Iran
With high-stakes negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program at an impasse, the Obama administration is under mounting pressure to rethink a diplomatic exercise that many argue is simply stringing along the rest of the world. – New York Times
Israel is unlikely to launch a strike on Iran as long as sanctions on Tehran intensify and diplomatic efforts continue, despite the failure of international talks in Moscow this week, Israeli officials and security experts said. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Iranian politicians and military commanders said Wednesday that their country would never relinquish what they called its nuclear rights, a day after talks between Iran and world powers in Moscow failed to make substantive progress in the dispute over Iran’s uranium enrichment. – New York Times
The near-collapse of nuclear talks with Iran has ushered in what experts on Wednesday described as a dangerous new phase in the decade-long standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program. – Washington Post
A think tank says Iran might have conducted further clean-up activity at its Parchin military site, where Iran is suspected of testing nuclear materials and has thus far refused to allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to visit. – DEFCON Hill
The Obama administration is coming under renewed pressure from Congress to turn the screws on Iran following the failure of talks over the country’s nuclear program. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
The US Congress is considering imposing tougher sanctions on Iran after the latest round of diplomatic talks over Iran’s nuclear programme ended in Moscow without substantive progress. – Financial Times
China is moving to cut its imports of Iranian oil, tracking earlier efforts by countries such as India, Japan and South Korea which won them exemptions from tough new U.S. sanctions, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Israel responded on Wednesday to a lack of progress in talks aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program by demanding that the West impose stiffer economic sanctions on Tehran and hinting anew that a military option was still on the table. – Reuters
Editorial: The United States and its allies also should have a strategy for quickly and significantly increasing the pressure on the Khamenei regime if the negotiations break down. Israel may press for military action; if that option is to be resisted, there must be a credible and robust alternative. – Washington Post
Syria
A small number of C.I.A. officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government, according to American officials and Arab intelligence officers. – New York Times
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday that it had received assurances from the Syrian government and opposition forces on a plan for a temporary truce to evacuate and assist people stranded in the battle-torn city of Homs. But reports from pro-opposition activists in Homs indicated that the government had continued shelling, clashes were ongoing and there was no sign of a relief operation. – Los Angeles Times
While increasing numbers of Syrians, especially from cities like Homs and Dera’a, are fleeing into Jordan, young men are returning at a steady flow to Syria, some to fight against the forces of President Bashar al-Assad. – New York Times
The government of President Bashar al-Assad, dominated by his own minority Alawite sect, has long presented itself as the guardian of Syrian minorities and pluralism. But that is a mirage, opponents said, with minorities cherished only if they kowtow. The life and times of Father Paolo are proof enough, they said. – New York Times
Britain and America are willing to offer the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, safe passage – and even clemency – as part of a diplomatic push to convene a UN-sponsored conference in Geneva on political transition in Syria. – Guardian
Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Syria’s population, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence sweeping the country of 22 million people. They fear Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic groups. – Associated Press
The Syrian army was shelling central districts of Homs on Thursday, residents said, after rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad agreed to a temporary truce to allow aid access to the sick and wounded. – Reuters
Egypt
Egypt’s Presidential Election Commission delayed the announcement of a winner of the weekend poll so it could investigate fraud claims by both contenders, deepening suspense and suspicion as the country waited to learn who would be declared its first freely elected president. – Wall Street Journal
[Mubarak’s] countrymen yearn to move beyond his 30-year rule and impenetrable visage, but he haunts them even in his pallor, an aged patriarch refusing to set free the nation he treated as belonging to him, his jailed sons and his wife of countless jewels. – Los Angeles Times
Allegations of fraud delayed the result of Egypt’s presidential election on Thursday, fraying nerves as the Muslim Brotherhood, which claims victory, threatened to take to the streets in protest at moves by the ruling generals to deny them power. – Reuters
Egypt’s generals have set political rules that could keep the army in power for years, one of their senior Islamist opponents warned on Wednesday, but the Muslim Brotherhood will not fight back in the way that plunged Algeria into bloody civil war. – Reuters
Egypt’s military rulers have secured record supplies of fuel worth at least $1.2 billion for the summer months, paying trading houses such as Vitol and Glencore above market prices to satisfy demand as political instability deepens. – Reuters
