Iran
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Sunday that he did not think Israel had yet made a decision to strike Iran, but that his goal in meeting with the Israeli leadership this week was to strengthen ties with the United States “so that we can be fully prepared to deal with any contingency that may happen.” – New York Times
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta sought Sunday to portray the United States and Israel as unified in their support for increasingly tough international sanctions, rather than military measures, on Iran to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon. – Washington Post
Amid soaring prices, sweltering temperatures and escalating international tensions, a Ramadan of discontent is unfolding in the Islamic Republic. – Los Angeles Times
Iran may be facing its biggest economic challenge in years as international sanctions cut off its oil revenue, but that hasn’t made it any easier to find a table in an upscale restaurant in Tehran’s leafy northern suburbs. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
An Israeli newspaper reported Sunday that the Obama administration’s top security official has briefed Israel on U.S. plans for a possible attack on Iran, seeking to reassure it that Washington is prepared to act militarily should diplomacy and sanctions fail to pressure Tehran to abandon its nuclear enrichment program. – Associated Press
Iran expects to hold more talks with world powers on its nuclear program following an inconclusive round of negotiations in Istanbul earlier this month, its foreign minister said in a newspaper interview published on Monday – Reuters
Iran should wean itself off sales of its vast oil resources to power its economy, the country’s clerical supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, as its crude exports become increasingly hampered by Western sanctions. – Reuters
Editorial: If Mr. Obama is a pretender on sanctioning the mullahs, then you can be sure he isn’t inclined to stop their nuclear program by other means. The Israelis will draw their own conclusions, if they haven’t already. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Syria
Syrian guns pounded rebel positions in Aleppo on Sunday, as panicked residents streamed from the besieged city and the opposition denied the military was driving out insurgents. – Los Angeles Times
As fierce fighting continued across Syria on Sunday, the country’s foreign minister, on a visit to Iran, blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey for the escalation of violence and vowed that his government would rout the rebels fighting the army in Aleppo. – New York Times
World officials raised concerns that a major battle looming in Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, could spur a wave of war crimes by both sides in the conflict. – Wall Street Journal
Syria has expanded its chemical weapons arsenal in recent years with help from Iran and by using front organizations to buy sophisticated equipment it claimed was for civilian programs, according to documents and interviews. – Washington Post
The Obama administration is warning Syrian opposition forces not to completely disband President Bashar al-Assad’s hated security and government apparatus if he is killed or forced from power, according to U.S. officials, who want them to avoid the chaos and power vacuum of Iraq in 2003. – Washington Post
Even as forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reassert control over much of Damascus, residents of the capital say they feel increasingly distant from the government they have long supported and are confident that it will eventually fall. – Washington Post
As the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s government grinds on with no resolution in sight, Syrians involved in the armed struggle say it is becoming more radicalized: homegrown Muslim jihadists, as well as small groups of fighters from Al Qaeda, are taking a more prominent role and demanding a say in running the resistance. – New York Times
Russian officials, who have strenuously resisted U.S.-led efforts to push Syrian President Bashar Assad from power, are beginning to question whether the beleaguered leader can hang on, but say they have little influence over him as rebels take the fight to his country’s biggest cities. – Los Angeles Times
As the fighting in Syria intensifies, many Lebanese fear that the conflict could spill over the border, upending the fragile sectarian balance holding their country together and sparking another bloody internal conflict fueled by regional powers. – Washington Post
Two foreign journalists captured by Islamic extremists in Syria and held for a week were rescued by Syrian opposition fighters, one of them said on Friday. – New York Times
Alone among Syria’s Muslim neighbors, Iraq is resisting receiving refugees from the conflict, and is making those who do arrive anything but comfortable. Baghdad is worried about the fighters of a newly resurgent Al Qaeda flowing both ways across the border, and about the Sunni opponents of the two governments making common cause – New York Times
It is not unusual to see rebel soldiers limping around the [Turkish] holiday town of Antakya on crutches, and countless apartments across this area have been turned into makeshift combat field clinics, crammed with young, burly men nursing gunshot wounds. – New York Times
Jordan opened on Sunday its first tent camp for Syrians fleeing violence in their country, as government officials said a surge of refugees left them no other choice. – Associated Press
