Iran
A former Israeli national security adviser said Wednesday that the prime minister and the defense minister told him this week they had not yet decided to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and could be dissuaded from a strike if President Obama approved stricter sanctions and publicly confirmed his willingness to use military force. – New York Times
Now that Standard Chartered PLC’s dispute with a New York regulator over allegedly illegal transactions with Iran is settled, some European companies are stepping into the rhetorical fray over U.S. regulations. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Emails between senior HSBC executives show how the Middle East arm of the bank pushed its counterparts in the US to process Iranian transactions without triggering the filter of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. – Financial Times
Families of Iran’s slain nuclear scientists have filed a lawsuit against Israel, the U.S. and Britain accusing them of involvement in the assassination of their loved ones. – Associated Press
German police have arrested four men suspected of delivering valves for a heavy water reactor to Iran, breaking an embargo on such exports to the Islamic Republic imposed over its disputed nuclear program. – Reuters
Interview: Dennis Ross now serves as a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and occasionally advises the White House and NSC. He spoke to Al-Monitor’s Laura Rozen on August 14. – Al-Monitor
Syria
Syria’s conflict sent shocks throughout the Middle East on Wednesday, with militiamen in neighboring Lebanon saying they had taken more than three dozen Syrian nationals and a Turkish man hostage, while several regional governments urged their citizens to immediately leave Lebanon. – Wall Street Journal
The Syrian military and pro-government shabiha militia perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity in the massacre of more than 100 civilians, nearly half of them children, in the village of Houla on May 25, according to a report issued Wednesday by the U.N. Human Rights Council. – Washington Post
Air attacks by the Syrian government killed at least 30 people Wednesday in the rebel-controlled town of Azaz in one of the bloodiest days in the country’s conflict, according to activists. – Los Angeles Times
American officials said Wednesday that they had obtained credible information that at least some of the 48 Iranians captured in Damascus this month by Syrian rebels were members of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, not the pilgrims described by the government in Tehran. – New York Times
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime rejected Tehran’s request to conduct or allow a raid to rescue Iranians captured by Syrian rebels, U.S. officials said. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
If killing Osama bin Laden, untangling U.S. forces from Iraq and fighting a bare-knuckle drone war against al Qaeda are the Obama administration’s foreign policy triumphs, its biggest stumble may be its failure to produce an international solution to what has become an all-out civil war in Syria. – Washington Times
Preservationists and archaeologists are warning that fighting in Syria’s commercial capital, Aleppo — considered the world’s oldest continuously inhabited human settlement — threatens to damage irreparably the stunning architectural and cultural legacy left by 5,000 years of civilizations. – New York Times
The United States might not have the legal authority or the military wherewithal to establish a series of no-fly zones along the Turkish-Syrian border, a top American diplomat said on Wednesday. – DEFCON Hill
Veteran diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi is not prepared to persist with the same “failed approach” on Syria as Kofi Annan, said a source close to the situation on Wednesday, and he is still considering whether to take on what France dubbed an “impossible mission.” – Reuters
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria on Thursday, citing President Bashar al-Assad’s suppression of the Syrian revolt, but there was little support for direct military involvement in Syria at a summit of Muslim leaders in Mecca. – Reuters
United Nations humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said on Thursday as many as 2.5 million people were in need of aid in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have been fighting rebels seeking his overthrow for 17 months. – Reuters
Russia accused the West on Wednesday of reneging on an agreement to establish a transitional government in Syria and of prolonging the bloodshed by encouraging the rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad. – Reuters
China hopes talks with a Syrian government envoy and a proposed visit by opposition representatives will help rescue chances for a brokered solution to their deepening conflict, Beijing’s top state newspaper said on Wednesday. – Reuters
A Syrian government envoy praised China and Russia on their stance towards the bloody conflict engulfing her country in an interview published on Thursday during a visit to Beijing that she said would give officials a “real picture” of the crisis. – Reuters
The incident in the Saif al-Dawla neighborhood hints at how far the rebels – after 17 months of street protest and armed insurrection against Assad – still have to go in winning over the population of Syria’s biggest city, which mostly watched on the sidelines through the first year of the crisis. – Reuters
Alon Ben-Meir writes: Direct Iranian involvement in Syria, while a given, further aggravates the already volatile situation in the Middle East. The question is: when will the Western powers led by the U.S., the Arab states, Turkey, and Israel take the necessary and credible steps to force Tehran to stop meddling in Syria’s internal affairs and prevent it from playing a direct role in an effort to quell the Syrian uprising? – Huffington Post
Egypt
The International Monetary Fund’s leader will visit Cairo to resume loan talks on Wednesday, and Egypt’s finance minister suggested he is considering raising the nation’s request by as much as 50%, to $4.8 billion. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Several recent moves by government authorities against Egyptian journalists have drawn sharp criticism from the news media and led to accusations that the country’s new Islamist president is willing to tolerate — if not employ — the same heavy-handed tactics used by former President Hosni Mubarak to stifle dissent. – New York Times
