Iran
Having been rebuffed privately by President Obama last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took to the airwaves in the United States on Sunday to warn that Iran was only six or seven months from having “90 percent” of what it needed to make an atomic bomb. – New York Times
With its economy in free fall, Iran is turning to its porous borders with Iraq and other countries to skirt increasingly effective global economic sanctions, according to congressional staffers, local journalists and advocates for tough sanctions against Tehran. – Washington Times
Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, on Sunday downplayed talk of a rift between the U.S. and Israel over Iran, saying there was “no daylight” between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
The U.N. atomic watchdog will hold further talks with Iran aimed at clarifying concerns about its nuclear program, despite the lack of progress so far, agency chief Yukiya Amano said on Monday. – Reuters
The head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards on Sept. 16 warned of retaliation against the Gulf’s strategic Strait of Hormuz, U.S. bases in the Middle East and Israel if his country was to be attacked. – AFP
William Heiser and Amir Fakhravar write: Instead of a military attack, the U.S. and Israel should immediately launch major funding and human rights initiatives to support the Iranian freedom movement in its efforts to bring about a free, democratic Iran that is committed to playing a peaceful and constructive role in the Middle East. – Shadow Government
Syria
In recent weeks, the growing death toll in Syria pushed that country’s civil war to the top of the Obama administration’s agenda, with some Arab leaders pressing harder for a greater American role in toppling Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad. – New York Times
The new United Nations peace envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said after a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday that the civil war held consequences for “the region, and the whole world,” while acknowledging that he had not yet formulated a plan to address the escalating violence. – New York Times
The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said Sunday that members of its elite Quds Force are inside Syria but are not involved directly in military work, the first time a senior official has publicly admitted the involvement of Iranian military personnel in the Syrian conflict. – Washington Post
Unlike a massacre by government forces three decades earlier in the city of Hama, which left more than 20,000 dead in just three weeks and still haunts the country, the reported atrocities have been spread over months of bloodshed in Syria. That has led some to call the government campaign a kind of slow-motion Hama. – Los Angeles Times
Although Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has thrown his support behind the Syrian rebels in their armed uprising against Assad, the Turkish street is revealing itself to be more divided about what is happening in Syria and along its borders. – Washington Post
United Nations human rights investigators said on Monday that they had drawn up a new secret list of Syrians and military units suspected of committing war crimes who should face criminal prosecution some day. – Reuters
Barak Barfi writes: [A]s Assad intensifies the violence and hopes for international intervention fade, people’s resistance to foreign fighters is gradually subsiding. And every day that it does, the tentacles of radical Islam spread. – International Herald Tribune
North Africa
Fierce anti-American protests waned around the Middle East on Sunday, but the delicate, often tense politics that helped fuel them will be the defining dynamic in the region for some time, politicians and analysts warned. – Wall Street Journal
After days of anti-American violence across the Muslim world, the White House is girding itself for an extended period of turmoil that will test the security of American diplomatic missions and President Obama’s ability to shape the forces of change in the Middle East. – New York Times
When the protests against an American-made online video mocking the Prophet Muhammad exploded in about 20 countries, the source of the rage was more than just religious sensitivity, political demagogy or resentment of Washington, protesters and their sympathizers here said. – New York Times
The Obama administration ordered the evacuation of all but emergency U.S. government personnel, and all family members, from diplomatic missions in Tunisia and Sudan on Saturday and warned Americans not to travel to those countries. – Washington Post
With anti-American demonstrations spreading across the Middle East and North Africa, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Foreign Policy’s National Security channel on Friday evening that the United States is positioning military forces so that it can respond to unrest in as many as 17 or 18 places that the Pentagon is “paying particular attention to.” But he cautioned against writing off the region’s recent moves toward democracy. – The E-Ring
A mounting body of evidence suggests a low-budget film about Islam and Muhammad was not the primary motive behind a series of violent attacks on U.S. embassies abroad, foreign policy experts say. – Washington Free Beacon
Editorial: The administration’s greatest failing during the Arab revolutions has been not displays of weakness, as Mitt Romney has charged, but excessive caution…The future of the Arab world is up for grabs; the United States should be doing everything it can to tilt it toward freedom. That means embracing the example of Christopher Stevens. – Washington Post
