Iran
Military leaders in Tehran publicly unveiled a raft of beefed-up missile and weapon systems on Tuesday, which the country claims are necessary to defend Iran’s borders against growing threats in the region. – DEFCON Hill
Baghdad vehemently denied accusations by American officials that Iraq was helping Iran skirt international sanctions by smuggling oil out of the country and funneling the laundered profits back to Tehran. – DEFCON Hill
Iranian universities are shutting female students out of dozens of fields this year, saying there aren’t enough jobs available for them after they graduate, according to Iranian media. – LA Times’ World Now
Iran is trying to find new flags of convenience for its fleet of oil tankers after Tanzania and Tuvalu announced plans to deregister the vessels owned by Tehran, hitting Iran’s ambitions to use the tankers to supply its Asian oil clients. – Financial Times
The U.N. nuclear watchdog will try to persuade Iran to address questions about its suspected nuclear weapons research at a meeting on Friday, more than two months after previous talks ended in failure. – Reuters
Iran is in the final stages of sanitizing a military site it is suspected of using for secret nuclear weapons-related experiments, two senior diplomats said Tuesday, as the U.N. atomic agency intensified efforts to gain access to the area before the alleged clean-up succeeds in erasing any traces of such work. – Associated Press
With international sanctions squeezing Iran, the Islamic Republic is seeking to expand its banking foothold in the Caucasus nation of Armenia to make up for difficulties in countries it used to rely on to do business, according to diplomats and documents. – Reuters
Syria
Even as the 44th admin hardens its rhetoric on Syria, members of the Syrian opposition say the United States has failed to deliver promised communications and other equipment intended to support those seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. – Washington Post
44’s warning to Syria that the use of chemical weapons would cross a “red line” for the administration drew criticism Tuesday, with experts saying that the remark could provide President Bashar al-Assad cover to continue battling the opposition with tanks, warplanes and other conventional weaponry. – Washington Post
A senior Syrian official hinted Tuesday that President Bashar Assad’s resignation might be considered if the opposition agreed to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the 17-month-old conflict. – Los Angeles Times
The rebellion, led by Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority, has stirred profound concern among Christians, who make up about 10% of Syria’s population. Some say they detect an increasingly radicalized Islamist strain among the rebels that makes them fear for their future. – Los Angeles Times
As Syria’s civil war drags on, the recent arrest of a former Lebanese government minister allied with the Syrian leadership on charges that he planned a campaign of bombings and assassinations has led many in Lebanon to conclude that President Bashar al-Assad is trying to push this fragile country into a sectarian war. – New York Times
Working in a converted villa in a town in the Syrian north, an international team of doctors and nurses has been quietly treating Syrian opposition fighters and civilians for the past two months, Doctors Without Borders announced in Paris on Tuesday. – New York Times
Analysis: Despite President Obama’s warning to Syria not to use its arsenal of chemical weapons or allow them to fall into the hands of extremists, the administration’s options for intervening remain limited by what its officials have described as a simple calculus: It would make the conflict even worse. – New York Times
The Syrian army deployed tanks on a ring road surrounding Damascus on Wednesday and shelled southern neighborhoods where rebels operate, in the heaviest bombardment on the capital since the army reasserted control last month, residents said. – Reuters
Syria is preparing to complete a deal with ally Russia to secure much-needed oil products to keep its economy and military running, the head of a Syrian delegation to Russia said on Tuesday, weeks after he said an agreement had been reached. – Reuters
President Bashar al-Assad’s forces evacuated two security installations at Albu Kamal on the Iraqi border on Tuesday as rebels made gains in the strategically important area after a week of heavy fighting, opposition sources said. – Reuters
Syria’s air force has redeployed 30 Sukhoi fighter-bomber jets closer to cities where the army is battling to crush rebels in the north and east of the country, an opposition group said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Russia warned the West on Tuesday against unilateral action on Syria, a day after U.S. President Barack Obama threatened “enormous consequences” if his Syrian counterpart used chemical or biological arms or even moved them in a menacing way. – Reuters
A Japanese woman journalist died of wounds sustained in a gunfight between Syrian forces and rebels in Aleppo on Tuesday, becoming the first Japanese national killed in the 17-month-old conflict. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: The State Department is leading an interagency team to Istanbul to hold the first round of talks with the Turkish government Wednesday on coordinating increased help for the Syrian opposition. – The Cable
