Iran
United India Insurance Co. has agreed to provide protection and indemnity cover to Indian tankers carrying oil from Iran with General Insurance Corp. offering reinsurance, two people with knowledge of the matter said Tuesday. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
A number of European petroleum processing firms have agreed to purchase oil from Iran through a nongovernmental group, possibly enabling the sides to skirt punitive measures aimed at pressuring Tehran to address worries that its nuclear program is geared toward establishment of a weapons capability – Global Security Newswire
Syria
U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan said Tuesday that “Iran can play a positive role” in ending a bloody 17-month standoff between Syrian rebels and the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and declared that Iran should be “part of the solution in the Syrian crisis.” – Washington Post
Russia said on Tuesday that it had dispatched a flotilla of 11 warships to the eastern Mediterranean, some of which would dock in Syria. It would be the largest display of Russian military power in the region since the Syrian conflict began almost 17 months ago. Nearly half the ships were capable of carrying hundreds of marines. – New York Times
The 44th administration on Tuesday slammed the idea of Iranian participation in Syrian peace negotiations just as United Nations-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan insisted Tehran’s role would be critical in resolving the growing crisis. – DEFCON Hill
Senate hawks John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) scoffed Tuesday at Russian promises not to sign any new arms deals with Syria until the violence in the country dies down. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
China threw its weight behind U.N. envoy Kofi Annan on Wednesday, backing his call to include Iran in internationally-brokered talks to resolve Syria’s crisis, in the face of strong Western opposition. – Reuters
Russia circulated among U.N. Security Council members on Tuesday a draft resolution to extend a U.N. mission in Syria for three months so it can shift focus from monitoring a non-existent truce to securing a political solution to the conflict. – Reuters
Cyprus has drawn up plans to take in up to 200,000 refugees from the fighting in Syria, where the crackdown by government troops against opposition forces has intensified in recent weeks. – Reuters
Three people were killed when Syrian mortars hit villages in northern Lebanon on Tuesday, as violence in Syria continued to spill across the border. – Reuters
Editorial: So far, “step-by-step” in Syria has meant city by city, town by town, massacre by massacre. So it will continue while the men Mr. Annan likes to do business with remain in power. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Mark Katz writes: [T]he arrival of armed Russian marines — who can, and will, be portrayed as there to help Assad continue to oppress the Syrian people — may well prove too tempting a target for the Syrian opposition to resist. If so, Putin’s decision to send them to Tartus may not serve to protect Russian naval access to this port as he undoubtedly intends. It could, instead, end up creating more problems for Moscow in Syria than he can afford. – Foreign Policy
Egypt
A power struggle between Egypt’s Islamist president and the country’s generals and judges intensified Tuesday, as a three-day battle for authority threatened to eclipse progress toward a democratic transition. – Washington Post
President Obama should be “direct and unambiguous” when he meets with Egyptian leader Mohammed Morsi on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in September, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Tuesday. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday urged Egypt‘s Islamist president and its military to settle their differences for the good of Egypt‘s people, or risk seeing their nation’s democratic transition derailed. – Associated Press
Libya
After months of violence during Qaddafi’s crackdown and the ensuing NATO bombing campaign, Aujali is now calling on the U.S. government and American companies to help rebuild his country, which largely lacks institutions and infrastructure in the wake of Qaddafi’s repressive four-decade rule. – National Journal
As details of initial election results were released in Tripoli on Monday, social media and news reports were quick to declare that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood has suffered a major setback. But one expert says it’s too soon to know just how different the winning coalition will prove. – DOTMIL
Libya’s wartime prime minister Mahmoud Jibril extended his lead in the North African country’s landmark elections, partial vote tallies showed on Wednesday, as Islamist rivals tried to bolster their score by striking deals with independent candidates. – Reuters
Libya’s Gaddafi-era prime minister and oil chief Shokri Ghanem died after suffering heart failure and falling into the Danube river and there is no sign of foul play, the Vienna prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday. – Reuters
The first former senior official from the Muammar Gaddafi era to be put on trial in Libya said on Tuesday he had been denied the right to meet privately with a lawyer and undergone improper interrogations during 10 months in detention. – Reuters
Ann Marlowe writes: Libyans don’t want or need American aid money, or our military, though they could use some American expertise. What they really want is our respect, as equals, from one people who freed themselves to another. So let us welcome Libya to the company of free nations. Like our nation in its infancy, they have a republic, if they can keep it. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Tunisia
Tunisia’s fledgling democracy is threatened by a weak opposition that fails to offer a viable alternative to the well-organized Islamists in power, and discontent is taking the form of riots with extremist overtones instead. – Associated Press
Gulf States
Thousands of people attended a funeral in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for a man killed during protests in a restive region of the country’s Eastern Province, a show of popular anger that came amid fears of a renewed crackdown on dissent. – New York Times
A Bahrain court has dissolved a Shi’ite Islamist political party which has played a role in the Gulf Arab state’s wave of unrest, on the grounds that it answers to a religious authority who calls for violence. – Reuters
Iraq
A former interior minister who served under Saddam Hussein has been released from an Iraqi prison after completing his jail sentence, a senior Justice Ministry official said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: Congress directed the State Department and USAID to spend money helping Iraq’s minority population but those agencies can’t prove they spent the funds appropriately, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report. – The Cable
