Iran
Iran’s most senior atomic energy official revealed on Monday that separate explosions, which he attributed to sabotage, had targeted power supplies to the country’s two main uranium enrichment facilities, including the deep underground site that American and Israeli officials say is the most invulnerable to bombing. – New York Times
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, plans to meet with Iran’s chief negotiator in Istanbul Tuesday in a bid to give new impetus to the virtually stalled talks with Tehran over its nuclear program, her office announced. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Naval forces from more than 30 countries were engaged Monday in a massive minesweeping exercise in the Arabian Gulf, U.S. officials said, amid Iranian threats to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz. – Defense News
The Iranian government recently conducted a major cyber attack on a major U.S. financial institution that a military intelligence report said is a sign Tehran is waging covert war against the West. – Washington Free Beacon
The U.N. nuclear agency insisted on Tuesday that Iran must address concerns about suspected bomb research, saying it was ready for talks and avoiding any mention of Tehran’s allegation that “terrorists” may have infiltrated the Vienna-based agency. – Reuters
Matthias Kuntzel writes: This “convergence” sends clear signals of accommodating terror and betraying freedom of expression, while undermining those countries that want to change Iran’s nuclear behavior through concerted pressure on the regime. Just as it is impossible to maintain a relaxed friendship with neo-Nazis, it is also impossible to do relaxed business with a regime such as Iran’s. – Wall Street Journal Europe
Syria
Syrian warplanes fired missiles into Lebanese territory on Monday, heightening the potential for Syria’s neighbors to be pulled into its 18-month-old conflict. – Wall Street Journal
With the Syrian conflict spilling into the Lebanese border area on Monday, United Nations investigators said civilians were bearing the brunt of indiscriminate air and ground assaults in the fighting over the future of President Bashar al-Assad. – New York Times
As a ferocious war pits Syrian rebels against Assad’s regime, a self-rule experiment has begun to take root in the parts of the country under the control of the opposition. – Washington Post
France may be considering arming Syria’s rebels but the U.S. and other Western powers have yet to find opposition figures they genuinely trust as they worry over growing jihadi and sectarian forces. – Reuters
Saudi Arabia stayed away from a meeting on the Syria crisis convened by regional powers on Monday, setting back a forum grouping Iran – President Bashar al-Assad’s main Middle East ally – and his leading opponents in the region. – Reuters
U.N. investigators have added more names to a secret list of Syrians suspected of committing war crimes during the 18-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, and warned on Monday more foreign Islamist militants were fighting there. – Reuters
Report: If the U.S. hopes to counter this threat and stem the growing popularity of more radical groups, it must clearly identify secular and moderate Islamist opposition groups and encourage the international community to focus resources in support of those groups alone. Such focused support would increase the influence of moderate opposition groups and undercut the appeal of Salafism in Syria. – Institute for the Study of War
Egypt
Anti-American protests that started in Cairo and spread across the Muslim world have stalled negotiations to provide crucial U.S. economic assistance to Egypt, U.S. officials said Monday. – Washington Post
A U.S. intelligence cable warned the American Embassy in Cairo of possible violence in response to Arabic-language broadcasts of clips from an anti-Muslim film, U.S. government sources said on Monday. – Reuters
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will lobby lawmakers this week on the need to keep billions of dollars in aid flowing to Egypt and other countries caught up in a spasm of violent anti-American protests across the Muslim world. – Reuters
Michael Hannah and Elijah Zarwan write: At this sensitive moment in Egypt’s history, consensus-driven decisions taken by a broadly inclusive coalition stand the best chance of enduring and ensuring the political stability Egypt needs to recover economically. – Los Angeles Times
Libya
The investigation into last week’s killing of four American diplomats in eastern Libya is raising pressure on a shaky new Libyan government to quash pockets of violent Islamists emerging after the country’s revolution and now threatening its struggle for stability. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Monday joined calls for Congress to launch its own investigation into the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. He said it “defies common sense” that the attack was unplanned, as Obama administration officials contend. – DEFCON Hill
