Iran
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC has approached regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to discuss whether its business dealings with Iran could have breached U.S. sanctions, according to a person familiar with the bank’s position, increasing the prospect that more U.K. banks could face fines for breaking U.S. rules. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Efforts led by the United States and Israel to isolate Iran suffered a setback on Wednesday when the United Nations announced that Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, would join officials from 120 countries in Tehran next week for a summit meeting that Iran has trumpeted as a vindication of its defiance and enduring importance in world affairs. – New York Times
When Iran hosts a five-day summit of the Nonaligned Movement this week, it will be doing more than just staging its largest international event in more than a decade. It will be taking steps to shed its image as a global pariah. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Imports of Iranian crude oil to South Korea were suspended in July as a result of EU sanctions, which cut off insurance for tankers carrying Iranian crude. Yet data released Thursday showed Seoul imported 4.259 million barrels of Iranian crude in July. – WSJ’s Korea Real Time
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) sent a letter Tuesday to Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urging him to take steps to ensure that Iraqi entities are abiding by U.S. and international sanctions on Iran. – The Hill’s Floor Action Blog
Iran has started moving nearly two million barrels of fuel oil to Singapore in the first such shipment since June, according to an Iran-based port source and Reuters shipping data on Thursday. – Reuters
The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief played down chances of a breakthrough when talks with Iran resume on Friday but said the agency would pursue access to a military site that diplomats say may have been cleansed of evidence of illicit nuclear activity. – Reuters
Iran considers threats by Israel to bomb its nuclear installations more a propaganda drive than a genuine signal of imminent attack, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: The 44th administration decided Tuesday to allow Americans to send hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to Iran to help with earthquake relief in a rare relief of tight financial sanctions imposed on the country in response to its controversial nuclear program. – The Cable
Maseh Zarif writes: Iran already has enough low-enriched uranium to enrich to weapons-grade material for several nuclear weapons. It has been reducing the time needed to do so while expanding and hardening its declared enrichment sites. That capability, seen in the context of Iran’s broader nuclear program, presents the following problem: current U.S. policy accepts a high level of risk and corresponding likelihood of failure in preventing a nuclear Iran if the weaponization track is at an advanced stage. The possibility of other covert fissile material or weaponization activities would, moreover, further increase that risk level. – AEI’s Iran Tracker
Syria
Government forces supported by tanks raided a suburb on the outskirts of Damascus on Thursday, opposition activists said, killing 15 people a day after opponents of President Bashar al-Assad reported a widening campaign by the military to sow fear and death in neighborhoods where the rebels are strong and the government is too weak to assert full control. – New York Times
The Pentagon has made contingency plans to send small teams of special operations troops into Syria if the White House decides it needs to secure chemical weapons depots now controlled by security forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, senior U.S. officials said. – Los Angeles Times
A short drive from downtown Damascus, where fighting surged again Wednesday between government and opposition forces, the rebel-held villages of the Barada Valley have been puzzlingly quiet. – Wall Street Journal
The numbers in Syria’s growing humanitarian crisis speak for themselves. By March 1, United Nations data showed 11,121 refugees had been registered leaving Syria. The number grew to 67,891 by June 1. The tally now stands at 167,175 and is climbing by several thousands a day as Syrians pour into Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq to escape the bloodshed. – WSJ’s Real Time Brussels
Two days after the Japanese journalist Mika Yamamoto was shot and killed in the Syrian city of Aleppo, her news agency released some of the footage she recorded in her final hours. – NYT’s The Lede
Iran appears to be supplying Syria with weapons, the United Nations said on Wednesday, as the 17-month conflict that began as a popular uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad slides deeper into civil war. – Reuters
Russia believes Syria has no intention of using its chemical weapons and is able to safeguard them, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported on Wednesday, citing a unidentified Foreign Ministry official. – Reuters
Britain, France and the United States discussed on Wednesday how to bolster the Syrian opposition, which is fighting government forces 17 months into a popular uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s rule. – Reuters
Russia accused Western powers Wednesday of “openly instigating” Syrian opposition groups to take up arms in their fight to unseat President Bashar Assad. – Associated Press