Editorial: Furnishing communications gear is a minimal and inadequate response. For more than a year, President Obama has been assuring the world that Mr. Assad is bound to fall, but Mr. Assad has refused to take the cue. The White House clung for months to unrealistic hopes of a diplomatic solution, with Russia improbably cast as peacemaker. The United States should be providing leadership in helping the opposition establish safe zones and defeat Mr. Assad’s tanks and planes. The longer the war goes on, the higher the likely cost to civilians and regional stability. – Washington Post
Egypt
Israel is “troubled” by the entry of Egyptian tanks into the northern Sinai Peninsula without coordination with Israel, a violation of the terms of the 33-year-old peace treaty between the two countries, and has asked Egypt to withdraw them, an Israeli government official said Tuesday. – New York Times
Looking to increase security in the Sinai Peninsula, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is offering Egypt a package of classified intelligence-sharing capabilities designed to help it identify military threats in the area and reassure Israel that Egypt can deal with rising militancy along Israel’s border, according to a senior Pentagon official. – CNN’s Security Clearance
Egypt has formally requested a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, a spokesman for its president said on Wednesday during a visit to Cairo by IMF chief Christine Lagarde to discuss support for the country’s ailing economy. – Reuters
Iraq
Top U.S. military officer General Martin Dempsey insisted on Aug. 21 that Washington still has an important role to play in Iraq, as he landed in the country eight months after the last American troops withdrew. – AFP
The first batch of F-16 fighter jets bought by Iraq are due to be delivered in two years, U.S. officials said Tuesday as the top American military officer was on a visit to Baghdad. – AFP
Frequent power cuts, the state’s inability to prevent near-daily bloodshed and yawning gaps in basic services have left ordinary Iraqis convinced they are sharing little in the country’s growing oil wealth. – Associated Press
Israel
Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday condemned the brutal beating of a Palestinian teenager by a gang of Jewish youths shouting anti-Arab slurs – Los Angeles Times
Afghanistan
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is backing a top Marine Corps general to become the next commander of international forces in Afghanistan, defense officials say, a preference that underscores the Obama administration’s determination to ultimately withdraw U.S. troops. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Insurgent fire hit a U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday, damaging the aircraft of Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, just months after an Afghan civilian tried to drive a stolen vehicle into the U.S. defense secretary’s plane during a similar visit. – Wall Street Journal
Afghan officials say they have launched an expanded effort to spy on their own police and army recruits, an acknowledgment that previous measures designed to reduce insurgent infiltration in the country’s security services have failed. – Washington Post
The U.S. military has added previously undisclosed security measures for contractors in Afghanistan, amid a wave of insider attacks by Afghan soldiers and police and the continuing withdrawal of coalition troops. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Nearly nine years passed before American forces reached their first 1,000 dead in the war. The second 1,000 came just 27 months later, a testament to the intensity of fighting prompted by President Obama’s decision to send 33,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in 2010, a policy known as the surge. – New York Times
A new U.S.-led joint special operations command in Afghanistan will not wrest control of Afghanistan’s burgeoning commando corps from top Afghan military leaders in Kabul, according to officials from Special Operations Command. – DEFCON Hill
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Pete King (R-N.Y.) has called on the Obama administration to investigate attacks by Afghan soldiers and policemen against U.S. troops. – DEFCON Hill
A number of recent fatal attacks on U.S. and Nato forces by Afghan security forces reveals there are few ways for U.S. and NATO officials to prevent similar attacks in the future. – DOTMIL
Mitt Romney said Monday that President Obama hadn’t been forthcoming enough with status updates on the conflict in Afghanistan, saying the president needed to “explain what’s happening” to voters and veterans’ families back home. – Hill Tube
It was once President Obama’s “war of necessity.” Now, it’s America’s forgotten war. The Afghan conflict generates barely a whisper on the U.S. presidential campaign trail. It’s not a hot topic at the office water cooler or in the halls of Congress — even though more than 80,000 American troops are still fighting here and dying at a rate of one a day. – Associated Press
Peter Feaver writes: The Obama White House has certainly devoted itself to trying to persuade the public to support the President, and perhaps some of that effort helps shore up support for the war. But so far as I can determine, the Obama White House has not devoted itself to trying to persuade the public to support the war itself — and it doesn’t appear that anyone in the White House has this as a priority item on his or her to do list. – Shadow Government