An amateur video appears to show Libyans trying to rescue U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens from a room filled with smoke at the U.S. mission where he was found unconscious after last week’s attack by a mob protesting against a film that denigrates the Prophet Mohammad. – Reuters
Jason Pack and Andrea Khalil write: America wisely played a supporting role in ending the Gadhafi dictatorship. In the struggle for post-Gadhafi Libya, the U.S. cannot be silent. Only intense engagement can help restore momentum to the political transition already under way. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
North Africa
Al Qaeda’s affiliate in North Africa urged Muslims to kill representatives of the U.S. government in the region in retaliation for a film that mocks the Prophet Mohammad, saying it welcomed last week’s revenge killing of the U.S. ambassador in Libya. – Reuters
A Tunisian Salafist leader on Monday escaped from a mosque that had been surrounded by security forces seeking to arrest him over clashes at the U.S. Embassy last week during protests against an anti-Islam film, a Reuters witness said. – Reuters
An international human rights group urged Morocco on Monday to investigate accusations that police tortured pro-democracy activists to force false confessions. – Reuters
Levant
Tens of thousands of people hit the streets of Beirut to protest the controversial video mocking the prophet Muhammad on Monday, a massive rally organized by the Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah that was also an attempt to show the party’s strength. – Washington Post
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel engaged in an unusually public dispute with the Obama administration over Iran, Mr. Netanyahu’s man in Washington, Michael B. Oren, has been working rooms all over town. – New York Times
As the Palestinian Authority marks the 19th anniversary this month of the signing of the Oslo Accords, the agreement with Israel that brought it into existence, the authority is facing a financial crisis that experts say could threaten its future operations and stability. – New York Times
Editorial: Mr. Abbas might hope that he can extract concessions from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, after the Nov. 6 election, from President Obama, were he to win, in exchange for dropping the initiative. But to what end? As Jordan’s foreign minister recently pointed out, negotiations with Israel are the only realistic path to Palestinian statehood. Mr. Abbas’s refusal to accept that fact might prove to be his undoing. – Washington Post
Turkey
A shining star among emerging markets and an island of political stability straddling Europe and the Middle East, Turkey is dead set on tripling its economic output in the next decade and spreading its influence across the region. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Turkey’s main Kurdish party said on Monday that Turkey must agree a mutual ceasefire with Kurdish separatists to have any hope of ending their conflict, rather than making one-sided demands that they disarm. – Reuters
Afghanistan
Facing Afghanistan’s first significant outbreak of violence over an anti-Islam film that has inflamed mobs elsewhere, the police moved swiftly on Monday to contain rampaging groups of young men who were burning tires and throwing stones along a thoroughfare leading east out of Kabul, keeping the protesters from advancing toward the city and dispersing them within hours. – New York Times
Fourteen people, 10 of them foreigners, were killed by a suicide bomber on Tuesday, bringing to at least 28 the number of deaths attributed to unrest sweeping the Muslim world as the result of an amateurish video parodying the Prophet Muhammad. – New York Times
An Afghan soldier opened fire on six Lebanese civilian contractors working for U.S.-led NATO forces in southern Afghanistan on Sunday night, causing minor injuries, coalition officials said Monday. The attack was the third by rogue Afghan security personnel over the weekend, when six foreign troops were killed. – Washington Post
After years of tightly intertwining its forces with Afghan troops, the American-led military coalition has sharply curtailed ground-level operations with the Afghan Army and police forces, potentially undercutting the training mission that is the heart of the Western exit strategy. – New York Times
In his exclusive sit-down with Foreign Policy on Friday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that some of the “toughest” fighting in Afghanistan is yet to come. – The E-Ring
NATO was forced onto the defensive Monday over a humiliating attack on one of its most heavily guarded bases in Afghanistan that destroyed six U.S. fighter jets in unprecedented damage in the 10-year war. – Defense News
