Iran
British banking giant Standard Chartered has agreed to fork over $340 million to settle an investigation by New York state regulators. New York’s Department of Financial Services announced the settlement, which includes an agreement that the bank’s transactions with Iranian clients in question totaled at least $250 billion. – Los Angeles Times
The 44th administration said Tuesday that it would expedite applications to help Iran’s earthquake victims. Prospective donors have expressed worry and confusion over whether such charitable aid runs afoul of the extensive American sanctions imposed on the country because of its disputed nuclear program. – New York Times
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday that he did not believe Israel had decided yet whether it should attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, playing down reports in Israel that a strike could be near. – DEFCON Hill
Iran’s defense minister is pushing back against a spike in Israeli chatter about an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, calling the threats psychological warfare. – DEFCON Hill
Factions in the Russian government aligned with President Vladimir Putin are pushing to resume a previously cancelled sale of five divisions of Almaz-Antey S-300PMU-1 air defense units to Iran. – Washington Free Beacon
The possibility still exists for dialogue to defuse long-running tensions over Iran’s atomic program, the Obama administration asserted on Monday in comments reported by the Xinhua News Agency – Global Security Newswire
Josh Rogin reports: Now that President Barack Obama has signed the latest new sanctions bill on Iran, lawmakers are urging him to enforce it, starting with penalties against governments that reflag Iranian tankers, namely Tuvalu and Tanzania. – The Cable
Editorial: The Non-Aligned Movement was founded during the Cold War by nations that formally didn’t want to be part of either superpower bloc, although many were anyway. Since then, it has run out of gas. Firebrands like India were transformed into world powers in their own right. Today, it is a very loose regional group of developing nations allied with the Group of 77 at the United Nations, but not much more. By attending the Tehran conference, Mr. Ban will dignify a bacchanal of nonsense, undermine the work of the Security Council and probably get nothing in return. – Washington Post
Syria
Explosives hidden in a diesel tanker truck detonated on Wednesday behind a hotel used by the dwindling United Nations mission in Damascus, a day after a defecting former prime minister said the government of President Bashar al-Assad was crumbling from within. – New York Times
Syria’s former prime minister, who fled the country last week, said on Tuesday in his first public appearance since his defection that the government of President Bashar al-Assad was crumbling internally under the pressure of relentless fighting against rebels, and from betrayals by loyalists who want only to flee. – New York Times
Syria’s embattled regime laid plans to use Russian banks as part of an emergency effort to sidestep American and European sanctions on oil and financial transactions, according to Syrian government documents and correspondence reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
U.S. sanctions targeting Syria and Iran have inadvertently undermined the opposition movements they are intended to help, making it more difficult for those groups to access technologies that can evade electronic surveillance and censorship, according to security experts and activists. – Washington Post
As the fighting intensifies in a city once regarded as immune to the violence racking much of Syria, some opposition activists are concerned that those who have taken up arms against Assad have made a serious miscalculation here. They fear that the offensive is creating a humanitarian crisis they are ill-equipped to handle and turning many of those affected against the rebels. – Los Angeles Times
Newborns are but one sign that as the Syrian conflict has stretched on for nearly a year and a half, the country’s residents have learned to go on with life. Along with the many funerals of this staggering war, there are guilt-ridden weddings in which many invitees never make it, and births, with new arrivals entering the world under harrowing circumstances and sometimes being given the names of the departed. – New York Times
United Nations emergency relief coordinator Valerie Amos arrived in Syria on Tuesday as part of a three-day trip to the region to discuss humanitarian aid for those trapped by the escalating combat or forced to flee their homes. – LA Times’ World Now
The State Department said Tuesday it agrees with the analysis of Syrian defector Riyad Hijab that Bashar Assad’s regime is collapsing morally, economically and militarily. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Iran is playing a growing role supporting the Syrian regime and is helping to build and train a militia to fight opposition forces, U.S. defense officials said Tuesday. – Associated Press
The Syrian government has consented to the idea of Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi replacing Kofi Annan as the U.N.-Arab League mediator in the Syria conflict, though Brahimi has yet to accept or reject the post, Annan’s spokesman said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Foreign states must do more to help Syrian rebels defeat President Bashar al-Assad and spare the country an “endless civil war” and possible partition, a leading politician in neighboring Lebanon said on Tuesday. – Reuters
