Iran
The Obama administration, seeking to plug loopholes in its sanctions against Iran, said Thursday that it would impose additional measures against more than a dozen companies and people involved in that country’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. – New York Times
Congress is moving to dramatically tighten economic sanctions against Iran as lawmakers from both major parties express impatience over U.S. efforts to halt the expansion of Iran’s nuclear program. – Washington Post
In an unusually public forum, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI6, has forecast that Iran would likely achieve a nuclear weapons capability within two years, strengthening prospects for a possible military strike by the United States or Israel, a British newspaper reported on Friday. – New York Times
The U.S. is deciding whether to keep two aircraft carriers in the waters around Iran through the end of the year in a move that risks inflaming tensions with the regime, according to U.S. officials. – CNN’s Security Clearance
A court in Tehran has banned the 12-year-old daughter of jailed Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh from leaving Iran. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Abdollah Nouri, a former interior minister of Iran and a respected reformist cleric, has called on political leaders to hold a referendum on the fate of the country’s controversial nuclear program. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Sen. Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., has accused Iran of backing terrorist plots around the globe in response to Western pressure aimed at discouraging the nation from developing nuclear weapons – Global Security Newswire
The top U.S. military commander for strategic combat on Thursday said that Washington’s atomic weapons could serve as the ultimate tool for deterring a nuclear-armed Iran – Global Security Newswire
The United States must do more to show Iran it is serious about curtailing its nuclear ambitions because the current pressure is not working, Israel’s vice prime minister said on Thursday. – Reuters
Claudia Rosett writes: At Tuvalu’s Mission to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Afeele F. Pita said last week that he sees no problem with NITC flagging its ships to Tuvalu: “The ships are in order.” Can the same be said for a sanctions policy that’s not only failing to stop the Iranian bomb, but couldn’t even block Iran from shopping for Tuvalu flags in Singapore? Which one-stop-shop will they choose next? – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Lee Smith writes: [L]ong before the United States decides to attack Iran, we need to communicate our seriousness to the regime. “There is only one guy you need to convince here to voluntarily give up the nuclear program and that is the Supreme Leader Khameini,” Jack Keane argues. “He must know we are dead serious about a military strike, as a last resort, and this is not just about the nuclear facilities—their military will be decapitated. This is the U.S. military. Believe me, we will destroy you.” – Tablet
Syria
Syrian opposition activists said nearly 200 people were killed in a Sunni village on Thursday by government forces using tanks and helicopters, which, if confirmed, would be the worst in a series of massacres that have convulsed Syria’s increasingly sectarian uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. – New York Times
The revolution that has engulfed much of Syria in bloodshed is now encroaching on the capital in ways that challenge long-held assumptions about President Bashar al-Assad’s hold on power even in the city presumed to be his stronghold. – Washington Post
A Russian cargo ship carrying military helicopters and air-defense equipment for the Syria government, forced to turn back last month after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized the shipment and a British company revoked the vessel’s insurance, is again on the move. – New York Times
Syria has begun moving parts of its vast arsenal of chemical weapons out of storage facilities, U.S. officials said, in a development that has alarmed many in Washington. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Two prominent Syrian political defections within a week have stirred a debate within the opposition movement over what role—if any—former officials can play in ousting the Assad regime and serving in any transition government. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The owner of the Alaed, the Russian ship forced to return to Russia last month after it was found to be carrying assault helicopters bound for Syria, has said it was not aware of the nature of the cargo on board the vessel. – Financial Times
Russia urged U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan on Friday to work more closely with the Syrian opposition and a Foreign Ministry source said it would push the idea at talks with Annan in Moscow on Monday. – Reuters
Human Right Watch on July 12 said Syrian regime forces appear to be using Soviet-produced cluster bombs against rebel hideouts in a mountainous region of Hama province. – AFP
[Sunni soldiers] are among a new wave of Sunni defectors who have abandoned the military in recent weeks as the army, short of gung-ho infantry, relies more on heavy artillery to batter Sunni towns. – Reuters