Syrian soldiers killed a Syrian journalist sympathetic to the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad during a raid in Damascus on Wednesday, opposition activists said. – Reuters
Syrian rebel fighters speak proudly of the day forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad fled in their tanks from the northern town of Azaz as civilians armed with hunting rifles pushed into the main square. Yet a month on, there is no feeling of liberation here. – Reuters
Justin Vela reports: Freedom is in the air. But the Assad regime still possesses tools to terrorize residents and thwart the rebels’ designs: Calm countryside mornings are shattered by the afternoon, as airplanes and shelling strike towns and villages in attacks that continue throughout the night. For the rebels, it is impossible to feel fully liberated — or confident about their success — when death could come from above at any moment. – Foreign Policy
Bennett Ramberg writes: Of course we can still hope that the corrosive effects of the opposition’s resistance and the domestic revulsion to regime’s tactics will garner increasing popular support to prompt government collapse or a military coup. But, if not, then what? Should the international community continue to largely sit on its hands? Does international inertness make the community complicit in the regime’s killing? The proposed military templates provide an alternative. – Politico
Egypt
The Egyptian government on Wednesday requested a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, in the country’s latest attempt to secure financing for an economy badly damaged by political upheaval since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak. – New York Times
With Egypt’s new Islamist president headed to Iran next week and its military deploying tanks in the Sinai Peninsula — possibly outside the parameters of his nation’s 33-year-old treaty with Israel — officials here are increasingly worried about what has long been their most critical regional relationship. – New York Times
The uprising last year that toppled President Hosni Mubarak left the Sinai with almost no government authority, so Salafist clerics with their strict and puritanical interpretation of Islam have moved into the vacuum. They have established dozens of Shariah courts in an attempt to replace tribal tribunals that have long served as alternatives to government courts. – Washington Times
A fringe group so extreme that it worries even Egypt’s Muslim fundamentalists is secretly reviving itself with greater firepower and followers in the country’s volatile Sinai Peninsula. – Associated Press
Bahrain
Protesters pelted police with petrol bombs and stones in clashes that broke out in Bahrain on Tuesday night at the funeral for a teenage demonstrator killed last week in a new bout of unrest in the U.S.-allied Gulf state. – Reuters
Levant
The leader of the terror group Hezbollah has vowed to unleash a barrage of missile attacks on Israel, potentially causing “tens of thousands of fatalities” in the Jewish state’s northern region, according to a recently translated interview. – Washington Free Beacon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuked his far-right foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, on Wednesday for suggesting Palestinians should vote out their president to help revive peace efforts. – Reuters
The death toll from fighting between Lebanese Sunni Muslims and Alawites echoing the conflict in Syria climbed to at least 12 on Wednesday, the third day of clashes described as some of the heaviest since Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war. – Reuters
Turkey
Turkey’s leaders gathered on Wednesday for the funerals of nine people killed by a truck bomb, as commentators depicted the attack as a sign that violence in Syria might be spilling over into its neighbour. – Financial Times
Turkish troops have killed 16 Kurdish guerrillas in an operation in south-east Turkey targeting militants who launched a bomb attack on a military convoy that killed five soldiers, the local governor’s office said on Thursday. – Reuters
Afghanistan
Even as the Afghan government said on Wednesday that it would take new measures to counter a wave of deadly insider killings of Western troops by Afghan security forces, President Hamid Karzai’s office asserted for the first time that foreign spy agencies were behind most of the attacks, putting it directly at odds with NATO’s assessment of the crisis. – New York Times
A senior Taliban leader – possibly the same man who allegedly helped al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden escape Afghanistan after the U.S. invasion in 2001 – was killed in a NATO airstrike this week, the International Security Assistance Force announced. – CNN’s Security Clearance
The man President Obama is expected to tap as the next commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan is seen as a loyal officer who will not rock the boat. – DOTMIL
The number of U.S. and coalition troops killed by Afghans who turn their weapons on coalition forces is at an all-time high. The U.S. military says it’s doing everything it can, from increased security measures to improved training, to help troops respond more quickly. The pamphlet, which troops started to receive in February, is marked for “official use only” to ensure it is not distributed and read by the public, including the Taliban. – CNN’s Security Clearance
Pakistan
Electronic cries of anguish are ringing out across Pakistan’s Twitter community over the abrupt disappearance of the popular satirist @MajorlyProfound, beloved for his acid commentary on the powerful and their prejudices. The unexplained closing of his Twitter account and a related blog on Aug. 4 has become the cybermystery of the moment among English-speaking Pakistani liberals. – New York Times