As President Bashar al-Assad has concentrated his forces on wresting back control of Syria’s business hub Aleppo, rebels have slowly gained ground in the eastern tribal heartland where the big prize is the country’s oil wealth. – Reuters
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says plans to set up a no-fly zone over parts of Syria are “not on the front burner,” despite persistent calls from rebel forces there that they need the added protection from escalating regime airstrikes. – Associated Press
Michael Totten writes: If Syria comes apart, Yugoslavia-style, the body count will be extraordinary. The Alawite heartland on the coast isn’t even close to homogeneous, and the Alawites would probably ethnically cleanse hundreds of thousands of Sunnis and Palestinians there. In the short and medium term, an Assad regime could destabilize the Middle East just as much from Latakia as it already does from Damascus. But for good or for ill, a new Middle East map may be coming. – City Journal’s Eye on the News
Bartle Bull writes: Pro-American commanders in Syria who cannot provide weapons for their troops and buy fuel for their vehicles are emasculated. Those who can become important local leaders. It is not beyond our capabilities to aid these men in bringing down a despicable regime. – New York Times
Egypt
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi awarded medals Tuesday to two recently dismissed military chiefs at the presidential palace during a ceremony that left little doubt the generals are stepping aside without protest. – Washington Post
Egypt’s new top military officer is a known commodity in Washington who has long-standing ties to the U.S., Obama administration officials said Monday, playing down the impact of the previous day’s power shake-up in Egypt. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The State Department on Tuesday denied having played an inside role in the appointment of Egypt’s new defense minister, a former military intelligence chief who has long-standing ties to the U.S. – Washington Times
An Egyptian court sentenced to death on Tuesday 14 people it said were Islamist militants for a deadly attack on a police station in North Sinai last year, a court official said. – Reuters
Elliott Abrams writes: Recent developments suggest that the Brotherhood is committed not to a free press but to the kind of press that Hosni Mubarak had: supportive, uncritical, and controlled by the ruling party. We may not be able to prevent that, but we ought to see what is happening and call it by its proper name. – National Review Online
Tunisia
After a disastrous year in which revolution, social upheaval and strikes scared away tourists and crippled industrial production, Tunisia’s economy is slowly climbing out of a deep recession that saw it shrink by 2 percent in 2011. – Associated Press
Gulf States
Saudi Arabia and its closest regional partners have shown interest in the purchase of an advanced Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) missile-defense system to counter perceived threats, executives of the Pentagon’s top supplier said Tuesday. – Reuters
Bahrain on Tuesday delayed until September 4 a ruling in the retrial of 20 men convicted of leading an uprising, lawyers said, a case under scrutiny from U.S. officials keen for a release of prisoners to help restore calm in a regional ally against Iran. – Reuters
Yemen
Clashes erupted in Yemen’s capital on Tuesday between the new government’s forces and soldiers loyal to the former regime, highlighting the divisions and volatility in the country six months after a populist uprising ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh. – Washington Post
A Yemeni secessionist leader was detained on Wednesday when his plane from Britain landed at Aden airport, a fellow leader of the separatist movement told Reuters. – Reuters
Iraq
Namiq and his older brother, Qais, have rarely spoken publicly about how they helped hide the world’s most sought-after fugitive for nearly nine months following the U.S.-led invasion. But now, sipping tea in the modest little restaurant he opened this summer, a couple of football fields away from “the hole,” Alaa Namiq seems willing. – Washington Post
The Pentagon’s top officer will travel to Iraq at the end the month to check on progress in a country that has been beset by sectarian violence and political turmoil since the United Station withdrew most of its troops in December. – Washington Times
[A]s an uprising there against President Bashar al-Assad grinds through its 17th month, the supply of Syrian goods to Iraq is slowly drying up as Syrian businesses are forced to close and trucks struggle to cross borders that have sometimes become frontlines. – Reuters
Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Tuesday named an old army friend from a rival political party as his new home front minister, amid growing concern here about preparedness for the response to a potential attack on Iran this fall. – New York Times
Part of a growing cadre of what are known as lone soldiers, they left behind parents, girlfriends, cars and stuffed animals to become infantrymen, intelligence officers, paratroopers and pilots in a formerly foreign land. All told, according to a military spokeswoman, Israel has enlisted 8,217 men and women from other countries since 2009, 1,661 of them from the United States, second only to Russia’s 1,685. – New York Times