Matt Kaminski writes: The limitations of popular mobilization have been made clear in the last year in Egypt. Yet the Brotherhood and its allies of convenience have one good move against Egypt’s deep state: to show that a broad national consensus exists to force it to negotiate a deal on a transfer to democracy. This is the best outcome available here, and the hardest to realize. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Eric Trager writes: [A]lthough new mass demonstrations are already underway, a new revolution is not. The protests are not affecting anything beyond Tahrir Square, and there is a large segment of the Egyptian public that opposes them—at least in form, if not in substance. The next stage of Egypt’s post-Mubarak transition will thus likely be a sustained confrontation between the SCAF on one hand and an uncomfortable coalition of revolutionary youth activists and Islamists on the other. – The New Republic
William Dobson writes: This week’s events have put Egypt in a place it has not been since 1952, when the Free Officers ousted King Farouk. Then, as now, Egypt stood with a military in power and all other institutions cast aside. But, of course, there is a critical difference. Even though Egyptians often refer to 1952 as a revolution, it was a classic military coup, the work of a small cabal of officers…The people played no role in those events. That is not true today. Egypt may be lacking in institutions, but the people are now players on the stage. The challenge for the generals in the coming months will be finding ways to mollify them. – Financial Times
Charles Dunne writes: In his landmark speech on the Arab Spring in May 2011, President Obama stated that “after decades of accepting the world as it is in the region, we have a chance to pursue the world as it should be.… It will be the policy of the United States to promote reform across the region, and to support transitions to democracy.” The United States now faces a crucial test. It must either prove that its policy really has changed, or decide that it is content with business as usual. – Freedom House’s Freedom at Issue
Gulf States
The death of Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz al-Saud has once again highlighted the critical yet murky issue of succession in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter – New York Times
U.S. security chiefs visited Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to convey President Barack Obama’s condolences for the death of Crown Prince Nayef, underscoring the importance of a relationship seen as key in the battle against al Qaeda. – Reuters
Kuwait’s highest court on Wednesday annulled the results of a February parliamentary election in which opposition lawmakers won a majority, and reinstated the previous assembly. – Reuters
The campaign [against Madonna’s performance] reflected growing anxiety among both conservative and liberal Emiratis that their local traditions and Islamic values are at risk as the Arab state rapidly expands, thanks largely to expatriate labor. – Reuters
Ray Takeyh writes: The function of an ally is to stress the implausibility of such an approach, and not to sanction it under the banner of expediency. This may require tough and frank diplomacy. But that is the way that both American and Saudi interests would best be served. – International Herald Tribune
North Africa
Algeria’s government has been paralyzed by arguments over who should be anointed as favorite to be the next president, exposing divisions within the ruling elite that could shatter the country’s fragile stability – Reuters
A prominent Tunisian politician and businessman denied on Wednesday that he had millions of dollars of assets hidden in Switzerland after a Geneva prosecutor said accounts linked to Khayam Turki had been frozen following embezzlement allegations. – Reuters
Sudanese riot police armed with batons and tear gas fought with students protesting for a fourth day against tough austerity measures the finance minister set out in detail on Wednesday. – Reuters
Yemen
Spurred by recent battlefield gains, the Pentagon is making plans to send U.S. military aircraft to Yemen for the first time to help move government troops and supplies more quickly into battle against Islamic militants, U.S. officials said. – Los Angeles Times
An al Qaeda plot to attack several foreign embassies in Yemen’s capitol of Saana was foiled on Wednesday, as American-backed government forces continue to hammer away at the group’s strongholds in the south. – DEFCON Hill
Yemen’s army killed at least 11 al Qaeda-linked militants in Abyan province on Wednesday as it pressed ahead with a U.S.-backed offensive to crush Islamist militancy in the south, a military official said. – Reuters
A Yemeni man working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was killed by an air strike in Abyan province on Wednesday while carrying out humanitarian work, the agency said. – Reuters
Iraq
Just last month, a poll showed that for the first time in almost two years, a plurality of Iraqis felt that the country was going in the right direction. Now, that measure of hope, nurtured by a lull in violence that some had begun to believe could last, is being tested by the return of some painfully familiar miseries for Iraq: bloodshed, insufferable heat and political struggle. – New York Times
Turkish warplanes and attack helicopters carried out strikes on suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq, the general staff said on Wednesday, a day after clashes in southeastern Turkey killed more than 30 troops and militants. – Reuters
Militants attacked electrical transmission towers and lines in Iraq’s Diyala province on Wednesday, government and police sources said, in the latest wave of attacks that have swept the area in recent weeks. – Reuters
Israel