Even amid mounting fears of a massacre in Syria’s largest city, the United States must continue applying economic and diplomatic pressure before considering military intervention, America’s highest-ranking military official said. – Associated Press
Saudi Arabia said Syrians should be enabled to protect themselves against government attacks but declined direct comment on a report that it had helped set up a secret liaison center in Turkey to aid a rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad. – Reuters
Editorial: Yes, this is an election season, and Americans are fatigued from a decade of war. But global leadership does not take a timeout, and sometimes it has to lead toward a consensus, not wait for one to form. “The United States has been, and will remain, the one indispensable nation in world affairs,” the president declared in a speech last week. Fine words. – Washington Post
Tony Badran writes: With this insurance policy, Assad could hang on as a warlord presiding over an Iranian and Russian protectorate on the Mediterranean. The past several weeks have dealt Assad a serious blow, but this is not yet the end of the Syrian conflict. It is rather the beginning of a new phase, the endgame of which is not in Damascus, but further west. – Foreign Policy
Egypt
Egypt’s recent election of an Islamist president has rekindled a long-suppressed display of public piousness that has aroused both “moral vigilantism” and personal acts of faith, such as demands that police officers and flight attendants be allowed to grow beards. Scattered incidents of violence and intimidation do not appear to have been organized, but they represent a disturbing trend in Egypt’s transition to democracy. – Los Angeles Times
Egypt’s tourism industry has been battered since last year’s revolution, but here, beside the pyramids of Giza, officials are trying to attract the visitors back. – Washington Post
With an economy on the brink and generals controlling the government from behind the scenes, Egyptians are not much enamored with their new, inexperienced prime minister. – LA Times’ World Now
Analysis: When [Morsi] was sworn in last month, the Arab world’s biggest country gained an unabashed Islamist as its leader for the first time, arousing alarm here and abroad. Since then, however, the new government has not publicly made a single Islamist move. – New York Times
Gulf States
Bahrain’s leading opposition party is looking to revive stalled democracy talks, with the hope that U.S. backing will give the country’s crown prince more clout as the Sunni ruling family’s representative in negotiations. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The more than 300 graduates gathered at a hotel overlooking the Potomac River were all from Saudi Arabia, part of a massive government-paid foreign study program to earn bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees and return home to help run their country. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Saudi protesters were detained in the area of Qatif, the official Saudi Press Agency reported Friday, the latest turn in a simmering protest movement on the eastern edge of the kingdom. – LA Times’ World Now
At least 10 local Islamists have been arrested in the United Arab Emirates over the past several days as part of a widening crackdown on dissidents, activists said on Sunday, – Reuters
Iraq
Fifteen neighborhood officials in the Iraqi city of Baquba have resigned to protest what they say is the government’s inability to protect them from Qaeda infiltrators, Iraqi officials said Friday. – New York Times
The Defense Department has promised a swift and “unrelenting” response to the resurgence of al Qaeda in Iraq as the terror faction fights to regain ground lost to U.S. and coalition forces during the war. – DEFCON Hill
A high-ranking Iraqi official said on July 29 that security agencies have uncovered a secret weapons deal between the autonomous Kurdistan region and an unnamed foreign country. – AFP
Israel
President Obama signed pro-Israel legislation into law Friday just before Mitt Romney’s trip to that country. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Israel’s military has expanded its intelligence-gathering reach with a new organization called the “Depth Command” that involves operations beyond the country’s borders, and many of those missions require long-endurance unmanned aircraft. – Aviation Week
Despite inarguable ties between the U.S. and its closest ally in the Middle East and despite statements from U.S. politicians trumpeting the friendship, U.S. national security officials consider Israel to be, at times, a frustrating ally and a genuine counterintelligence threat. – Associated Press
The Pentagon has reached an agreement with Lockheed Martin Corp on a $450 million program to enhance electronic warfare equipment on the F-35 fighter jet, and integrate Israeli-unique systems beginning in 2016, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. – Reuters
Turkey
Turkey’s top procurement body twice this year has reviewed several multibillion-dollar programs on its agenda without making any decisions, leaving some analysts to wonder if Turkey could afford those projects. – Defense News
Afghanistan
A U.S. initiative to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on construction projects in Afghanistan, originally pitched as a vital tool in the military campaign against the Taliban, is running so far behind schedule that it will not yield benefits until most U.S. combat forces have departed the country, according to a government inspection report to be released Monday. – Washington Post
