Iran
A federal grand jury has indicted Iranian and Chinese nationals on charges stemming from an alleged plot help Iran acquire advanced metals and other sensitive U.S. technology for its nuclear program, the Justice Department announced Friday. – Washington Post
Federal investigators are probing a major Chinese telecom firm and its U.S. subsidiary for allegedly selling banned U.S. surveillance equipment to Iran, according to a newly disclosed document. – Washington Post
[A]fter 17 years of United States sanctions that have prevented the Islamic Republic from buying new Western planes and spare parts, [Captain Shahbazi] said he now felt ashamed before his passengers and angry over American policies, which he said, were responsible for Iranian plane crashes that have left more than 1,700 passengers and crew members dead. – New York Times
How much does the Iranian public really support Iran’s contested nuclear program? One prominent and outspoken Iranian cleric, Abdullah Nouri, has suggested that the question be put to the people in a national referendum, according to media reports. – LA Times’ World Now
A senior House Republican leader is warning colleagues of lobbying by China’s state-run telecommunications firms, amid reports that at least one company is under investigation by the FBI for selling surveillance equipment to Iran. – Washington Free Beacon
The chairman of Iran‘s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the decision over whether Tehran would block the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the passageway through which a fifth of the world’s oil flows, rests in the hands of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. – Associated Press
Iranian police shut down dozens of restaurants and coffee shops over the weekend, Iranian media reported, in a renewed crackdown on what the state sees as immoral and un-Islamic behavior. – Reuters
Syria
New fighting was reported in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Monday, a day after the government denied that it had used heavy weapons to attack a small farming community, where United Nations monitors documented substantial destruction in an assault that left scores dead and drew sharp international condemnation. – New York Times
New details emerging Saturday about what local Syrian activists called a massacre of civilians near the central city of Hama indicated that it was more likely an uneven clash between the heavily armed Syrian military and local fighters bearing light weapons. – New York Times
The Syrian government denied on Sunday that it had used heavy weapons to attack a small farming community, although United Nations monitors documented substantial destruction in the village, Tremseh, in an attack that left scores dead and drew sharp international condemnation. – New York Times
Syria has started moving some parts of its huge stockpile of chemical weapons out of storage, American officials said Friday, but it was uncertain whether the transfer was a precaution as security conditions across the country rapidly deteriorated, or something more sinister. – New York Times
The meeting of the rebel commanders, held after Friday Prayer in this Turkish city near Syria’s northern border, said much about the priorities of the Syrian opposition fighting groups at this stage of the conflict, now 17 months old. – New York Times
Turkey’s Hatay province has become a logistics base, arms bazaar and convalescence center for Syrian rebels and their supporters — not to mention a hub of intrigue over Islamist funding and squabbling among rebel militias that seem to agree on little else beyond the need to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad. – Los Angeles Times
While the skills of defected air force pilots have less direct application for the rebels (who have no aircraft), the pilots’ decisions to join the uprising amount to both a moral and public relations victory for the rebels, and undermine the Assad military’s strength. – New York Times
The family’s escape culminated a five-month odyssey of intrigue, deception and ultimately courage that illuminates both the challenges that faced the tens of thousands of soldiers who have already defected from President Bashar al-Assad’s military — and perhaps some of the reasons why more have not done so. – Washington Post
Aside from a brief foray into town in late December, the army has yet to attempt to occupy Yabrud…The result is an oasis of calm amid a conflict that the international Red Cross formally declared a civil war on Sunday, one that has claimed at least 14,000 lives. – Washington Post
A Syrian opposition leader slammed President Obama on Sunday for staying out of the conflict for what he characterized as politically-motivated reasons, echoing calls from some GOP senators for the U.S. to support the Syrian opposition. – National Journal
The most senior Syrian diplomat to defect and publicly embrace his country’s uprising is calling for a foreign military intervention to topple president Bashar al-Assad. – CNN’s Security Clearance
Facing a “serious escalation” of violence in Syria, the chief United Nations organization that coordinates emergency aid is warning that more Syrian civilians will die if contributing nations do not follow through and fund its relief operation. – CNN’s Security Clearance
The United States on July 13 said that Syrian officials would be “held accountable” if they failed to safeguard the country’s chemical weapons after a report suggested some were being moved out of storage. – AFP