Inna Lazareva writes: The common explanation for why Moscow continues to back the Assad regime is that it is acting to protect its security and economic interests. While President Vladimir Putin may well believe this to be the case, his government’s continued support for Bashar Assad represents at best a miscalculation—and at worst an irreversible diplomatic disaster. Russia’s choices are set to backfire against its own key assets in the region. – Wall Street Journal Europe (subscription required)
Egypt
In his first foreign visit as Egypt’s newly elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood met Thursday with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, a signal that the two intended to set aside their profound ideological enmity in favor of pragmatic mutual interests. – New York Times
The power struggle that has pitted Egypt’s first democratically elected president against his country’s courts and military has drifted into murky legal waters, leaving analysts, officials and ordinary Egyptians scratching their heads over the question: who has the law on their side? – Washington Times
On Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Egypt, the first U.S. Cabinet official to meet with newly elected president Mohamed Morsy. In some ways, the timing couldn’t be worse for Clinton’s visit. – CNN’s Security Clearance
Analysis: Egypt’s new Islamist president and his old military foes have come out swinging in a struggle for political power, but their countrymen need them to find a way to work together to avert economic chaos. – Reuters
Aaron David Miller writes: U.S.-Egypt relations are in for some tough times. Forget solutions or overcoming these challenges. They’re far too entrenched and Egypt’s far too much a mess for that. More likely we’ll have to do some pretty fancy shuffling and two-stepping just to manage the relationship. So, Madam Secretary, put on those dancing shoes and get ready to hit the floor. – Los Angeles Times
Libya
An alliance of parties led by a U.S.-educated economist is handily leading Libya’s legislative elections, according to unofficial results released Thursday, promising that liberal lawmakers will shape the country’s next government and the continuing regional debate about the role of Islam in politics. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Mahmoud Jibril, the U.S.-trained consultant who abandoned the Gaddafi administration to become the face of the Libyan revolution, is positioning himself as a potentially unifying force as the country emerges from four decades of dictatorship. – Reuters
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) writes: It is every bit in keeping with our democratic ideals—and even more in our national interest—to halt the slaughter in Syria and help the Syrian people gain the same chance to succeed that the Libyan people now have. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Tunisia
In Tunisia, birthplace of the Arab spring, a group of economists and policy-makers are hoping to expand a programme that helps talented recent graduates break into the job market. – Financial Times
Allison Good reports: House Rules Committee chairman David Dreier (R-CA) announced last week during a visit to Tunis that he intends to head an initiative to propose a free trade agreement between the United States and Tunisia, which experienced a popular uprising in 2010 and held democratic elections in October. – The Cable
Arab Spring
Charles Krauthammer writes: The only thing we can be sure of today, however, is that Arab nationalism is dead and Islamism is its successor. This is what the Arab Spring has wrought. The beginning of wisdom is facing that difficult reality. – Washington Post
Richard Wike and Bruce Stokes write: The heady optimism that followed the Berlin Wall’s collapse has since been replaced by economic and political frustration. It remains to be seen if Arab public opinion will follow a similar trajectory. – Foreign Policy
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia ended its status as the last Olympic nation to refuse to send women athletes to the Olympics, agreeing just two weeks before the start of the London games to field two young female competitors, the International Olympic Committee announced. – Wall Street Journal
Iraq
The White House has asked Iraq to review the case of a Hezbollah commander who was accused of masterminding a 2007 attack that killed five American soldiers or hand him over to the United States, a senior Obama administration official said Thursday, though two Iraqi courts have declared him not guilty. – Associated Press
Israel
The young women are volunteers in Israel’s national service program, an alternative to the military that comes with the same financial benefits and similar advantages for future education and employment. That program is now the focus of a searing national debate over plans to draw up a law that will no longer exempt categories of citizens. Some Arab-Israeli leaders see the young women’s service as a betrayal of their national struggle, and call them traitors. – New York Times
The Israeli army has placed an Iron Dome air defense system battery by the Red Sea resort of Eilat near the border with Egypt, a statement from the military said on July 12. – AFP
