bide Your Time.” Now, more than three decades after paramount leader Deng launched his reforms, that policy has seemingly lapsed or simply become unworkable as China’s military muscle becomes too expansive to conceal and its ambitions too pressing to postpone. – Reuters
Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims have tried to flee sectarian violence in Myanmar by boat into Bangladesh but have been pushed back by authorities, border officials said on Tuesday, deepening a crisis threatening Myanmar’s nascent democracy. – Reuters
The European Union said on Monday it was satisfied with Myanmar’s “measured” handling of the Muslim-Buddhist violence that engulfed one of its biggest towns at the weekend, while the United States urged all ethnic groups to work at reconciliation. – Reuters
Greg Rushford writes: President Obama, who once promised to change how America treats other countries, shows no signs of shame at pitting poorer nations against each other in the scramble to get around high U.S. clothing tariffs. Nor does he appear to see the intellectual inconsistencies between his various trade positions. Dropping tariffs across the board would end the political merry-go-round and allow healthy competition based on efficiency and quality. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
Russia
Demonstrators gathered in a drenching rain in central Moscow on Tuesday, in a show of defiance toward a government which evidently hopes to bring an end to the large anti-Putin gatherings which began here six months ago. – New York Times
Europe
Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic has formally taken office in a ceremony boycotted by several of the Balkan country’s neighbors. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Christopher Walker and Sylvana Habdank-Kołaczkowska write: Two Viktors – Orbán of Hungary and Yanukovych of Ukraine – are at the forefront of an anti-democratic trend in central and eastern Europe that raises serious questions about the durability of the European Union’s young democracies as well as about the prospects for its aspiring members. – European Voice
United States of America
The Homeland Security Department ordered so many drones it can’t keep them all flying and doesn’t have a good plan for how to use them, according to a new audit the department’s inspector general released Monday. – Washington Times
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will likely introduce his Senate resolution on Tuesday calling for a special counsel to investigate a recent series of national security leaks, according to a Senate aide. – DEFCON Hill
Latin America
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez defied speculation that he is losing a fight with cancer and officially registered his candidacy for October’s presidential elections Monday, in a mass rally meant to showcase his good health and popular appeal. – Wall Street Journal
[A]fter nearly 14 years as Venezuela’s president, Mr. Chávez is battling cancer as he enters a heated re-election campaign, leaving many of those who love him and many who loathe him to wonder who will take his place if failing health forces him from office, either before or after the Oct. 7 election. – New York Times
A Cuban dissident who testified before Congress last week via video about repression by the island’s communist regime has been arrested and “brutally beaten,” according to reports from the U.S.-based Cuban exile community. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Mali
The African Union will seek a mandate from the United Nations Security Council for military intervention in Mali, which has been divided since Tuareg separatists and Islamist militants seized control of its northern half earlier this year. – Financial Times
East Africa
The death in a helicopter crash of one of Kenya’s longest-serving senior ministers has thrown both the country’s internal fight against Somali extremists and its race for its next president into confusion. – Christian Science Monitor
Cellphone video footage purportedly showing soldiers burning a village in southern Sudan emerged Monday, Associated Press reported. – LA Times’ World Now
African Union
A battle for diplomatic supremacy in Africa is threatening to weaken the African Union as the 53-member organisation confronts some of the most complex crises of recent times. – Financial Times
The African Union has moved its July summit to the Ethiopian capital after Malawi blocked the attendance of Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the bloc said. – Reuters