War with Iran would probably turn into a month-long conflict on various fronts with missile strikes on Israeli cities and some 500 dead, Israel’s civil defense minister said in an interview published on Wednesday. – Reuters
Robert O’Brien writes: Now, with the Dolphin on patrol in the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Persian Gulf and possibly coming to the Indian, Pacific and South China Sea in the near future, the U-boat is making a big comeback in the 21st Century. This time, however, the U-boat’s purpose is to deter aggression and, it sails under the Star of David and, potentially, will be identified as one of “Her Majesty’s” ships. – The Diplomat
Turkey
Kurdish militants on Tuesday freed a Turkish opposition lawmaker whose surprise abduction over the weekend raised fears of an escalating campaign of kidnapping and violence. – Reuters
Afghanistan
Bombings and shootings took the lives of at least 43 Afghans on Tuesday in the deadliest day for civilians this year as insurgents struck while people were preparing for the Muslim holiday that ends the month of Ramadan. – New York Times
Neither Mitt Romney nor Paul Ryan mentioned the war in Afghanistan during their big running mate roll-out in Virginia Saturday. Barack Obama gives it only a brief mention in his own stump speeches. Leon Panetta seems to have had enough. – Politico
Insider attacks by Afghan troops who turn their weapons on U.S. and NATO forces have doubled compared to last year, prompting the top U.S. commander in Kabul to step up efforts to identify potential inside-the-wire threats. – Military Times
The Pentagon plans to ramp up counterintelligence operations to ferret out insurgents or sympathizers who may have infiltrated the ranks of American, NATO and Afghan forces, top Defense Department officials said on Tuesday. – DEFCON Hill
The war in Afghanistan is evolving with a growing number of attacks by Afghan security force personnel on American troops, incidents that have been called “green-on-blue” attacks. It’s a term that the Pentagon wants to go away. – CNN’s Security Clearance
South Asia
Throughout the Muslim world, there is an underground of people who either choose not to or are unable to follow the strict religious injunction to not eat or drink — or let anything enter their bodies between sunrise and sunset. – Washington Post
Nearly 30 militants were killed by Pakistani troops as Islamabad kicked off a new offensive against terror groups located along the volatile Afghan-Pakistani border. – DEFCON Hill
Three years after the national Army defeated the LTTE in a 2009 offensive that left 40,000 civilians dead, military camps still mark the landscape in the predominantly Tamil north. The Sinhalese-controlled government justifies the militarization by citing national security concerns. – Christian Science Monitor
Politicians should treat India’s economic growth as a national security issue, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday, warning a lack of consensus is holding back Asia’s third-largest economy as it tries to drag millions from poverty. – Reuters
Japan
Tokyo is facing escalating tensions on three fronts, as South Korea, Russia and China make fresh challenges to claims over island territories off the shores of Japan. – Wall Street Journal
Nationalist politicians and activists are wielding new clout in Japan, straining the country’s ties with China and South Korea, and creating headaches for policy makers in Tokyo. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Two Japanese cabinet members paid their respects at a Tokyo war shrine linked to Japan’s militaristic past on Wednesday, marking the first visit by high-ranking officials in three years and coinciding with a recent flare-up in tensions between Japan and its Asian neighbors over history and territory. – New York Times
Japanese researchers have found very low amounts of radioactivity in the bodies of about 10,000 people who lived near the Fukushima Daiichi power plant when it melted down. – Washington Post
Japan’s vice defense minister, Hideo Jinpu, is to visit the Pentagon [today] to get a detailed briefing on the April 11 crash in Morocco of a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey that killed two Marines. Jinpu’s visit is the next step in a kabuki dance that began a few weeks ago in response to Japanese protests against a Marine Corps plan to base Ospreys on Okinawa. – AOL Defense
Tension between Japan and its Asian neighbors escalated on Wednesday, the 67th anniversary of the end of World War Two, as South Korea and China both told Tokyo to do much more to resolve lingering bitterness over its past military aggression. – Reuters
Russia will send two navy vessels to the disputed Kuril islands in the Pacific, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday, in a move likely to anger Japan which lays claim to them. – Reuters
Yuriko Koike writes: If any country has the political tools to undertake a program of comprehensive reform, it is Japan. The unity with which the Japanese population met last year’s disaster demonstrated once again that, when called upon, the national spirit can work miracles. And Japan’s “greatest generation” — the men and women who rebuilt a war-shattered country into an economic powerhouse — should not be deemed unwilling to sacrifice for the greater good. After all, they saved their country once; they are more than capable of doing it again. – Los Angeles Times