Tzipi Livni writes: While Israel is not a player in the events shaking the Arab world, together we can help shape the region’s future Regardless of the choices Arab peoples make for themselves, even an Islamist winter may thaw into a promising spring. – Financial Times
South Asia
A peace forum in Japan attended by a high-ranking member of the Taliban represented a promising new development in efforts to reach a negotiated end to the Afghan war, the U.S. ambassador to Kabul said. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The Pakistani Supreme Court on Thursday gave the new prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, two weeks to restart a corruption investigation of President Asif Ali Zardari, setting the stage for a new confrontation in the months-old battle between government and judiciary. – New York Times
[T]hree years after the war ended, human rights groups and opposition leaders warn that [Sri Lanka] is descending toward dictatorship, with dissent brutally crushed, the media cowed and the minority Tamils, whose insurrection caused the war in the first place, still treated like second-class citizens. – Washington Post
The Afghan leader, speaking at a news conference, urged the Taliban chief to embark on negotiations with his government and take part in the political process. He said Omar and his “comrades” could set up a political party and that Omar himself could become a candidate for office if he wished. – LA Times’ World Now
The outgoing U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan said Thursday that he thinks it’s unlikely that the departure of most foreign troops by 2014 will plunge the country into another civil war or prompt a precipitous economic slide. – Associated Press
Sadanand Dhume writes: It’s always tempting for the West to do business with whoever’s powerful, but this is a recipe for the kind of trouble America right now faces with its troublesome “ally.” Pakistan’s liberals are not only less weak and less of a fringe phenomenon than they’re made out to be, they’re also the only ones who hold out the promise of a better future for their country. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
East Asia
The authorities in China’s central Hunan Province have determined that a veteran dissident who was found dead in his hospital room last month took his own life, a government-affiliated news service reported on Thursday. – New York Times
A top Hong Kong government minister resigned Thursday after being arrested by the city’s anticorruption agency in a scandal that has undermined the administration, less than two weeks after it was sworn in. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Taiwanese aircraft maker Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. said July 12 that it had forged an agreement with U.S. aerospace firm Lockheed Martin to get a piece of the island’s $5.85 billion fighter upgrade deal. – AFP
Koreas
Mr. Kim is part of a growing number of defectors who are making their way south — the number has increased sevenfold to 23,000 in the last decade — and posing a growing challenge for South Korea. Attempts at integration, including government-run crash courses on life in the capitalist South, have had mixed results, leaving many North Koreans unable to adapt to South Korea’s hard-charging society or beat back their stereotype as backward country cousins. – New York Times
New satellite imagery obtained by CNN’s Security Clearance shows increased activity at a North Korean nuclear facility. – CNN’s Security Clearance
Top nuclear negotiators from South Korea and the United States on Wednesday agreed that denuclearization negotiations with North Korea could not proceed while the regime maintains an aggressive posture – Global Security Newswire
North Korea on July 12 insisted it needs atomic weaponry to deter a U.S. nuclear threat, and vowed never to give up its right to launch rockets as part of what it called a peaceful space program. – AFP
Southeast Asia
Disputes in the strategically important South China Sea proved so contentious here on Thursday that an annual regional gathering ended without even a basic diplomatic communiqué. – New York Times
With polls suggesting a recent erosion in support for Prime Minister Najib Razak and the ruling party, particularly among younger, tech-savvy voters, the government has been working overtime to solidify its support among the country’s Muslim Malay majority. And one way it has done that, analysts said, is by fanning fear of secularism and the spread of religions other than Islam. – Los Angeles Times
As the United States begins allowing new investments in Myanmar for the first time in nearly 15 years, human rights activists charge that the step will fuel abuses instead of rewarding its steps toward reform. – LA Times’ World Now
Ten staff members from the United Nations and international NGOs have been detained in Myanmar and charges have been lodged against at least some of them, the United Nations said on Friday, the day after U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres visited the country. – Reuters
A Thai court on Friday rejected charges that constitutional amendments proposed by the ruling party threatened the revered monarchy, but ruled a referendum was needed for a rewrite of the charter. – Reuters