An influential Christian Church organization will hold an international conference in Geneva next month on Pakistan’s blasphemy law, after an 11-year-old Pakistani Christian was detained on accusations of defaming Islam. – Reuters
The United States and Pakistan should stop pretending they are allies and amicably “divorce,” Pakistan’s former ambassador to Washington said on Wednesday, citing unrealistic expectations in both countries that include U.S. hopes Islamabad will sever its links to extremists. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: The Pakistani government must explain how Osama bin Laden was able to hide in Abbottabad for years and reveal who in Pakistan helped him, Pakistan’s former Ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani said Wednesday. – The Cable
India
Its economy and population are among the fastest growing in the world, and it has ambitious and energy-intensive plans to develop its infrastructure and industrial base. But business leaders are crying out for uninterrupted power supplies, and a third of India’s population is not even connected to the national grid. – Washington Post
The U.S. has urged India not to step on Internet freedoms as New Delhi seeks to clamp down on social media sites it blames for adding to communal tensions between Muslim and northeastern communities. – WSJ’s India Real Time
India on Tuesday insisted it would retain a nuclear arsenal so long as other countries possessed similar stockpiles and said the weapons on multiple occasions has played a critical role in fending off threats by foreign powers, the Press Trust of India reported. – Global Security Newswire
China
China’s government eased its restrictions on rare-earth exports for the first time since 2005 in an apparent nod to a trade fight over Beijing’s tight global grip on production of the strategically important minerals. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
A preliminary gauge of manufacturing activity in China on Thursday sent another warning signal on the state of the world’s second-largest economy. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
China’s military continued its string of strategic missile flight tests on Monday by firing off a third intercontinental ballistic missile in four weeks, according to U.S. officials. – Washington Free Beacon
Instead of issuing tirades, the Chinese hire top-notch lobbying firms whose ranks are filled with well-connected former U.S. and Canadian officials; buy TV advertisements to buff their image; and seek acquisitions less likely to stir nationalistic fervor. – Reuters
China relocated 1.3 million people during the 17 years it took to complete the Three Gorges dam. Even after finishing the $59 billion project last month, the threat of landslides along the dam’s banks will force tens of thousands to move again. – Reuters
East Asia
Relations between China and Japan continue to worsen as a Hong Kong Chinese group promised major protests in September. And two of America’s top Peoples Liberation Army analysts tell us things may well get worse, given the long-simmering enmities between the two countries and the “toxic brew” of the region’s unresolved territorial claims and misunderstandings. – AOL Defense
Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is likely to call a snap election for November, ruling and opposition party members said on Thursday, despite the likelihood that his party will suffer a drubbing. – Reuters
North Korea’s figurehead head of state, not supreme leader Kim Jong-un, will attend a summit of non-aligned developing nations in Iran next week, Pyonyang’s official KCNA news agency reported on Thursday. – Reuters
Southeast Asia
In Vietnam’s major cities, a once-booming property market has come crashing down. Hundreds of abandoned construction sites are the most obvious signs of a sickly economy. A senior Vietnamese Communist Party official, speaking in the ornate drawing room of a French colonial building, compared the country’s economic problems to the market crash 15 years ago that flattened many economies in Asia. – New York Times
Thailand’s finance minister has a message for all the naysayers who believe his country will be a major loser if plans for a new regional economic community come together in 2015: Don’t bet on it. – WSJ’s Southeast Asia Real Time
Australia
Australia will upgrade half of its frontline warplanes with sophisticated American jammers to become the first nation outside of the United States to use the system, the country’s defense minister said on Thursday. – Reuters
Central Asia
Kyrgyzstan’s coalition government disintegrated Wednesday, creating fresh uncertainty for an impoverished Central Asian country rife with corruption and a recent history of two revolutions – Washington Times
Turkmenistan now has its second political party, ending the official monopoly of its Democratic Party of Turkmenistan. State media heralded the step as a “historic event” for the country. But many critics and outsiders are dubious the new party will actually challenge the vast powers of President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov, who took office after his predecessor’s death in 2006. – LA Times’ World Now
Alexander Cooley writes: After 11 years of pressing the Afghan government to improve its governance and create democratic institutions, Washington has failed to effectively promote these same goals in neighboring countries. Now withdrawal from Afghanistan risks dragging the West even further into a hotbed of domestic power struggles and regional rivalries. – New York Times