A Russian ship that tried to supply attack helicopters to the Syrian regime amid the bloodshed was reported July 13 to have left its port with the same controversial cargo aboard. – AFP
Editorial: The Obama administration has conceded to Russian intransigence on Syria in the past; now is the time to stop. Should the sanctions proposal fail, the United States should allow the U.N. mission to expire. That would end what has been an counterproductive charade of diplomatic activity at the Security Council and open the way for more effective Western action, such as greater support for the Free Syrian Army and for safe zones for civilians. Moscow should be told that if it wishes to avoid such steps, it must back U.N. sanctions. – Washington Post
Charles Dunne, David Kramer, and William H. Taft IV write: Lessons of things not to do when we intervene have been learned the hard way in Iraq and Afghanistan. Srebrenica and Rwanda have provided their own hard lessons — most important, the cost in lives and U.S. moral standing — for failing to intervene. The United States must summon its leadership skills and, as it did in Libya, put an end to a disastrous conflict that challenges our sense of ourselves as Americans as well as our national interests – Washington Post
Douglas Feith writes: By refusing to act on Syria, the president is missing an opportunity to advance U.S. security interests in the Middle East, while benefiting Iran, the principal sponsor of the Assad regime. And by suggesting that America lacks international legal authority to act, he is undermining U.S. sovereignty. Presidents have traditionally striven to bolster America’s sovereignty and freedom of action, but Mr. Obama evidently sides with the global legalists who see national sovereignty as a problem to be overcome, not a principle to be cherished. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Egypt
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton weighed in Saturday on Egypt’s efforts to define its post-revolutionary course, saying that the United States supports the country’s “full transition to civilian rule” and the return of its politically powerful military to a “purely national security role.” – Washington Post
Egypt’s top military official stepped up his feud with the Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday, saying the army would prevent Egypt from falling to a “certain group,” according to the state news agency. – New York Times
Egypt’s state news media, the traditionally admiring chronicler of Egypt’s head of state, are at war with the new president…[A]s Mr. Morsi moved this week to challenge the generals, the state media have quickly allied with the generals, persistently undercutting the new president while still ostensibly honoring his position. – New York Times
Vast areas of Egypt’s Sinai desert have descended into lawlessness in recent months, providing fertile ground for small cells of extremist militants that have emerged from the shadows and quietly established training camps near the Israeli border, according to Bedouin elders and security experts. – Washington Post
Gulf States
Dr. Mohamed, who asked to have his full name withheld, is part of an underground network of medics in Bahrain who provide illegal care for anti-government protesters injured in nightly clashes with security forces. Most of those hurt refuse to go to either public or private hospitals, no matter how grave their wounds, fearing they will be arrested there. – Christian Science Monitor
Saudi Arabia is studying new regulations to criminalize insulting Islam, including in social media, and the law could carry heavy penalties, a Saudi paper said on Sunday. – Reuters
The United Arab Emirates on Sunday inaugurated a much-anticipated overland oil pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz, giving the OPEC member insurance against Iranian threats to block the strategic waterway. – Associated Press
Iraq
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on July 15 called for the U.S. to speed up the transfer of weapons to Iraq, which lacks the ability to defend its airspace or borders, six months after American troops withdrew. – AFP
After years of following the paper trail of $51 billion in U.S. taxpayer money provided to rebuild a broken Iraq, the U.S. government can say with certainty that too much was wasted. But it can’t say how much. – Associated Press
Israel
The way Obama managed the Israeli-Palestinian issue exhibited many of the hallmarks that have defined his first term. It began with a bid for historic change. But it foundered ultimately on his political and tactical misjudgments, on a lack of trusted relationships and on an outdated view of a conflict that many of his closest advisers imparted to him. And those advisers — veterans of the Middle East peace issue — clashed among themselves over tactics and turf. – Washington Post
Calling this “a time of uncertainty but also of opportunity” in the Middle East, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Monday that Israel and the United States must “think together, act together” and be “smart, creative and courageous.” – New York Times
[T]he outcome of the trial has emboldened associates of Mr. Olmert’s, who have asserted that it was a weak case most likely instigated by right-wing political forces in Israel and encouraged by sympathetic American Jews. – New York Times
