Iran
Iran said on Tuesday it has no plans to show its nuclear sites to diplomats visiting Tehran for this week’s Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, contradicting an earlier offer by a deputy foreign minister. – Reuters
As the world heads toward some sort of confrontation with an Iran bent on gaining the technology that can destroy millions of lives instantly, it ponders what to do. Those who sit by will be the loudest to criticize those who will act. They will also be as relieved as everyone else when that threat disappears. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Syria
Iran is sending commanders from its elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and hundreds of foot soldiers to Syria, according to current and former members of the corps. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
France will recognize a provisional Syrian government as soon as it has been formed, President François Hollande said on Monday, urging Syria’s fractured political opposition to establish one as soon as possible. – New York Times
Syrian fighter planes made rare sorties on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, killing at least 60 people in its eastern suburbs, the same day a Syrian military helicopter crashed while under rebel fire, activists said. – Reuters
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was shocked by reports of a massacre in a town close to Syria’s capital and condemned it as “an appalling and brutal crime” that should be independently investigated immediately, his spokesman said on Monday. – Reuters
A Christian archbishop fled Syria after his offices were ransacked last week amid fighting between rebels and government forces in the country’s biggest city Aleppo, Catholic news agency Fides said on Monday. – Reuters
A Turkish cameraman who went missing while reporting from Syria appeared on Monday in an interview with a pro-government Syrian television channel and said he had been seized by Syrian soldiers in the northern city of Aleppo. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: The main group representing the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Washington is calling for the United States and the international community to forcibly establish a partial no-fly zone in Syria for the first time since the 18-month revolution began. – The Cable
Editorial: Mr. Obama has said that that “preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States of America.”…Yet now, as atrocity after atrocity is recorded in Syria, he rejects proposals by aides and allies for even limited and humanitarian intervention. Administration officials reportedly have discussed options for a safe zone, but the president has repeatedly sided with those favoring inaction. – Washington Post
Video: FPI Policy Director Robert Zarate discussed the situation in Syria yesterday on France 24 – France 24
Egypt
A decision by Egypt’s new president to travel to Tehran for a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement this week reflects a major foreign policy shift for the Arab world’s most populous nation, after decades of subservience to Washington. – Washington Post
Egypt’s new Islamist president said on Monday he would pursue a “balanced” foreign policy, reassuring Israel its peace treaty was safe, hinting at a new approach to Iran and calling on Bashar al-Assad’s allies to help lever the Syrian leader out. – Reuters
A leading Bahraini opposition activist said she had been refused entry to Egypt at Cairo airport on Sunday, accusing Arab governments of continuing repressive security cooperation despite political change in the region. – Reuters
Egypt’s new president said on Monday he would not impose new taxes or devalue the country’s currency and that his government would rely instead on investment, tourism and exports to fix an economy ravaged by a year and a half of political turmoil – Reuters
Egypt’s President Mohamed Mursi appointed three women and two Christians to his team of 21 aides, spokesman Yasser Ali said on Monday, a nod to diversity from a man who chose as many male non-Christians for cabinet as ousted predecessor Hosni Mubarak. – Reuters
Libya
The State Department on Monday resumed full consular services for U.S. citizens in Libya but reiterated year-old advice to avoid “all but essential” travel to the violence-racked North African country. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Josh Rogin reports: Carjackings, robberies, kidnappings, and militia violence all are on the rise in Libya, prompting the State Department to warn U.S. citizens to stay away from the North African country, nearly a year after Libyan rebels seized the capital Tripoli from Muammar al-Qaddafi’s forces. – The Cable
Gulf States
Human-rights activists are demanding the release of Nagla Wafa, an Egyptian wedding planner and designer sentenced to 500 lashes and five years in prison in Saudi Arabia following a business dispute with a princess. – LA Times’ World Now
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Salman has temporarily taken charge of running the world’s top oil exporter for the first time, after the royal court said on Monday King Abdullah had gone abroad for a holiday. – Reuters
Thousands of Kuwaitis took part in a rally late on Monday to protest any changes to the electoral law which they said could harm the prospects of opposition lawmakers in upcoming elections. – Reuters
Yemen
An advisor to Yemen’s president said he survived an apparent assassination attempt on Monday when armed men opened fire on a car carrying him in Sanaa. – Reuters