The military wing of Hamas, the Islamic group that governs Gaza, announced late Wednesday that it was committed to an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire to end three days of fighting with Israel. – New York Times
The Middle East’s most bitter rivals should “break the ice” and open new talks aimed at the creation of a Palestinian state beside Israel–but only if the Palestinians drop certain demands, says a senior Israeli official. – DOTMIL
Interview: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak sat down this week with The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth – Washington Post
Afghanistan
Ahead of an international conference aimed at collecting billions more in foreign aid for Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai on Thursday called on his government to step up the fight against the rampant corruption that has badly eroded his administration’s credibility over the years. – Washington Post
The uncertainty shrouding Afghanistan’s future has prompted thousands of Afghans to seek an escape route — foreign visa applications, asylum pleas, long journeys across the border…Some of the returnees are here by choice — nostalgic for the country of their youth, drawn back by word of renewed security and opportunity. Most, like Esmatullah’s family, have returned involuntarily – Washington Post
A suicide bomber targeted an Afghan-NATO checkpoint in the eastern city of Khost on Wednesday, killing 18 Afghans and three American troops, officials said. – Washington Post
Congress is going to send less and less cash to Afghanistan to train and equip local forces, but a top general said Wednesday he’s “not concerned.” – Politico
The Defense Department’s top investigator overseeing Afghanistan reconstruction is looking into how and why Kabul has been taxing American companies supporting the reconstruction effort. – DEFCON Hill
As powerful as AMN has turned out to be, the allies and their Afghan partners have no intention of turning over the network to the government of the Islamic Republic Afghanistan…That decision, which one officer at the CJOC described as an ongoing “sore spot” among transition planners, is emblematic of ISAF’s strategy of providing Afghans with a lower-tech ISR and communications enterprise on the road to 2014. – Defense News
The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned four members of Afghanistan’s Barakzai narcotics trafficking network, prohibiting U.S. citizens from conducting transactions with them and freezing any U.S. assets they may have. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
This summer’s fighting in Afghanistan will be the toughest test for the country’s evolving security forces as they try to root out insurgents in the more heavily populated regions, senior defense officials told skeptical lawmakers on Wednesday. – Associated Press
Pakistan
President Asif Ali Zardari has chosen a party stalwart, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, to replace the ousted prime minister, Pakistani news media reported late Wednesday. – New York Times
Pakistani intelligence officials have detained a Frenchman of Algerian origin who is suspected of having links to a cell of Al Qaeda that carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, a senior Pakistani official said Wednesday. – New York Times
Murder, torture and extortion allegations would bar most people around the world from seeking public office. Not in Pakistan’s commercial capital, Karachi, where men like Baloch thrive amid gang wars and ethnic, sectarian and political violence. He’s confident of winning a legislative seat in a general election due early next year. – Reuters
Say you’re sorry. That’s what the Pakistani government says it wants from the United States in order to jump-start a number of initiatives between the two countries that would help the hunt for al Qaeda in Pakistan and smooth the end of the war in Afghanistan. – Associated Press
China
On Wednesday, after the police told Mr. Ai that he could not attend the proceedings and blocked scores of other dissidents from leaving their homes in the capital, hundreds of supporters gathered outside the Chaoyang District Court here in Beijing despite a small army of police officers, some of whom videotaped the crowd and led several people away. – New York Times
Chinese police told dissident artist Ai Weiwei on Thursday he could face bigamy and pornography charges and barred him from travel, despite lifting strict bail conditions imposed after his detention. – Reuters
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said on Wednesday resuming talks with China on his homeland’s future was futile unless it adopted a “realistic” stance, adding it was useless trying to convince Beijing he was not seeking full independence. – Reuters
A prominent Hong Kong newspaper has come under fire for downplaying coverage of the death of a Chinese dissident, stoking new concerns that Communist Party rulers in Beijing are seeking to limit the former British colony’s media freedoms. – Reuters
Miles Yu reports: China’s military is making bold accusations that self-described “heroic” anti-American hawks are being purged and betrayed by China’s CIA-controlled civilian leaders. – Washington Times’ Inside the Ring
North Korea
Intelligence agents from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and China are making regular attempts to acquire design data from former Soviet ballistic missile design centers and other defense industrial enterprises in Ukraine and in other former USSR republics in an effort to extend the range of North Korea’s missiles. – Washington Free Beacon
The Senate voted to continue food aid to North Korea, shooting down an amendment ending that aid and also approving a different one in support of it. – The Hill’s Floor Action Blog
Burma