China
Investors and companies are increasingly pulling money out of China and its currency in a vote of concern over its growth prospects, a development that could hinder Beijing’s efforts to spark a turnaround. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
After a spate of weak economic data from China, financial markets are anticipating imminent steps to bolster growth in the world’s second-largest economy. But there are signals to indicate Beijing may bide its time. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
China’s military conducted the first flight test of a new long-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that U.S. officials say will be Beijing’s first strategic missile armed with multiple warheads. – Washington Free Beacon
Chinese activists landed on an island claimed by Japan and China on Wednesday and five were arrested as tension between Japan and its Asian neighbors escalated in the 67th anniversary of the end of World War Two. – Reuters
Editorial: There is plenty of room for American leaders after the campaign to press their Chinese counterparts to continue opening the Chinese economy to trade, not least for the benefit of the Chinese. For now, candidates shouldn’t be shy about reminding voters that trade works for everyone. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
North Korea
China has achieved “impressive results” co-operating with Pyongyang on economic zones in North Korea, Beijing said on Tuesday, indicating that its impoverished, isolated neighbour is considering economic reforms. – Financial Times
Pictures taken from orbit in recent months show that North Korea continues to make headway in building of a light-water atomic reactor at the Yongbyon complex, according to an analysis issued on Tuesday by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security – Global Security Newswire
Japan will hold government-level talks with North Korea for the first time in four years, Japanese officials said Tuesday, in the latest sign of a thaw in relations between the two sides. – Associated Press
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Wednesday said North Korea should face reality and consider bringing about a “transformation”, adding that Seoul will monitor changes in the secretive North. – Reuters
Southeast Asia
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak took to microblogging site Twitter on Tuesday to say that he will ask his government to reassess a new law that critics say could restrict online freedoms. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Myanmar’s navy chief was sworn in on Wednesday as the second of the country’s two vice-presidents, filling a post vacated by a hard-line ex-general who stepped down in July due to ill health – Reuters
Bridget O’Flaherty writes: Whether closer ties with the U.S. will eventually trump what some members of the [Vietnamese] government see as domestic security concerns remains to be seen. However it is likely more bloggers will be arrested despite international protestations. – The Diplomat
Central Asia
Sanjar Umarov writes: The events of the Arab Spring remind me that one day — soon, we hope — a change will come to my country. U.S. officials in Tashkent this week should make sure that when that day comes, my countrymen will see them as defending Uzbek human rights and not spending all their time seeking to appease the man who has oppressed them for so long. – Los Angeles Times
Latin America
A recent string of deadly incidents tied to Mexico’s drug war does not appear to indicate a surge in the violence but does suggest a new flash point as the fearsome Zetas cartel shows signs of splitting apart. – LA Times’ World Now
The Honduran government must investigate the cases of 22 journalists murdered in the last two years in the Central American country, a United Nations envoy said on Tuesday. – Reuters
With a presidential election looming on October 7, opposition members fear the colectivos will turn to violence if challenger Henrique Capriles defies the polls and wins. – Reuters
U.S. officials will be allowed access on Wednesday to an American citizen arrested in Venezuela on suspicion of being a mercenary, President Hugo Chavez said. – Reuters
West Africa
Mali’s military on Tuesday rejected the deployment of any foreign West African soldiers to the capital, saying any regional intervention could only take place in the North of the country, currently occupied by Islamist groups. – Reuters
East Africa
Uganda is reconsidering plans to deploy its air force in support of ground troops in Somalia after three combat helicopters crashed en route to the war-torn Horn of Africa nation on the weekend, the country’s junior defense minister said Tuesday. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
World leaders from Africa to the U.S. and Europe said they are growing increasingly concerned that intimidation and corruption are marring the selection of a new Somali parliament, a task still unfinished less than a week before the government’s U.N. mandate expires. – Associated Press
The United Nations said on Tuesday it had started airdrops to deliver emergency food to a camp in South Sudan packed with people fleeing fighting on the Sudan side of the joint border. – Reuters