Editorial: What should really concern the White House is how slow and parsimonious were the denunciations of anti-American violence in Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Yemen and most of the rest of the Middle East. The Administration’s feeble response in the last week only invites radicals to use more such excuses to kill more Americans. – Wall Street Journal
Fouad Ajami writes: Cultural freedom is never absolute, of course, and the Western tradition itself, from the Athenians to the present, struggles mightily with the line between freedom and order. In the Muslim world, that struggle is more fierce and lasting, and it will show itself in far more than burnt flags and overrun embassies. – Washington Post
Steven Cook writes: After a decade of two wars, regime change in Libya, the prospect of conflict with Iran, and general upheaval, Americans may be tired of this volatile region. But don’t expect the United States to depart anytime soon. That is the price of indispensability — and exceptionalism too. – Foreign Policy
Libya
The head of Libya’s new national congress has blamed al Qaeda-linked militants for planning Tuesday’s deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, raising further questions about the motive behind the mayhem that killed four Americans. – Wall Street Journal
An Obama administration official said Sunday that the deadly attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya last week was the work of “individual clusters of extremists” but began as a spontaneous protest. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
An amateur video that surfaced Sunday appears to show a crowd removing the motionless body of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens from a window of the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, after it was attacked last week by Islamist militants, adding new details to reports that Mr. Stevens had died of smoke inhalation while locked in a safe room. – New York Times
The remains of the four Americans killed this week in the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, were repatriated on Friday. – Wall Street Journal
In his willingness to allow others to be heard, even when he had an important message to impart, Mr. Stevens was an unusual American diplomat, friends and colleagues say. He allowed himself to be governed by the habits, proprieties and slower pace of the Arab world. – New York Times
The U.S. is sending more spies, Marines and drones to Libya, trying to speed the search for those who killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, but the investigation is complicated by a chaotic security picture in the post-revolutionary country and limited American and Libyan intelligence resources. – Associated Press
The head of Libya’s national congress said on Sunday about 50 people had been arrested in connection with a deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last week, although the interior minister put the figure far lower. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: The State Department told reporters Friday afternoon that it won’t answer any more questions about the Sept. 11 attack on the consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans until the investigation into the incident is complete. – The Cable
Dov Zakheim writes: Teachable moments do not often present themselves, and the president and administration’s failure to make the most of the moment at hand is unfortunate at best, tragic at worst. – Shadow Government
Robin Wright writes: Chris would have been heartened by another demonstration in Benghazi the day after he died. A sign held high by a young Libyan in blue jeans declared, in big red letters, “Chris Stevens was a friend to all Libyans.” – Washington Post
Egypt
Under intense pressure from Washington, Egyptian security forces arrested hundreds of protesters around the American Embassy in Cairo on Saturday as political leaders struggled to deal with the fallout caused by the week of unrest. – New York Times
A Muslim cleric hosting an Egyptian television show recently outlined his version of Islamic instructions for wife-beating. In another show, a cleric claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood, now governing Egypt, one day will rule the world. – Washington Times
Reuel Marc Gerecht writes: It’s a very long road from where the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is now to a Muslim society sufficiently self-confident that it does not strike out with violence. But Muslims are unlikely to get there if the center of “global civilization” loses its nerve. – The Weekly Standard
Lee Smith writes: It would be nice to have an American administration that stood up for America, for its people and its principles. It would also make the world far less dangerous for Americans—and for decent people of all faiths. – The Weekly Standard
Ahmed Salah writes: My message to Americans is this: Never forget that this fight is not yours alone. It is ours, too. Never forget that in the battle against extremism and the struggle for peace and justice, you are not alone. And remember that only by reaching out to those who risked their lives for the goals of the Arab Spring, rather than casting the entire region as an enemy, will this battle be won. – Washington Post
Saudi Arabia
Karen Elliott House writes: So for the foreseeable future, the royal Saudi 747, richly appointed but mechanically flawed, flies on, its cockpit crowded with geriatric pilots…Somewhere on board there may be a competent new flight team that could land the plane safely, but the prospects of a capable pilot getting a chance at the controls seems slim. And so the 747 remains in the sky, perhaps to be hijacked or ultimately to crash. – Washington Post
Iraq