Editorial: Asean has proved modestly successful at bolstering economic ties among its members. Now it purports to aspire to much more, including still closer economic and security integration. A failure to take a firm stand on questions involving the sovereign territory of its members undermines that goal, discredits the organization, and emboldens Beijing. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
Kazakhstan
The United Nations urged Kazakhstan on Thursday to allow an international investigation into deadly oil town riots that it said exposed rights abuses and growing inequality in Central Asia’s largest economy. – Reuters
Russia
Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), issued a statement late Wednesday slamming Russia for passing a bill that would allow the government to blacklist certain websites. – Hillicon Valley
Since Soviet times, officials from lowly bureaucrats right to the top have tended to see every setback as a foreign plot, every piece of bad news as a conspiracy. This same official paranoia, she and many others say, is now embodied in legislation intended to expose “foreign agents”, defined as any group that receives foreign finance and engages in politics. – Financial Times
Top U.S. general Martin Dempsey on July 12 met with his Russian counterpart, giving him the red carpet treatment despite diplomatic tensions over Syria between Washington and Moscow. – AFP
Europe
The U.K. government Thursday increased the role of the military to secure the Olympic Games after a private security contractor failed to meet promised staffing requirements, in a last-minute move prompting questions about how security is being managed. – Wall Street Journal
The last time Silvio Berlusconi grabbed so much media attention, it was because he had resigned as prime minister. Not eight months later, the front pages of Italian newspapers are emblazoned with headlines that say that Mr. Berlusconi is back and ready to take another stab at Italy’s top elected position. – New York Times
The United States and Europe’s main security and rights body accused Belarus of preventing an activist from leaving the former Soviet republic to attend a meeting in Vienna to discuss democratic elections on Thursday. – Reuters
Ukraine’s [language] bill has touched such a raw nerve that it is now in limbo after fists flew in parliament and protesters clashed with police. – Reuters
United States of America
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) ripped into Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) on Thursday for holding up legislation to protect religious minorities that has bipartisan support. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) writes: A Romney presidency promises to take us back to something all too familiar: a Bush-Cheney doctrine — equal parts naïve and cavalier — which eagerly embraces military force without fully considering the consequences. That “attack now and figure it out later” mindset had disastrous consequences for our country. We can’t afford to go back to the failed policies of the past, not when we’ve come so far and had so much success. America’s security depends on moving forward to confront the threats of the future. That’s what’s at stake in this election. – Foreign Policy
Colombia
Frustrated by increased rebel attacks and Colombia’s surprising friendship with socialist neighbor Venezuela, a former ally of President Juan Manuel Santos has become the first to throw his hat in the ring for the 2014 presidential election. – Reuters
Mali
President Obama on Thursday authorized the release of up to $10 million in emergency aid to help deal with the worsening refugee crisis in the West African nation of Mali. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Foreign powers will probably intervene militarily in Mali after al-Qaeda-linked militants took control of territory in the north of the West African country, France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday. – Reuters
Mali plans to ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate killings, rapes, torture, and attacks on cultural sites in its rebel-controlled north, the country’s justice minister said on Thursday. – Reuters
East Africa
Rwanda’s president rejected accusations that his country is supporting a group of Congolese army mutineers staging a rebellion in Congo’s mineral-rich eastern region. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Last year’s famine in southern Somalia saw Dadaab’s population swell by 160,000 to its present 465,000. As a result, Dadaab is running desperately short of funds for food and vital services, according to an appeal by several aid agencies, including Oxfam and Save the Children. – Los Angeles Times
An Ethiopian court on Friday sentenced a prominent blogger to 18 years in jail and five other exiled journalists to prison terms ranging from eight years to life behind bars for conspiring with rebels to topple the government, the presiding judge said. – Reuters
South Africa
South Africa has suspended its former ambassador to Iran in relation to corruption allegations made in a $4.2bn lawsuit filed against MTN, the South African emerging markets mobile phone operator. – Financial Times