Inspectors from a U.S. government watchdog agency discovered that several American-funded border police bases in Afghanistan have been largely abandoned or left unoccupied, raising questions about the coming hand-over of security duties to local forces. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The American diplomat most associated with the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan says that American policy makers need to learn the lessons of the recent past as they weigh military options for the future, including for Syria and Iran – New York Times
South Asia
Tensions flared between the United States and Pakistan on Friday, as two top officials traded accusations of doing too little to combat Taliban sanctuaries in Afghanistan and Pakistan – New York Times
The American-led coalition on Sunday bluntly rebutted an assertion made last week by a senior Pakistani official that American forces had on 52 occasions done little over all to stop Pakistan Taliban militants from using Afghan territory as a springboard for attacks on Pakistani forces in the mountains along the poorly marked frontier. – New York Times
Observers are questioning the wisdom of India’s decision to begin design work on its second homemade aircraft carrier, even as its first indigenous carrier faces more than two years of delays due to technical snags and its quest to refit a Russian-built carrier has been beset by years of delays and billions in cost overruns. – Defense News
China
Political fortunes can change quickly in China. This year, the fall of Bo Xilai, a party leader, appears to have given one of his longtime rivals an inside track for promotion to the Communist Party’s top ruling body. – Wall Street Journal
The contrasting views of Ms. Gu’s character, and of the connections she forged with Mr. Heywood in Britain, are central elements of the political murder mystery that has gripped China’s political elite, reverberating through Washington and London. – New York Times
Angry demonstrators entered a government office in the port city of Qidong, near Shanghai, on Saturday and smashed computers and destroyed furniture to protest a waste discharge plant that they said would pollute the water supply. – New York Times
Thousands of people took to the streets here on Sunday to protest the introduction of Chinese national education in Hong Kong schools, a day after the city’s education minister warned that such demonstrations would not stop or delay the process. – New York Times
The Dagonzhe Center, a migrant-rights advocacy group in Shenzhen, said that it has been subject to escalating harassment that has resulted in the organization being kicked out of its offices. – WSJ’s China Real Time Report
Phelim Kine writes: As the Olympic torch enters the stadium for the start of the 2012 London Games, it’s likely that Ji Sizun will be spending his day in much the same way he has spent most days since the Beijing Olympics: confined, silenced, and dreaming of a fairer and more just China. – Foreign Policy
Taiwan
The U.S. State Department moved nearly a year ago to put Taiwan ahead of other nations with which Washington hoped to pursue a nuclear trade agreement, drafting text for a renewal pact that would include a key nonproliferation pledge by Taipei – National Journal
North Korea
Flooding in North Korea caused by torrential rains has killed 88 people and left 63,000 homeless, the country’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. – New York Times
North Korea’s booming cellphone market now counts more than 1 million subscribers, providing citizens with an increasingly potent channel for delivering accounts from the reclusive country to the outside world. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
In a dispatch headlined “To Expect ‘Change’ From DPRK Is Foolish Ambition,” the North’s Korea Central News Agency in stark terms confronted and put down speculation and comments by outsiders that its authoritarian government might change its ways. – WSJ’s Korea Real Time
Elderly North Korean veterans pledged loyalty to their 20-something leader in Pyongyang during Korean War armistice commemorations Friday that were being closely watched after Kim Jong Un reshuffled the military and revealed he’s married. – Associated Press
Southeast Asia
Vietnam’s Communist government is considering whether to allow same-sex couples to marry or legally register and receive rights — positioning the country to be the first in Asia to do so. – Associated Press
Karel Schwarzenberg writes: Burma needs genuine national reconciliation. It also urgently needs investment oriented not toward plundering the country’s natural riches but that creates possibilities for its young generation and respects the rights of farmers and ethnic minorities. No democracy can survive without offering opportunities and jobs that enable an acceptable standard of living. Together with the Burmese people, we can express our unequivocal belief that, in Aung San Suu Kyi’s words, “To talk about change is not enough. Change must happen.” – Washington Post
Australia
Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith on July 29 defended military spending cuts, saying the belt-tightening would not impact overseas operations or those with key ally the United States. – AFP
Russia
Russia’s boast that it plans to extend its naval forces to bases in Cuba, the Seychelles and Vietnam poses little strategic threat to U.S. interests in Latin America, the Indian Ocean or the Pacific, analysts say. – Washington Times