As Myanmar emerges from five decades of economic isolation and its military junta loosens its hold on political and economic power, outside investors are scurrying to get a foot in the door of one of the world’s least-open economies. – New York Times
It was a long wait, but Myanmar opposition leader Aung SanSuu Kyi finally received her honorary degree from the University of Oxford. – Associated Press
Vikram Nehru writes: Ms. Suu Kyi is rightly idolized by her people and the world. Leveraging this goodwill to bring about real and lasting change to her country will be an even greater accomplishment than her courageous stand for human rights and freedom waged against all odds over the last two decades. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
Southeast Asia
China on Thursday “vehemently opposed” a Vietnamese law asserting sovereignty over islands in disputed waters, the latest escalation in tensions over the resource-rich South China Sea. – Reuters
China has spent nearly $1 billion on an ultra-deepwater rig that appears intended to explore disputed areas of the South China Sea, one of Asia’s most volatile hotspots and where the United States is strengthening ties with Beijing’s rival claimants. – Reuters
Russia
With Russia seeing record capital outflows, market players have looked to a $100 billion privatization drive as a key bellwether of Vladimir Putin’s efforts to improve the country’s much-maligned investment climate. But the first glimpses of the program—which promises to boost the value of Russian companies while opening up huge chunks of the economy to foreign cash—have left some investors doubtful whether Russia’s president can push through the tough economic reforms his predecessor failed to deliver. – Wall Street Journal
President Vladimir Putin’s close ally who runs Russia’s state oil company Rosneft Wednesday accused a popular leader of opposition protests of acting to the company’s detriment by criticizing Russian officials and demanding access to the company’s secrets. – WSJ’s Emerging Europe
The top Democrat on the House trade panel Wednesday split with the White House and called for the United States to hold off on improving trade relations with Russia until the Kremlin joins the world in condemning Syria’s President Bashar Assad. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Rights group Amnesty International has warned that the threat to security for many residents of Russia’s North Caucasus region comes as much from law-enforcement agencies as it does from armed groups. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Russia on June 20 sentenced two professors from an engineering university to 12½ and 12 years for handing over information about a new intercontinental missile to China, an official said. – AFP
United States of America
As those in the political class in Washington give piercing speeches about a spate of leaks of classified national security data, the nation’s top intelligence official is quietly clamping down on would-be leakers. – DOTMIL
Michael Mukasey writes: I do not advocate impeaching anyone, particularly not at this late stage in the electoral cycle. But at a minimum, investigating diligently and disclosing candidly would allow Congress to pull up its dismal level of public approval. It’s worth a try. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Peter Feaver writes: In the past, Obama moved fairly decisively to distance himself from other close friends and advisors who became campaign liabilities. This scandal has all the makings of a major campaign liability, and in a close election, this president can’t afford the distraction. – Shadow Government
Venezuela
Venezuela’s opposition shrugged off polls showing President Hugo Chavez in the lead before October’s election and said on Wednesday its candidate, Henrique Capriles, would win thanks to a tireless “house-by-house” campaign. – Reuters
Nigeria
The U.S. government is expected to formally apply a “foreign terrorist” label on Thursday to three alleged leading figures of the violent Nigerian militant group Boko Haram, officials said. – Reuters
Deadly violence between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria’s Kaduna flared again on Wednesday, adding to the more than 90 deaths in sectarian clashes in the northern city so far this week. – Reuters
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to head to a climate change conference in Brazil as dozens died in sectarian clashes this week has angered allies and opponents. – Reuters
East Africa
A Burundian court has sentenced a journalist to life imprisonment for “participating in a terrorist attack”, his lawyer said, in a growing clampdown on media in the east African nation. – Reuters
Uganda said on Wednesday it was banning 38 non-governmental organizations it accuses of promoting homosexuality and recruiting children. – Reuters
Central Africa
The Congolese government on Wednesday accused the United States of seeking to delay publication of a United Nations report that is critical of U.S. ally Rwanda. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
The United States is delaying but will not block release of a United Nations expert report on Congo, diplomats said of a dispute over a document likely to implicate Rwanda in its neighbor’s conflict and test ties between the former arch-foes. – Reuters
Southern Africa
The screeching sirens, rumbling engines and flashing lights [of President Mugabe’s motorcade] were once considered primarily an annoyance. But a series of recent accidents has raised questions about the danger posed by the speeding vehicles. – New York Times
An exiled Rwandan general, testifying under oath in South Africa on Wednesday, feared he would be arrested as a political prisoner in his homeland, so he fled to Johannesburg, where he was shot. – Associated Press