Egypt’s new second-in-command of the military has said that U.S. troops should be withdrawn from the Middle East while any democratization in the region should come from within and have religious legitimacy, according to a paper he wrote in 2005. – Reuters
An Islamist militant group operating in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula bordering with Israel warned the Egyptian army on Wednesday that an ongoing military crackdown on jihadists in the area will force it to fight back. – Reuters
Eric Trager writes: Rather than touting him as a democratically elected leader—as the Obama administration has frequently done—Washington should denounce his power grab and insist that he demonstrate his commitment to democratic rule with action or risk losing the international goodwill that followed his election. Failing to do so will enable him to continue building his power domestically without paying a price abroad. And that raises the likelihood of another—much more damaging—Sunday surprise. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Iraq
Two car bombs and a third blast killed at least nine people in Iraq on Wednesday, officials and security sources said, the latest in a spate of attacks raising fears of a return to widespread violence. – Reuters
Israel
Two explosions shook a southern Israeli city near Egypt on Wednesday, and the military suspected a cross-border rocket attack though searches have thus far turned up no evidence. – Reuters
Israel has unexpectedly eased restrictions on Palestinians looking to visit Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, saying improved security meant it could let in thousands more from the occupied West Bank. – Reuters
South Asia
Suspected Islamist militants early on Thursday attacked a major Pakistani Air Force base where some of the country’s nuclear weapons are thought to be stored, setting off a heavy gun battle in which eight attackers and one security official were killed. – New York Times
The Marine Corps‘ top officer is trying to soothe the rattled nerves of his troops in Afghanistan, who saw six of their comrades gunned down by Afghan security forces Friday. – Washington Times
More than 250 Pakistani Hindus have arrived in India over the past two weeks bearing tales of religious persecution, according to Indian border officials, fueling perceptions of growing discrimination against minorities in Pakistan. – Washington Post
Pentagon officials have opened the way to cooperating with India on ballistic missile defense (BMD). – Aviation Week
Nearly two dozen Afghan civilians were wounded on Wednesday when two grenades exploded inside a mosque compound and a bicycle bomb blew up in a city market, officials said. – Associated Press
Sarah Chayes writes: Most Afghans and experienced observers I know say a plausible scenario upon the large-scale departure of international troops in 2014 is either disintegration into civil conflict or a de facto division of power along ethnic lines, with a Pakistan-backed Pashtun bloc in the south and east lining up against one or more northern non-Pashtun blocs that might well gain military support from India and Uzbekistan, if not Iran…It is in this context that Mohammadi’s dismissal is to be understood. – Los Angeles Times
China
Friends of Neil Heywood, the British businessman whose death in China triggered a political firestorm, have questioned Chinese prosecutors’ account of how and why he was killed—especially the claim that he threatened the safety of the son of ousted Communist Party official Bo Xilai. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
China’s communist government is preparing to file treason charges against a former official who sought political asylum at the U.S. consulate in Chengdu but was turned away to avoid upsetting U.S.-China relations, according to U.S. officials and Chinese reports – Washington Free Beacon
When the Association of Southeast Asian Nations last month failed to agree a joint position on the South China Sea, the disputed waters contested by several of its members and China, many observers lamented the organisation’s weakness. But in Beijing, the outcome was quietly celebrated as a success for its new foreign policy strategy as China seeks to use key allies to push through its own interests in the region. – Financial Times
Josh Rogin reports: Two congressmen who lead on human rights issues wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week to urge her to address the growing crisis in Tibet, where tensions, protests, and self-immolations are mounting. – The Cable
Miles Yu reports: Four key aides to former Chongqing police Chief Wang Lijun, whose dramatic attempt to defect to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu triggered a political tsunami in Chinese politics, faced prosecution in a show trial on Friday. – Washington Times’ Inside China
East Asia
China renewed a demand on Thursday that Japan release Chinese activists arrested for landing on a disputed isle at the heart of a territorial row, as media said the detainees might be deported to defuse tension between Asia’s two biggest economies. – Reuters
The United States and Japan are discussing system upgrades for a pair of Japanese destroyers to boost defenses against a ballistic missile attack, an executive at the Pentagon’s top contractor said Wednesday. – 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)
Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Thursday corruption is on the rise, even in parliament, in his most explicit comments yet on a scourge that he warned threatened economic growth in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. – Reuters
Editorial: China has insisted that it will work out the disputes one by one, and the United States should stay away. But the State Department’s statement accurately asserted that the United States has a “national interest” in the region: not territorial, but to protect regional stability and the huge volume of international shipping that passes through the sea. The sea is clearly a flashpoint. Everyone needs to make sure it does not become a sea of hostility. – Washington Post
Central Asia
An outspoken critic of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev went on trial on Thursday charged with attempting to overthrow the government, in a case the United States says will test the oil-producing former Soviet state’s democratic progress. – Reuters
Russia
Vladimir Strelchenko’s resignation was described as a routine rotation of provincial officials that had nothing to do with the vociferous calls by opposition figures for him to step down. – New York Times