John Hannah writes: Just as charity begins at home, diplomacy begins with reliable friends — making them, keeping them, and standing by them when times get tough. A storm is surely brewing in the Middle East and the U.S. will need to rally all the allies it can get, and fast, to navigate the rough waters ahead. In Iraq, at least, Mithal Al-Alusi and the KRG are standing by, just waiting for America to call. – Shadow Government
Lebanon
Standing near what was once the dividing line of Lebanon’s bygone civil war, Pope Benedict XVI said a prayer on Sunday for the victims of the conflict in Syria, where the end is hard to see. – New York Times
Afghanistan
Two of the most contentious issues dividing the United States and President Hamid Karzai’s administration re-emerged as the Afghan leader condemned American-led forces for killing eight women in airstrikes on Sunday and denounced his American allies for continuing to hold hundreds of Afghan prisoners. – New York Times
Hundreds of Afghans burned tires and pelted police and buildings with stones on a thoroughfare leading east out of Kabul on Monday in the first significant spasm of violence in Afghanistan over an anti-Islam film that has inflamed mobs in other parts of the Muslim world. – New York Times
Four U.S. troops were killed Sunday at a remote checkpoint in southern Afghanistan when a member of the Afghan security forces opened fire on them, military officials said. The attack brought to 51 the number of international troops shot dead by their Afghan partners this year. – Washington Post
An audacious Taliban attack on a heavily fortified base in southern Afghanistan did far more damage than initially reported, destroying or severely damaging eight attack jets in the most destructive single strike on Western matériel in the 11-year war, military officials said Sunday. – New York Times
A brigade of U.S. Marines that evicted Taliban insurgents from a broad swath of southern Afghanistan received the nation’s highest collective military honor at a ceremony here Friday. – Washington Post
The persistent problem of rogue Afghan soldiers and police turning their guns on U.S. and allied troops is a “very serious threat” to the war effort, which is predicated on placing security responsibility in Afghan hands, the U.S. military’s top officer said Sunday. – Associated Press
Pakistan
One person was killed and dozens of people were injured when anti-American protesters tried to storm the American Consulate in the southern port city of Karachi and clashed for several hours with the police and paramilitary troops on Sunday evening, rescue workers and police officials said. – New York Times
India
After years of intense debate, India’s government agreed on Friday to open the country’s retail sector to global behemoths like Wal-Mart and Ikea, pushing for a profound shift in India’s economic and political direction. – New York Times
India’s attempts to boost its economy by allowing greater foreign participation have sparked protests across the political spectrum, a sign of the battles ahead for the ruling Congress party. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
India’s growth could easily “collapse” to 5% if a policy logjam lingers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned Saturday, barely a day after his government ushered in sweeping reforms to counter the nation’s economic slowdown. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The Indian government will unveil more measures to narrow its fiscal deficit and to boost economic growth, which may encourage the central bank to cut interest rates at its next monetary policy review on Oct. 30, the country’s finance minister said Monday. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Editorial: Mr. Singh needs to make the moral case for reform. The left loves to associate reform with enriching India’s urban population, and the charge they will level at the government is that last week’s liberalization will only benefit urban industries. But big-box retailers that knock out inefficient middlemen are good for both poor consumers and farmers throughout India…Let’s hope last week’s reforms are the first step of a larger reform push. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
China
A Chinese official at the center of one of the country’s biggest political scandals in years will go on trial on Tuesday, court officials said Friday. – New York Times
The revelation that he claimed to have an accomplice who may still be prepared to spill secrets could complicate China’s efforts to dictate the narrative about Messrs. Wang and Bo. The new details about Mr. Wang’s stay in the consulate and its aftermath also shed light on how U.S. and British authorities responded to the unusual episode that triggered China’s worst political crisis in more than two decades – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The reappearance on Saturday of Xi Jinping, a top Chinese leader who had vanished from public view, removes one question mark facing the Communist Party, but a wave of protests against Japan is a sign that internal power struggles are far from over. – New York Times
China said that Vice President Xi Jinping, the man expected to take over as the country’s top leader in the next few weeks, will attend an international trade fair this week, another apparent move to quash speculation about his health following an unexplained two-week absence from public engagements. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The Obama administration plans to file a broad trade case at the World Trade Organization in Geneva on Monday accusing China of unfairly subsidizing its exports of autos and auto parts, a senior administration official said late Sunday, in a move with clear political implications for the presidential elections less than two months away. – New York Times