The Russian defence ministry on July 27 denied it was holding negotiations about opening military installations in Cuba, Vietnam and the Seychelles, dismissing as “fantasy” media reports saying as much. – AFP
Three women who protested against Vladimir Putin in a “punk prayer” on the altar of Russia’s main cathedral went on trial on Monday in a case seen as a test of the longtime leader’s treatment of dissent during a new presidential term – Reuters
Editorial: The incarceration of [the Russian female punk rock ban] can only be interpreted as an attempt to make an example out of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23; Maria Alekhina, 24; and Ekaterina Samutsevich, 29. Two are mothers of young children. – Washington Post
Editorial: This is what happens in a Washington with a President who is focused solely on re-election and has forfeited trust on Capitol Hill. The only winner from failure would be the Putin regime, which desperately wants to see Magnitsky die and won’t mind that American business suffers in the bargain. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Europe
Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban has proposed changes to the way citizens are registered to vote, a move analysts say will bolster his chances of re-election in the country’s 2014 polls. – WSJ’s Emerging Europe
The Ukrainian parliament has voted to rescind its earlier approval of a controversial language bill that would give Russian the status of an official language in the country’s Russian-dominated regions. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
United States of America
[O]nce the incendiary flourishes are stripped away, the actual foreign policy differences between the two seem more a matter of degree and tone than the articulation of a profound debate about the course of America in the world today. – New York Times
Mitt Romney said Sunday that preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear capability should be America’s “highest national security priority,” stressing that “no option should be excluded” in the effort. – New York Times
One of Mitt Romney’s top foreign policy advisors said Sunday that as president, Romney would respect Israel’s right to strike Iran to unilaterally prevent that nation from obtaining a nuclear weapon. – Los Angeles Times
Mitt Romney on Saturday explicitly sought for the first time to turn the Arab Spring into an issue in the United States presidential race. In an interview with an Israeli newspaper to set up his visit to Israel this weekend, Mr. Romney made several provocative statements distinguishing himself from President Obama. – NYT’s The Lede
Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), a prominent Mitt Romney surrogate, took jabs at President Obama’s foreign policy on Sunday, arguing he hasn’t been aggressive enough with Syria or Iran and has made the United States “weaker” around the world. – Hill Tube
Top advisers for the presidential campaigns scuffled on Sunday over their candidates’ stances on foreign policy, with Romney aide Kevin Madden touting the GOP candidate’s strong support for Israel, and senior Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs pointing to a series of gaffes to argue that Romney was not “ready” to lead. – Hill Tube
Eli Lake reports: Dennis Ross, a longtime diplomat and a key architect of the Oslo peace process under President Clinton—a man who worked for the Obama campaign during the 2008 Democratic primaries despite his previous loyalty to the Clintons—won’t be campaigning for Obama this time, Ross confirmed to The Daily Beast. – The Daily Beast
Josh Rogin reports: The Mitt Romney campaign is about to open up a new front against President Barack Obama on foreign policy; he will ramp up his criticism of the administration’s record on democracy promotion and human rights, and begin talking about the “freedom agenda.” – The Cable
Fouad Ajami writes: Romney’s stewardship would dawn without trumpets and drums. It would have the sobriety of Gerald Ford’s and George H.W. Bush’s leadership. But there would be an ideological edge, illustrated in Romney’s VFW address: “Like a watchman in the night, we must remain at our post — and keep guard of the freedom that defines and ennobles us and our friends.” This is not only good prose. Compared with Obama’s ideas, it is a different view of America. – Washington Post
Latin America
The abrupt deaths of two of Cuba’s top dissidents barely nine months apart represent a demoralizing blow to a movement already weakened by time and government-sponsored harassment. – Los Angeles Times
Mali
Mali’s interim president, Dioncounda Traore, announced the creation of a number of new top-level government positions on Sunday in a shake-up of a transitional team heavily criticized for failing to tackle the country’s twin crises. – Reuters
East Africa
The al Qaeda-linked Somali Islamic militiaal Shabab has reshuffled its leadership, which might spark infighting, according to a website that monitors the war-torn country in the Horn of Africa. – Washington Times
The U.S. has been quietly equipping and training thousands of African soldiers to wage a widening proxy war against the Shabab, the Al Qaeda ally that has imposed a harsh form of Islamic rule on southern Somalia and sparked alarm in Washington as foreign militants join its ranks. – Los Angeles Times
The Kenyan police said Saturday that they had arrested six people in connection with the strangling of Venezuela’s most senior diplomat in the country at her residence in Nairobi. – Reuters