Iraq
Iraq’s communications minister has resigned to protest interference by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in the work of his ministry. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Israel
With speculation lingering over a possible war with Iran, even battle-hardened Israelis — who insist they’ve seen and survived it all — are starting to make contingency plans. – Los Angeles Times
The classroom conversation, as some two million Israeli children started school on Monday, was part of national hand-wringing over the Aug. 16 beating in Zion Square, which was described as an attempted lynching that left 17-year-old Jamal Julani near death. The education minister instructed all junior high and high schools to conduct a lesson on the episode, which revealed festering wounds regarding race, violence and extremism. – New York Times
An Israeli judge ruled on Tuesday that the state bore no responsibility for the death of Rachel Corrie, the young American woman who was run over by a military bulldozer in 2003 as she protested housing demolitions in the Gaza Strip. – New York Times
As is usually the case with the Israelis, we probably won’t know about an attack until the morning after. But if an Israeli strike on Iran does occur between now and Nov. 6, it is highly likely that U.S. election politics, and how Israel weighs the prospects for an Obama second term or a Romney presidency, will be key factors — maybe even the most important factors. – National Journal
The Gaza Strip will be drained of safe water to drink and perilously short on schools, homes and hospitals if serious action isn’t taken to help its booming young population, the United Nations said in a new report released Monday. The rising pressures could soon make Gaza unlivable, it warned. – LA Times’ World Now
Human Rights Watch on Monday rebuked the Palestinian Authority (PA) for failing to prosecute members of the security forces over years of alleged beatings and abuse of protesters, journalists and detainees. – Reuters
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dropped plans to revise his investment portfolio, apparently concerned Israelis might think he was trying to avoid any personal financial loss should he opt to go to war with Iran. – Reuters
Israeli forces shelled two compounds run by the Hamas government’s security services in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, wounding two Palestinians, Hamas said. – Reuters
Afghanistan
Senior U.S. Army officers at one of Afghanistan’s largest military bases were “derelict in their duties” when they oversaw the removal and attempted incineration of 474 copies of the Quran in a February incident that sparked days of deadly riots, according to a special investigation. – Wall Street Journal
Taliban fighters beheaded 17 civilians and killed 10 Afghan soldiers in separate attacks in southern Helmand province, officials said, as Afghanistan’s forces struggled to assert control over areas where the U.S. is withdrawing surge troops. – Wall Street Journal
The chief of police in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province has survived an insurgent truck-bomb attack which killed four civilians, a spokeswoman for NATO-led forces and Afghan officials said on Tuesday. – Reuters
India
India’s Parliament became a noisy stage of political theater on Monday, as opposition lawmakers shouted down Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s attempt to rebut claims that his government had awarded sweetheart coal deals to power companies, the latest scandal to hit his administration. – New York Times
More than a century after it was drawn up by British colonial rulers, India’s land acquisition law is finally set for a revamp that promises to breathe life into scores of frozen industrial and infrastructure projects and help lift the sagging economy. That’s the optimistic scenario – Reuters
Uri Friedman reports: Take a close look at the draft platform that Politico discovered on the Republican National Committee’s website on Friday, and you’ll see that the Republican party arguably lavishes more praise on India than on any country mentioned in the document except Israel and Taiwan. – Foreign Policy’s Passport
East Asia
As Japan’s government is trying to smooth a quarrel with China over the sovereignty of a set of islands that lies between them, the man who ignited the current flare-up shows no sign of turning down the heat. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Nationalist tensions are rising in China over rival claims with Japan about the ownership of several uninhabitable rocky islands — despite efforts by officials in both Beijing and Tokyo to defuse the dispute. – LA Times’ World Now
The number of Tibetans who have set themselves on fire in protest at Chinese rule of their homeland has topped 50 after two teenagers burned to death in a southwestern corner of the country, a rights group said. – Reuters
Michael Auslin writes: It is time to bury the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia. This reallocation of military and diplomatic resources was supposed to guarantee stability in a region seeking to balance China’s rise. In reality, this strategic shift is less than it appears. It won’t solve Asia’s problems and may even add to the region’s uncertainty by over-promising and under-delivering. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Burma
President Thein Sein of Myanmar announced a major cabinet reshuffle on Monday that appeared to centralize the power of his office, put his closest allies in key positions and sideline at least one hard-line minister left over from the days of military rule. – New York Times