Israel
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has allegedly deposited nearly $13 million in U.S. taxpayer aid into a secret bank account, and routinely uses his political connections to profit from the stagnant peace process, according to testimony presented to Congress Tuesday by several Middle East experts. – Washington Free Beacon
The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday announced it planned to hold local elections in October in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, angering Gaza’s Islamist Hamas rulers. – Reuters
A week after fresh allegations that their late leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned, Palestinian officials are still discussing behind closed doors when and how to exhume his body for examination. – Reuters
Afghanistan
The Taliban are prepared to accept less than full control over Afghanistan after American troops leave, but are still fighting to play a major role in the country’s future, according to an interview with a senior Taliban commander in which he lays out the movement’s long-term political views. – NYT’s At War Blog
The United States has spent more than $100 million on a huge hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, for treatment of Afghans wounded in the current war. On Tuesday, a congressional subcommittee held a hearing about what one member called the “horrendous neglect and abuse of patients” at the facility. – CNN’s Security Clearance
Under Shari’a law, death by stoning is prescribed in cases of adultery committed by married men and women. But Islamic scholars, ordinary Afghan citizens, and even the Taliban say that the recent trial and execution of 22-year-old Najiba in Parwan Province was not carried out according to the rules of Islamic jurisprudence. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Pakistan
The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday introduced legislation requiring the State Department to designate the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network as a terrorist organization. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
At the heart of last week’s denouement was a carefully worded statement that allowed the United States to accommodate Pakistani indignation without opening President Barack Obama up to criticism months before presidential polls. Just as importantly, it aimed to avoid alienating those within Obama’s government who had resisted apologizing to a country many in Washington see as acting to subvert U.S. goals in the region, even while accepting massive U.S. aid. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: The Pakistani military is entitled to the $1.1 billion of U.S. taxpayer money that the Pentagon is asking Congress to approve giving them, according to top Senators from both parties. – The Cable
Rogin also reports: President Barack Obama intends to nominate Ambassador Richard Olsen to be the next U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, three sources with direct knowledge of the pending appointment told The Cable. – The Cable
India
India has completed infrastructure development work on one of the Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Indian Ocean to improve monitoring of the Malacca strait. The new base will be operated at Campbell Bay by the Indian Navy. – Defense News
Kyrgyzstan
Southern Kyrgyzstan risks a return to ethnic violence if discrimination persists against minority groups in the volatile Central Asian region, where hundreds were killed in June 2010 clashes, the United Nations’ human rights chief said on Tuesday. – Reuters
China
A Virginia Republican congressman urged his colleagues Tuesday to beware a lobbying push by Chinese technology companies suspected of having links to Beijing’s military and cyberespionage efforts against the United States. – Washington Times
China is ramping up state spending to counter its sharpest decline in growth since the financial crisis, further entrenching state-owned companies and dimming the hopes of some that China would use the slowdown to restructure its economy with market-oriented changes. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Tensions between Beijing and the Vatican are mounting after Chinese authorities detained an outspoken Catholic bishop who has defied state control of the church, a move that highlights the Communist Party’s deep mistrust of religious organizations. – Washington Post
As a priest at an officially sanctioned government church — as opposed to the legion of illicit unofficial congregations — Father Liu struggles to balance his faith with the often-intrusive dictates of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the omnipotent government body that oversees religious life for China’s 12 million Roman Catholics.– New York Times
The Vatican on Tuesday condemned the appointment of a Chinese Catholic bishop without its approval, hours after a source said one of Rome’s own newly-ordained bishops had been detained in a seminary in China. – Reuters
Analysis: In a system that still calls itself communist but thrives on cut-throat capitalism, a group of powerful political families and their hangers-on have become fabulously wealthy while ignoring the rules and laws they set for the rest of society. – Financial Times
Editorial: Censorship is born of fear. China’s leaders can’t tolerate open questioning and dissent. . But such a vast censorship machine is also a sign of weakness. It breeds popular mistrust in the leaders and is futile in a world so saturated with communications…There is a lesson here for Mr. Xi. Rather than block the report about his family finances, he ought to realize that, just like the hurtling bullet trains, free and open information is critical to China’s future as a modern superpower. – Washington Post
Kristopher Harrison writes: China is publishing numbers to fit a set storyline and not vice versa…In a healthy economy, the government will publish data, and hoards of private companies will do their own research to either support or argue with the official results. That’s not happening in China. It’s a real problem because of China’s importance to the world market. Bad data begets bad policy. – Shadow Government
East Asia
The elder brother and mentor of President Lee Myung-bak was arrested on bribery charges early Wednesday, further weakening the political leverage of Mr. Lee, a lame-duck leader already grappling with setbacks in both domestic politics and foreign policy. – New York Times
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has recently been seen flanked by a “mystery woman” in official state photographs. The resulting international fascination and buzz indicates just how little the global community knows about secretive North Korea. – Christian Science Monitor