South Asia
A suicide bomber set off explosives after wading into a crowd of dignitaries at a wedding on Saturday in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 19 people, including a prominent Afghan lawmaker who was celebrating the marriage of his daughter, Afghan officials said. – New York Times
Just days after President Hamid Karzai assured the United States and international donors that he was serious about fighting corruption, seven top members of the agency that promotes investment in Afghanistan resigned to protest what they said was rampant nepotism, corruption and mismanagement in their organization. – New York Times
Children as young as 10 toil in illegal mines, often for 12 hours a day, activists say. Afghan officials agree the problem is stubborn despite recent efforts. The boys represent a thorny obstacle to the nation’s push to transform its antiquated mining industry into a modern economic engine. – Wall Street Journal
Moody’s Investor Service Friday downgraded Pakistan’s sovereign credit rating by a notch, citing strains on the economy’s external payment position, which has been hurt by a widening trade deficit and a decline in capital inflows. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Peter Bergen writes: According to the data generated by averaging the high and low casualty estimates of militant and civilian deaths published in a wide range of those outlets, the estimated civilian death rate in U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan has declined dramatically since 2008, when it was at its peak of almost 50%. Today, for the first time, the estimated civilian death rate is at or close to zero. – CNN Opinion
China
The city’s independent anticorruption agency charged two billionaire brothers, co-chairmen of one of the city’s biggest property developers, with bribing the city’s former No. 2 government official, nearly four months after they were first arrested. – Wall Street Journal
A weakening Chinese economy, underlined by a further slowdown disclosed on Friday in Beijing, is starting to pose a headache for United States officials and the two presidential campaigns, as Chinese companies shift toward a greater reliance on selling to the American market. – New York Times
The disputed death of a Tiananmen Square protestor in a Hunan hospital last month was indeed a suicide, Chinese authorities have announced following a controversial investigation. – WSJ’s China Real Time Report
China’s government is led by a “progressive, selfless, and united ruling group,” according to a teaching booklet sent to all Hong Kong-government schools that’s stirring controversy in the city, and that’s led critics to brand it “brainwashing.” – WSJ’s China Real Time Report
Editorial: The West’s relationship with China is based on both rivalry and dependence, and nations in China’s shadow have their own imperatives and pressures to deal with. Ms. Clinton’s address offers hope that the U.S. pivot to Asia will go beyond simple muscle-flexing and become a multi-layered approach to match the complexity of China’s rise as a modern superpower. – Washington Post
Lobsang Sangay writes: Because we know that the democracies of the world recognize basic human rights and freedoms to be universal values, we ask the international community to intervene before our situation deteriorates even further. In its annual human rights dialogue with China this month, the State Department should urge the Chinese to relax restrictions in Tibet immediately and request fact-finding delegations to investigate the reasons for the tragically high number of self-immolations in Tibet. – Washington Post
East Asia
Japan called back its ambassador to China on Sunday, the result of a reignited territorial dispute between the East Asian neighbors. – Washington Post
In a dramatic fall from power within North Korea’s opaque hierarchy, a senior army general widely seen as a guardian of the North’s new leader was removed from all his posts, the North’s official media reported on Monday. – New York Times
For weeks now, analysts have puzzled over photos of women sporting miniskirts and heels in downtown Pyongyang, a stunning change from the years when Western wear was mostly shunned in favor of billowy traditional dresses or drab Mao-style work uniforms. – New York Times
Southeast Asia
China’s efforts to assert its claims to the disputed South China Sea got a boost as regional talks to resolve the issue broke down despite U.S. support, even as Beijing made fresh moves that underscore its increasing presence in the region. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Two days after President Obama formally lifted prohibitions on U.S. investment in Burma, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Burmese President Thein Sein, marking another step in the administration’s rapid normalization of relations with the formerly isolated country. – Washington Post
President Thein Sein of Myanmar addressed a dinner of American business executives in this city near the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat on Friday, inviting them to invest in his impoverished country after an absence of 25 years. – New York Times
Chinese navy ships safely removed one of the country’s warships Sunday from a disputed shoal off the western Philippines where it had run aground while on a security patrol and sparked fears of another maritime standoff in the South China Sea. – Associated Press