Benjamin Jensen writes: These “green-on-blue” attacks — episodes in which Afghan soldiers and policemen turn their weapons on their coalition partners — are not isolated incidents. Rather, they reflect a Taliban strategy with deep roots in Afghan history. – New York Times
South Asia
It’s hard enough to get a decent job in Pakistan. But those who do are finding it increasingly difficult to get paid…The situation cuts across myriad professions and appears to be on the rise, evidently a symptom of general economic distress that includes currency devaluation, high inflation, poverty and a persistent energy crisis. – Washington Post
The arrest and imprisonment of a Christian girl accused of violating Pakistan’s blasphemy laws stoked a public furor on Monday, renewing international scrutiny of growing intolerance toward minorities in the country. – New York Times
India and Russia are soon likely to sign a contract worth more than $11 billion for the research and development phase of the T-50 fifth-generation fighter aircraft. – Aviation Week
India and the United States soon will sign a $1 billion deal for the purchase of 22 attack helicopters, an Indian Defence Ministry official said. – Defense News
An unmanned American aircraft fired missiles at a vehicle in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan Tuesday, killing five suspected militants and injuring two, Pakistani intelligence officials said. – Associated Press
China
The party’s carefully scripted trial of Ms. Gu — which led to her conviction on Monday for poisoning the Briton, Neil Heywood, and a suspended death sentence — appears to have prompted anger and cynicism from almost everyone here who paid attention. – New York Times
Some of China’s big cities are announcing large investment plans intended to boost slowing growth rates, but just how much of a lift they will give to the economy remains uncertain. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
China has shown little evidence of rising unemployment despite the slowest growth rate since the global financial crisis—and is nowhere near the jobless rates seen in some of the countries hardest hit by the euro-zone debt crisis. But slowing growth underscores a fundamental challenge to China’s economic development: the underemployment of huge numbers of graduates that Chinese colleges are churning out. – Wall Street Journal
China’s military conducted a flight test of a new submarine-launched ballistic missile last week, a launch that came a month after the test of a new multiple-warhead, ground-mobile missile, the Free Beacon has learned. – Washington Free Beacon
East Asia
Japan’s foreign minister said Wednesday he will reappoint Tokyo’s ambassador to Seoul, and gauge the reaction to measures taken to protest a recent visit by South Korea’s president to disputed islands before deciding on further action. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The nationalists have gained traction for their cause in recent months by taking advantage of the government’s political weakness, forcing the governing party to take a tougher stand on the Senkakus. But the activists are also tapping into a widespread anxiety over China, and the resulting acrimony over the Senkakus has already become a potential international flash point, raising the specter that the United States, Japan’s longtime defender, could be pulled into the conflict. – New York Times
The Hong Kong-based group that set off heightened tensions between China and Japan by unfurling flags on a disputed island last week plans to try to keep the issue in the news by seeking to organize protests outside Japanese embassies and consulates around the world on Sept. 18, a representative of the group said on Monday. – New York Times
Koreas
While the region’s attention has remained focused on whether the new North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, can consolidate his power, his country has been making significant progress in the construction of a new reactor widely seen as a cover for making more fuel for nuclear weapons, analysts say, citing satellite imagery of the building site. – New York Times
The South Korean and U.S. military on Aug. 20 began an annual major joint exercise to test defenses against North Korea, a drill denounced by Pyongyang which vowed to strengthen its nuclear deterrent. – AFP
Victor Cha writes: North Korea is at a dead end. New leadership exercising a more rigid ideology seeks greater control over an increasingly independently-minded society and disgruntled elements of the military. This is not sustainable. With true reform, North Korea would open itself up to foreign influences and create an immediate spiral of expectations in its society that it could not control. Which is exactly why, with apologies to Mickey Mouse and Christian Dior, it’s just not going to happen. – Foreign Policy
Burma
Since President Thein Sein took office in March of last year, more than 650 political detainees have been freed, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), a group that collects information on prisoners…But the United States, other Western governments, human rights groups and the opposition continue to demand an amnesty for all political detainees remaining in the country. The question is: How many, exactly, are there? – Washington Post
Russia
After two decades of negotiations, Russia will finally join the World Trade Organization on Wednesday. The lower trade barriers that come along with membership will open up new opportunities for foreign companies to do business in Russia. But American companies are guaranteed no such advantages — and may even face higher Russian tariffs than their competitors from other countries. – New York Times