Daily NK reported Tuesday that the price of rice, staple of the North Korean diet, has reached 5,000 North Korean won per kilogram. – WSJ’s Korea Real Time
China’s navy on July 10 will begin annual military exercises off its east coast, state media reported, amid tensions over maritime territorial disputes with its neighbors. – AFP
Japan lodged a protest with China on Wednesday against the entry of Chinese patrol ships into waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea, an issue that has long been a cause of friction between Asia’s two biggest economies. – Reuters
Southeast Asia
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for closer ties between Washington and its former wartime foe Vietnam, even as she said the government in Hanoi isn’t doing enough to respect human rights. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Hillary Clinton’s visit to Laos on Wednesday will be the first by a U.S. secretary of state in 57 years, and it comes at a crucial time: The small, landlocked nation is taking on growing importance as it is pulled deeper into China’s orbit. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Myanmar’s military nominated a former general with close ties to the previous junta to become a vice president, disappointing observers who had hoped to see a known reformer named to one of the country’s top posts. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim insists that Malaysia’s opposition has a “cohesive program and agenda” that will keep the coalition together even when he is retired from politics. – WSJ’s Southeast Asia Real Time
The United States plans to ease sanctions this week to allow its companies to invest in and provide financial services to Myanmar but will require them to make detailed disclosures about their dealings, sources briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Trans-Pacific Partnership
The White House notified Congress on Tuesday that Canada will join the expanding Asia-Pacific trade deal talks. – The Hill’s On the Money
Russia
Russia’s parliament voted Tuesday to ratify the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization, capping 18 years of negotiations and wavering resolve. – Washington Post
The protest movement that erupted so vigorously in Moscow and St. Petersburg over the winter has had difficulty taking hold in provincial cities such as Ulyanovsk, where the constraints of daily life make dissent a dangerous and lonely affair. – Washington Post
Major Internet sites and human rights advocates sharply criticized a proposed law that would grant the Russian government broad new powers to restrict Web content, ostensibly to protect children from pornography and other harmful material. Critics said the law could quickly lead to repression of speech and a restrictive firewall like the one in China. – New York Times
The embalmed body of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin has lain in a glass coffin in a mausoleum on Moscow’s Red Square since his death in 1924. But recent comments by Russia’s new culture minister have brought closer the possibility that the father of the Bolshevik Revolution could finally be laid to rest, signaling an end to the cult of Lenin. – Washington Times
The nation’s top trade official on Tuesday urged Congress to lift a Cold War-era provision to grant Russia permanent normal trade relations. – The Hill’s On the Money
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday dismissed calls to delay legislation that would force rights and campaign groups funded from abroad to register as “foreign agents” and is seen by the opposition as intended to stifle protests. – Reuters
Interview: Popular Russian blogger and political analyst Anton Nosik (aka Nossik) spoke with RFE/RL correspondent Tom Balmforth about why online activists oppose the legislation. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Europe
Hopes have been dashed that Britain and France could announce progress on an alliance to develop UAVs at this week’s Farnborough International Airshow. – Defense News
United States of America
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) lamented the lack of foreign policy debate in the presidential election on Tuesday and said he’d like to see his party’s presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, talk more about Syria and the Arab Spring. – DEFCON Hill
A group of U.S. House lawmakers is continuing to push the Pentagon to halt its buys of Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters until Russia stops selling weapons to the Syrian government. – Defense News
Fewer and fewer lawmakers are staying on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee long enough to make a mark, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) lamented Tuesday at a bittersweet Capitol Historical Society event honoring the panel he chaired for six years. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Josh Rogin reports: The Obama administration quietly announced this week that it is scrapping the office of the Global Health Initiative and abandoning plans to move the whole project over to USAID, creating anger and frustration in the non-government organization community. – The Cable
Latin America
Mexican President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto’s party has fallen short of an absolute majority in Congress, election officials said Tuesday, complicating his ability to push through reforms and possibly forcing him to negotiate with opposition politicians. – LA Times’ World Now
Two years after Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos took office, a bloody resurgence of left-wing guerrilla attacks and a botched judicial reform have cut into his once-commanding approval ratings, threatening plans for extensive economic reforms. – Reuters
West Africa
Islamist militants occupying Mali’s ancient city of Timbuktu demolished tombs inside the city’s oldest mosque on Tuesday, witnesses said, ramping up pressure on West African neighbors to restore order in the troubled nation. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Islamist sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility on Tuesday for attacks that killed more than 65 people in volatile central Nigeria last weekend, although security forces have blamed the violence on localized ethnic clashes. – Reuters
Central Africa
The International Criminal Court in The Hague sentenced a Congolese warlord to 14 years in prison on Tuesday for using child soldiers in his rebel army in 2002 and 2003. The sentence was the first imposed by the court in its history. – New York Times
Authorities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo accused neighboring Rwanda on Tuesday of “invading” a volatile border area, portraying an advancing rebel insurgency as a Rwandan military operation. – Reuters