Russia
Members of the ruling United Russia party submitted to parliament a draft law that, if approved, would force the Bank of Russia to consult policy with the government, a legislator said on his website Tuesday. – WSJ’s Emerging Europe Real Time
Business groups and lawmakers continued to press for Congress to extend normal trade ties as Russia joins the World Trade Organization after nearly two decades of talks. – The Hill’s On the Money
While the country hopes to attract more foreign investors as a WTO member, joining the organization means Russia will have to dismantle its protectionist policies and open up its markets to foreign competitors. The agricultural and industrial sectors, which have enjoyed subsidies and high tariffs, are expected to be the hardest hit. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Russia denounced foreign criticism of the trial of punk band…as politically motivated on Wednesday and said there were “elements of a clash of civilisations” in Western condemnation – Reuters
Analysis: Russia’s 19-year wait to enter the World Trade Organisation is finally over. Unfortunately, the kind of export and investment miracle enjoyed by fellow-BRIC China after it joined the club is likely to remain well out of its reach. – Reuters
Victor Erofeyev writes: [The band] struck at the sorest spot in modern Russia — which is why the group deserves praise, and not condemnation. The blow fell on the active merger of church and state into a single ideology, on the attempts to create a model of “Orthodox civilization” in Russia. The merger is intended to destroy the protest movement that has become a significant social phenomenon since December 2011 by depicting it as anti-Russian, as something alien to Russia’s special way. – International Herald Tribune
United States of America
The top U.S. military official criticized a video from a group of ex-special operations and intelligence officers who are attacking President Obama for allegedly politicizing the killing of Osama bin Laden. – DEFCON Hill
A spokeswoman for President Barack Obama’s campaign on Wednesday compared Mitt Romney’s vagueness on Afghanistan to disgraced former President Richard Nixon’s so-called “secret plan” to end the war in Vietnam. – Politico
The State Department is coming under renewed pressure to lift its designation of the Iraq-based People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) as a terrorist group after a former top human rights official accused the United Nations of lying about the group’s living conditions. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Mary Kissel writes: Maybe the Obama Administration should ditch the label “fact sheet” and call State’s new product what it really is: diplomatic propaganda for the re-election campaign of President Barack Obama. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Latin America
Mexico’s Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional a section of military law that allowed soldiers accused of abusing civilians to be tried in front of military tribunals, a practice opposed by human rights advocates. – Los Angeles Times
Colombia’s 16 cabinet members resigned on Wednesday at President Juan Manuel Santos’ request, setting the stage for him to shuffle his cabinet in an attempt to shore up his approval ratings. – Reuters
West Africa
Nigerian police said they found two bomb factories and arrested five suspected militants on Wednesday in the central state of Kogi where Islamist gunmen opened a new front in their insurrection this month. – Reuters
East Africa
Men armed with machetes, bows and arrows, spears and guns attacked a rival village in southeastern Kenya on Wednesday in a dispute over land, killing 52 people, according to Kenyan police. – LA Times’ World Now
A powerful South Sudanese army officer and former militia leader influential in some of the country’s richest oil regions during its long civil war with the north has died, officials said on Wednesday. – Reuters
Ethiopia’s acting prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn will run the country until an election in 2015, showing that the ruling party is determined to ensure a swift and smooth transfer of power following the death of Meles Zenawi. – Reuters
Editorial: The world is full of trade-offs and tough choices. But the passing of Mr. Meles ought to underscore once again that, no matter what the imperative for embracing a tyrant, it is essential and healthy to declare: Democracy and human rights are universal values, not to be forgotten with the next aid check. – Washington Post
Southern Africa
Support for the opposition party that won the greatest number of votes in Zimbabwe’s last presidential election, turning it into an international symbol of the Zimbabwean people’s desire to end President Robert Mugabe’s decades of rule, has fallen considerably, according to a new survey published by Freedom House, an international research institution. – New York Times
Labor unrest engulfing the South African platinum industry spread Wednesday, prompting fears of a broader mining crisis in one of the main commodity-producing countries. – Washington Post
[W]hen a farmhand was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison for murdering Mr. Terre’Blanche, his death seemed a symbol of a problem that may be more intractable than racial disharmony: the stubborn economic inequality of post-apartheid South Africa and the violent rage that it engenders. – New York Times