Editorial: One speech won’t convert Vietnam’s Communist Party. And it must be noted that the Obama Administration’s human-rights stance in Asia hasn’t always been either strong or effective. But in Vietnam, Mrs. Clinton is talking the right talk. One way to follow up would be to keep pressing Hanoi, often and publicly, to release activists such as Mr. Quan and to rethink its proposed Internet law. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
Michael Green and Daniel Twining write: By publicly splitting with Burma’s democratic opposition on such an important issue, the administration will find that Aung San Suu Kyi no longer provides political cover for U.S. policies. The White House will find itself held more accountable for the Burmese military’s continued violence against ethnic minorities, as well as any nuclear ties with North Korea and the Burmese people’s dashed expectations for lasting political change. – Washington Post
Russia
In another clampdown on dissent, Russian lawmakers approved a bill on Friday that would impose tougher registration and reporting requirements on nongovernmental organizations that receive financing from foreign governments or other donors abroad. – New York Times
The Senate Finance Committee, as expected, on Friday announced that it will be marking up a controversial Russia trade bill next Wedndesday and released the text of a compromise draft bill. – The Hill’s On the Money
Russia’s bad reputation on Capitol Hill could derail trade legislation that is needed to prevent U.S. businesses from losing out to their competitors for access to the world’s ninth-largest economy. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
United States of America
Two of Mitt Romney’s top foreign policy advisers slammed the Obama administration this week for failing to address a mounting humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan, saying Mr. Obama’s mishandling of the region’s ongoing crisis offers a window into how a Romney White House would do things differently. – Washington Times
Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney attacked President Obama over $500 billion in defense cuts as Obama made a campaign stop in Virginia, a military-heavy state. – DEFCON Hill
The top U.S. weapons manufacturers are largely sitting out the 2012 presidential race, opting instead to pour millions into congressional races as the firms use campaign cash to influence lawmakers’ fight over massive defense cuts. – DOTMIL
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) wants seven top Obama administration officials to be made available for the committee to interview about national security leaks. – DEFCON Hill
Latin America
For Americans weary of underwater mortgages and housing booms and busts, there is surely something novel in Venezuela’s approach to its own housing crisis…The giveaways are a prime example of how Mr. Chávez has been able to maintain popular support for nearly 14 years, despite out-of-control crime, erratic basic services and stubborn poverty. – New York Times
Editorial: Even if the current crisis can be defused, however, the FMLN has picked a leader and embarked on a course that threatens El Salvador’s hard-won stability and democracy. Given its close ties to the country, reinforced by the large Salvadoran immigrant population here, the United States has a strong interest in defending the constitutional order. – Washington Post
Mali
Western nations, notably France, the former colonial power in Mali, continue to suggest that any military resolution to Mali’s crisis must come from Africans themselves. But African nations meeting over the weekend in Ethiopia appeared no closer to resolving it, and the Islamists themselves appeared to be tightening their grip of northern Mali, with reports of citizens being whipped and demonstrators repressed in the north. – New York Times
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo agreed Sunday to accept an international force to take on rebels in eastern Congo, and the African Union said it was ready to send peacekeepers there. – AFP
Tuareg-led rebels who seized the north of Mali in April declared on Sunday they had dropped their claims for a separate state after the rebellion was hijacked by al Qaeda-linked Islamists. – Reuters
Radical Islamists in northern Mali briefly detained about 90 protesters and whipped them in what appeared to be an attempt to intimidate residents of a town, a witness said Saturday. – Associated Press
East Africa
Eritrea has reduced its support for the al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab militant group in Somalia under international pressure, but still violates U.N. Security Council resolutions and remains a destabilizing influence, a U.N. report says. – Reuters
Central Africa
The Ugandan army said talks are under way with the Congolese government to allow Ugandan troops to pursue Ugandan rebel dissidents in the mineral-rich but restive eastern region of Congo, where rebel fighters have routed Congolese troops in recent weeks. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
South Africa
South Africa’s home affairs minister was elected Sunday to lead the African Union, capping a months-long campaign that aimed to expand the government’s diplomatic role on the continent but risked sowing divisions among other African countries. – Wall Street Journal