In Myanmar, aid workers from the United Nations and a partner agency have been sentenced in a murky case that has been linked to the ethnic violence that wracked western stretches of the country earlier this summer. – LA Times’ World Now
The United Nations is seeking information on three people working for the world body who were sentenced by a Myanmar court in connection with sectarian violence there earlier this year, a U.N. spokesman said on Monday. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: Two leading congressmen are calling on the Obama administration to use its leverage in international financial institutions to press for greater fiscal transparency in Burma, formally known as Myanmar, and ensure progress in the human rights situation in the Southeast Asian country as it emerges from decades of isolation. – The Cable
Indonesia
In a huge, ethnically diverse country that champions of global jihad once regarded as fertile ground for expansion, the recent calm testifies to the success of a relentless drive by security forces to track, infiltrate and confront violent Islamist groups intent on driving Indonesia from its traditionally moderate moorings. The falling death toll, however, doesn’t mean that terrorists are no longer active. – Washington Post
Human rights campaigners have condemned the Indonesian government for failing to tackle the rising tide of religious intolerance in the world’s most populous majority-Muslim nation, after a fatal mob attack on a group of minority Shia Muslims on Sunday. – Financial Times
President Barack Obama’s administration has proposed to sell air-to-surface guided missiles and related gear to equip Indonesia’s growing fleet of U.S.-built F-16 fighter aircraft. – Reuters
Southeast Asia
Thrown off balance by a cacophony of rival claims in the South China Sea, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is struggling to cope with the “big and heavy” presence of China and the United States in the region, Surin Pitsuwan, the group’s secretary general, said Monday. – Washington Post
The college could make a valuable contribution to higher education in Asia, some education experts say, but Yale has also received withering criticism for lending its name to an institution in Singapore, where freedom of assembly and association is restricted. – New York Times
Times are pretty good in the Philippines if you are young, skilled and live in the city. Young urban workers are helping to give the country its brightest prospects in decades, economists say – New York Times
Allen Weiner writes: The United States should not reward Vietnam by including it in the Trans-Pacific Partnership while the government in Hanoi uses its legal systems to stifle dissent and perpetrate human rights abuses. – Washington Post
Central Asia
Walter Pincus reports: The United States has been quietly deepening relationships in Central Asia, but in the process is embracing two authoritarian, lifetime presidents who don’t have great records on human rights. The State Department has repeatedly criticized both for those records and for their generally harsh treatment of domestic opponents. – Washington Post
Russia
President Vladimir V. Putin is rumored to be among the world’s wealthiest men, with an oil-fed fortune worth tens of billions of dollars. He denies that, vehemently, but a report to be published Tuesday suggests that the dispute may be beside the point. – New York Times
A joint U.S.-Russia military training exercise earlier this year is raising concerns on Capitol Hill that U.S. military cooperation will increase the threat posed by Moscow’s military to friends and allies in Europe. – Washington Free Beacon
A lawyer for the jailed members of [the] Russian punk band…on Monday appealed against the three women’s conviction for a protest against President Vladimir Putin at a church altar, but said he had little hope the verdict would be overturned. – Reuters
Chirikova – who has been detained, treated roughly by police and received threats on her and her family because of her environmental work – is undaunted by the threat of harassment as she joins an opposition campaign to chip away at Putin’s authority by challenging his party in local elections. – Reuters
Europe
French banks BNP Paribas (BNP) and Credit Agricole are conducting internal inquiries into U.S. dollar payments to check whether they are potentially in breach of American sanctions, the banks said on Monday. – Reuters
A high court in Ukraine will rule on Wednesday on former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s appeal against her abuse-of-office conviction and seven-year prison sentence – a case that has soured Kiev’s ties with the West. – Reuters
Interview: Serbia and Kosovo have committed to resume European Union-sponsored talks that were suspended during Serbia’s recent election season. RFE/RL correspondent Arbana Vidishiqi spoke with Kosovar President Atifete Jahjaga about Pristina’s approach to the discussions. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
United States of America
To hear some advisers tell it, the Romney campaign is really Romney Inc., a smoothly-run organization that efficiently funnels the views of a vast array of foreign-policy advisers through a few key coordinators who brief the candidate. This is a positive contrast to the last time Mitt Romney ran in 2008. – National Journal