The Russian authorities said Monday that they were still searching for other members of the band…indicating that the government was unmoved by international criticism of the two-year prison sentences imposed on three young women in the band who had performed an anti-Putin “punk prayer” in Moscow’s main Orthodox cathedral. – New York Times
The website of a Moscow court that convicted three members of [the feminist] punk band to two years in jail each for belting out a profanity-laced anti-Kremlin song inside a cathedral was hacked on Tuesday. – Reuters
Anne Applebaum writes: Global pop culture mutates and changes week by week, just as technology does: Modern dictatorships will have to make some fast decisions if they want to keep up. – Washington Post
Julia Pettengil writes: As defendant Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said in her closing statement, “This is a trial of the whole government system of Russia, which so likes to show its harshness toward the individual, its indifference to his honor and dignity. If this political system throws itself against three girls . . . it shows this political system is afraid of truth.” – Wall Street Journal Europe
Ukraine
Ukraine has suspended the extradition to Russia of a suspect in a foiled plot to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said it would review the case, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday. – Reuters
United States of America
[F]or lawmakers, the attention surrounding last summer’s trip — thanks to reports of a skinny-dipping Kansas lawmaker who was part of the delegation — has cast an unwanted spotlight once again on the practice of private groups paying for foreign travel, a source of frequent criticism in the past. – New York Times
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the Romney campaign’s vice-presidential candidate, argued that he has more foreign-policy experience than President Obama did when he ran for president. – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room
A group of retired special operations and CIA officers who claim President Obama revealed secret missions and turned the killing of Osama bin Laden into a campaign centerpiece are coming under criticism from some of their own. Some special operations officers say the activist veterans are breaking a sacred military creed: respect for the commander in chief. – Associated Press
Josh Rogin reports: The lead spokesman for OPSEC Education Fund, a group of former special operations soldiers attacking President Barack Obama’s national security credentials, has a long record of questioning the president’s birthplace and religion, and calling him names like “Commander-in-Chief Hussein Mao-bama,” trumpeting conspiracy theories, and insulting Muslims. – The Cable
Latin America
The U.S. challenged Argentina’s import restrictions Tuesday at the World Trade Organization, joining Japan and the European Union in a bid to pressure President Cristina Kirchner to dismantle a range of policies that have strained trade ties. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
It was the socialist and populist Chavez who perfected the art of on-the-street campaigning in Venezuela with remarkable nationwide tours that he embarked on between leaving prison in 1994 and winning the presidency in 1998…exactly what Capriles is trying to do now. – Reuters
Three former vice ministers in Cuba’s Basic Industry Ministry and nine nickel industry executives have been sentenced to long prison terms for corruption, Cuban state media said on Tuesday. – Reuters
West Africa
The gilded pacification campaign is offered up by the government as a success story. But others say the program, including a 2009 amnesty, has sent young men in Nigeria’s turbulent delta a different message: that militancy promises more rewards than risks. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Three Western hostages seized by al Qaeda militants in Mali last year have urged their governments to negotiate their release, Al Jazeera television reported, showing what it said was footage of the captives. – Reuters
Brendan Harrison writes: As the international community works with the Malian government to address the crisis, all parties should bear in mind the desires of the public, and the likelihood that a Mali united would be stronger, safer, more stable, and more prosperous than a Mali divided. – Freedom House’s Freedom at Issue
East Africa
There was probably no leader on the African continent who exemplified the conflict between the American government’s interests and its highest ideals better than Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia. – New York Times
Somalia’s new parliament was sworn in and convened for the first time Monday, but a scheduled presidential vote was not held. No firm date has been given for the vote, which could be delayed days or weeks. – Los Angeles Times
Rights groups in Uganda are facing increased harassment and intimidation from government officials, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday. – Reuters
South Africa
A South African court sentenced a black farmhand to life in prison on Wednesday for the axe murder of Eugene Terre’blanche, a white supremacist prominent during the dying years of apartheid. – Reuters
Labor unrest in South Africa’s platinum belt spread on Wednesday, raising concerns that anger over low wages and poor living conditions could generate fresh violence after 34 striking miners were shot dead by police last week. – Reuters