East Asia
A former human rights lawyer and ally of former President Roh Moo-hyun was chosen on Sunday as the main opposition party’s candidate for the presidential election in December. – New York Times
The United States and Japan announced a major agreement Monday to deploy a second, advanced missile-defense radar on Japanese territory – an effort specifically designed to counter the North Korean threat but likely to anger China. – New York Times
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta arrived in Tokyo on Sunday for a week-long visit to the region and said he would urge Chinese and Japanese leaders to tone down a brewing political crisis over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. – Washington Post
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has been promised an audience with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, U.S. defense officials said Monday, in what would be the Chinese leader’s first meeting with a foreign leader since he mysteriously vanished from view this month. – Washington Post
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is likely to face more sharp questions Monday when he arrives in Beijing for talks with Gen. Liang Guanglie, China’s defense minister, the focal point of a trip that will also take him to Japan and New Zealand. – Los Angeles Times
Anti-Japanese demonstrators took to the streets again on Sunday in cities across China, with the government offering mixed signals on whether it would continue to tolerate the sometimes violent outbursts. – New York Times
In an exclusive interview with Foreign Policy on Friday evening, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta cast himself as a mediator in the dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku Islands, which both see as sovereign territory. – The E-Ring
Southeast Asia
The coming U.S. visits of Myanmar President Thein Sein and world-famous opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi are emerging as a potential turning point for the future of the country’s former military state’s reform process—and a key point of discussion will be whether the U.S. will relax a long-standing ban on importing Myanmar-made products. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The Philippine’s government is drawing inspiration from Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore as it seeks a path to prosperity and a developed economy, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said Thursday. – WSJ’s Southeast Asia Real Time
Russia
Russia’s opposition movement drew tens of thousands to another large anti-Putin demonstration on Saturday, sending the message that its ranks are undaunted by a battery of new government sanctions and the two-year prison sentences handed down last month to the punk-rockers– New York Times
Business groups are gearing up a last-ditch lobbying effort to win approval of Russian trade legislation before Congress leaves town to campaign before the November elections. – The Hill’s On the Money
United States of America
One of the men behind the anti-Muslim film trailer on YouTube that has set off violent protests at Western embassies across the Middle East was taken in for questioning by federal probation officers early Saturday morning, law enforcement officials said. – New York Times
Eliot Cohen writes: Perhaps the president and his aides are declinists, who think of the United States as too weak to act; perhaps they are indifferent; perhaps they are merely incompetent. In any event, this president will leave his successor a country that is considerably less secure than it was when he took the oath of office. – Washington Post
Latin America
This week’s split between Mexico’s largest leftist party and its standard-bearer for the past two presidential elections is a mixed blessing for the party: It loses its most popular politician but gains a chance to become a moderate party that could broaden its appeal and possibly win power. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Jackson Diehl writes: [A] couple of things are striking about the case Iglesias lays out. First, it’s hardly implausible that the Cuban regime would pursue a leading dissident on a road trip; cause his death by accident or intention; and then try to blackmail the survivors into silence. Also, as long as the Castros continue to rule Cuba, it probably won’t be possible to determine the truth. – Washington Post
West Africa
Piracy along Africa’s Atlantic coast is threatening to raise costs for the vast amount of seaborne trade that passes through the region, as the activity spreads from Nigeria into the poorly-patrolled seas of nearby Togo and Benin. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
East Africa
An African Union campaign to storm a bastion of Islamist fighters in Somalia has stalled amid logistical and political disputes, delaying a final push against an insurgency that has for years unnerved neighbors and commandeered tracts of this failed state. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The great part about being mayor of Mogadishu is that you get to reinvent a city so thoroughly taken apart by more than 20 years of chaos and war, it’s almost a clean slate. The hard part: staying alive. – Los Angeles Times
Somalia’s new president, Hassan Sheik Mohamud, was inaugurated Sunday amid tight security in the capital, Mogadishu, four days after he survived an assassination attempt. – Associated Press
South Africa
One month after South African police killed protesters near a platinum mine in a clash that inflamed national tensions, police have stepped in again to try to end the turmoil in the country’s mining sector. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