Remember the Republicans, those muscular supporters of America’s military, those vigorous champions of an ascendant Western military alliance. Where are they now? Well, they’re around, but you are unlikely to hear more than a few sentences about defense during the GOP convention. – AOL Defense
President Obama has empowered Iran’s nuclear ambitions through fruitless negotiations that could ultimately jeopardize the safety of Israel, Republican National Convention (RNC) delegates say. – Washington Free Beacon
FPI Executive Director Jamie Fly writes: Rather than just reading the polls and talking only of jobs and the economy while ceding national security to Obama, Romney should keep up the foreign- policy fight. He can win it. – Foreign Policy
FPI Executive Director Jamie Fly and Policy Analyst Evan Moore write: Instead of honoring Paul on the way out, the delegates in Tampa should be cheering his departure. He has left a legacy of extremism and falsehoods that need to be driven from the party, not embraced by it. – National Review Online
Phil Levy writes: It is hardly a surprise that there should be efforts to discredit a vice presidential candidate in a highly charged political season, but on free trade and foreign policy, Paul Ryan has it right. – The Cable
Mexico
The federal police officers who shot up an American Embassy vehicle on Friday, wounding two American law-enforcement workers, were detained on Monday as prosecutors determine whether they abused their authority or committed other crimes, Mexican officials said. – New York Times
Such tough questioning may seem the bedrock of courtroom justice in the United States, but here in Mexico, where trials are decided by judges and rely almost entirely on written briefs, the lively exchange was a rare sight. Rare enough, in fact, that it was still just a rehearsal, part of a training session conducted by American and Mexican prosecutors as this country revamps its justice system. – New York Times
A split in the leadership of Mexico’s violent Zetas cartel has led to the rise of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, a man so feared that one rival has called for a grand alliance to confront a gang chief blamed for a new round of bloodshed in the country’s once relatively tranquil central states. – Associated Press
El Salvador
Now the truce is moving this country in the opposite direction, the authorities contend, leading to a precipitous drop in violence. But others question whether the government should have essentially made what some consider a pact with the devil for the public good – New York Times
South America
President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday night said his government was in “exploratory discussions” to end more than four decades of conflict with Colombia’s largest rebel group. – Los Angeles Times
A deadly explosion at Venezuela’s largest oil refinery over the weekend has unleashed a barrage of criticism at the government’s management of the state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela. Even as President Hugo Chávez has turned the oil company into the financial engine of his socialist revolution, critics say it has neglected essential activities like maintenance, safety and the development of new sources of production. – New York Times
Colombia’s second-biggest guerrilla group says it is willing to hold unconditional peace talks to end five decades of war, but will not end its campaign of kidnappings, bombings and extortion against foreign oil and mining firms before negotiations begin – Reuters
Venezuela’s biggest refinery could restart operations on Friday and fires still burning in three storage tanks will be extinguished within two days, the country’s energy minister told Reuters, following the country’s worst oil industry accident. – Reuters
West Africa
Gambia said on Monday it had executed nine prisoners, prompting critics to call for sanctions on the president whose plans to clear the country’s death row by mid-September had already drawn a flurry of international condemnation. – Reuters
East Africa
Many doubts remain, but the return of the [Somali] diaspora, the swift investment of money and booming property development, and even plans to launch a stock exchange, make this period of peace different from past efforts at stability. There is now a new group with a big economic stake in peace — and an emotional one too. – Los Angeles Times
Rebels killed at least 24 soldiers when they ambushed a South Sudanese army convoy, a military spokesman said on Monday, in the latest outbreak of violence in restive Jonglei state. – Reuters
African Union-brokered talks between Sudan and South Sudan to resolve lingering issues from their partition a year ago have been postponed until next week because of the funeral for Ethiopia’s former prime minister, an official said on Monday. – Reuters
Kenyan anti-riot police fired teargas at stone-throwing youths in the port city of Mombasa on Tuesday in a new outburst of violence a day after the murder of a Muslim cleric led to riots that left one person dead. – Reuters
Uganda’s long-serving President Yoweri Museveni promoted his son to the rank of brigadier general on Monday, fanning speculation he was grooming Muhoozi Kainerugaba for succession. – Reuters
South Africa
Lonmin PLC employees were threatened with repercussions by unidentified individuals if they returned to the Marikana mine Monday, the company said. The development risks sparking a repeat of the violent clashes between employees and police that have already left 44 dead during the two-week old strike. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