Putin’s opponents brought tens of thousands of people into the streets in late 2011 and early this year to protest what they say was rampant cheating in parliamentary and presidential elections, and Putin’s maneuvers to try to secure another 12 years in power. Since those protests, the Kremlin has launched a campaign that appears aimed at stifling the opposition, relying on physical and psychological harassment, criminal prosecutions and new laws limiting protests. – Los Angeles Times
With the eyes of Russia-watchers trained on the feminist punk performance-art group whose now-famous trio is bracing for a verdict over their iconoclastic performance at a Moscow cathedral, the plight of Artyom Savyolov has drawn little attention. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Europe
As American officials sound the alarm over what they call a resurgent threat from the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, thousands of its members and supporters operate with few restrictions in Europe, raising money that is funneled to the group’s leadership in Lebanon. – New York Times
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said on Aug. 15 that Poland should set up its own missile shield to defend its territory as part of the wider NATO project. – AFP
Defense lawyers for jailed Ukrainian ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Thursday said there were no grounds for a criminal case against her as they launched a fresh appeal against her conviction last year for abuse of office. – Reuters
United States of America
State Department officials are preparing for a possible decision by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to redesignate an Iranian opposition group as a terrorist organization, in part because of the group’s resistance to abandoning its camp in Iraq, two American officials said Wednesday. – New York Times
Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee and the leading Republican in Congress on the deficit, has comparatively little experience with foreign policy or dealing with U.S. military leaders. His main argument on defense is that national security will be compromised if the country does not get its budget deficit in order. – DEFCON Hill
A web video featuring former special forces officers accuses President Barack Obama of taking too much credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden and allowing classified information about the raid to become public. – CNN
A four-star Army general who was the first head of the new U.S. Africa Command is under investigation and facing possible demotion for allegedly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars improperly on lavish travel, hotels and other items, The Associated Press has learned. – Associated Press
Bill Gertz reports: Pentagon general counsel Jeh Johnson is leading a major effort to plug news leaks and recently sent a memorandum to all Defense Department employees requesting that they all search their computers for information about contacts with reporters, according to defense officials familiar with the memo. – Washington Times’ Inside the Ring
Josh Rogin reports: The U.S. Secret Service arrested a Libyan national Monday at the Watergate building for threatening to blow up the iconic Washington commercial and residential complex, following a protest at the Libyan embassy. – The Cable
Rogin also reports: Anita Friedt has been appointed principal deputy assistant secretary of state for the bureau of arms control, verification, and compliance (AVC), two administration officials confirmed to The Cable. – The Cable
Rogin also reports: The Pentagon policy shop will soon have a new official in charge of Russia, Evelyn Farkas, replacing Celeste Wallander, the previous deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Euraisa (RUE). – The Cable
Peter Feaver writes: If Obama supporters want to be taken seriously on national security, they need to make serious arguments. Claiming that then-Senator Obama was qualified whereas Governor Romney is not, is fundamentally unserious. – Shadow Government
Latin America
Two and a half years after the earthquake, despite billions of dollars in reconstruction aid, the most obvious, pressing need — safe, stable housing for all displaced people — remains unmet. – New York Times
The Venezuelan government has agreed to let U.S. consular officials visit with a detained American whom President Hugo Chavez said entered the country illegally, the State Department said Wednesday. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
How can Mexico’s “most modern” and “most prosperous” city also be one of its most dangerous? That is the contradiction that often plays out in this country of great wealth and crippling poverty, of record tourism and skyrocketing homicide rates. – LA Times’ World Now
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) writes: When cartels can kill them with impunity, how can we expect journalists to expose their activities? A law alone will not stop the violence, but it will let the cartels know that an attack on a journalist is an attack on a free Mexican society, and the attackers will be pursued with every resource the Mexican government can marshal. – Freedom House’s Freedom at Issue
West Africa
Liberian troops have captured six men they believe carried out raids on border posts in neighboring Ivory Coast this week, Liberia’s defense minister said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Uganda
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni reappointed three senior government officials on Wednesday 10 months after they stepped down over corruption allegations, a move analysts said undermined the veteran leader’s promises to fight graft. – Reuters
Congo
Terrified that he was going to be killed, Mr. Nsanzimana fled into the forest and wandered for days before he was captured three weeks ago by Congolese soldiers. He is being held in an overcrowded holding cell of the military intelligence agency in Goma, Congo’s eastern provincial capital. There, he gave the Associated Press details of Rwanda’s complicity in the latest rebellion in eastern Congo. – Associated Press
Southern Africa
South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday urged Zimbabwe’s rival leaders to speed up political reforms seen as critical to avoiding another violent and disputed election, but President Robert Mugabe signaled he would not be pushed into endorsing a new constitution already accepted by his foes. – Reuters
Thousands of striking miners armed with machetes and sticks faced off with South African police on Wednesday at Lonmin’s Marikana mine after it halted production following the deaths of 10 people in fighting between rival unions. – Reuters