U.S. forces in Afghanistan were moving forward Monday following a bold attack on Camp Bastion that killed two Marines, including the commanding officer of a Harrier squadron, wounded nine other U.S. personnel and destroyed six Harrier jump jets. – Military Times
The U.S. military’s top officer acknowledged this week that rampant “insider” attacks by Afghan forces on their American and NATO allies pose a “very serious threat” to the U.S. war effort, which could play havoc with the White House’s plan to leave the country in the next two years. – DEFCON Hill
Contained in an extensive guidebook being distributed by the Afghan government, the advice is intended to establish codes of conduct to reduce attacks by Afghan soldiers and police against foreign troops serving in Afghanistan. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The end game in Afghanistan is off to a shaky start. Just as the last U.S. “surge” troops leave the country, trouble is breaking out in ways that go to the core of the strategy for winding down the U.S. and allied combat role and making Afghans responsible for their own security. At stake is the goal of ensuring that Afghanistan not revert to being a terrorist haven. – Associated Press
While some service members go home, others are busy preparing thousands of vehicles and other equipment for shipment. It’s a laborious task that’s more difficult than it was in Iraq because of landlocked Afghanistan’s tough mountainous terrain, lack of roads and its mountain passes that will soon be covered with snow. – Associated Press
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday that while he is very concerned about rogue Afghan troops and police turning their guns on U.S. and allied forces, he sees the insider attacks as the “last gasp” of a Taliban insurgency that has not been able to regain lost ground. – Associated Press
Pakistan
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf agreed at a Supreme Court hearing Tuesday to reopen graft investigations into the country’s president, a move which could reduce tensions between the country’s legislative and executive branches. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
After months of legal battles, Pakistan’s government relented on Tuesday to judges’ demands that it agree to write a letter to the authorities in Switzerland regarding corruption charges against President Asif Ali Zardari. – New York Times
As the fight against terrorism in Pakistan’s restive northwest rages on, one casualty has been left on the battlefield — youth education. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Former nuclear weapons developer and proliferator Abdul Qadeer Khan in an interview published on Saturday asserted he was directed by Pakistan’s now-deceased prime minister to sell sensitive technology to two foreign nations, a claim that was quickly denied by the governing Pakistan People’s Party, Agence France-Press reported. – Global Security Newswire
[H]uman rights groups have gathered extensive evidence from relatives of the disappeared [in Baluchistan] that raises serious questions over the conduct of a security establishment that has received billions of dollars in U.S. military aid since 2001. – Reuters
India
The Reserve Bank of India declined Monday to cut interest rates despite the government’s moves last week to pare its deficit and let in more foreign investment, steps the central bank had set as prerequisites for further monetary easing. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
When Mamata Banerjee, a 5-foot-tall dynamo in flip-flops, finally defeated the Communists last year after decades of misrule here, she became one of the most powerful but unpredictable politicians in India. Now the country is left to guess whether she will announce on Tuesday that she intends to try to pull down India’s governing coalition. – New York Times
It is a protest that not only threatens the commissioning of the largest nuclear reactor in India but also could cripple the country’s plans to satisfy more of its growing energy needs with nuclear power. – Washington Post
China
The trial for the former Chongqing police chief whose flight to a U.S. consulate triggered China’s worst political scandal in a generation ended Tuesday after two half-day sessions, according to the Associated Press. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta urged China on Tuesday to allow closer military contacts to reduce the risk of confrontation, as the two powers grapple with a volatile territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo. – Reuters
Andrew Erickson and Gabe Collins report: As if U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta didn’t have enough to contend with on his current China visit, photos leaked online on Sunday suggest Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) is making substantial progress on a stealth aircraft prototype, which Chinese netizens and foreign analysts have variously dubbed the “J-21,” “J-31,” and “F60”—a possible future export variant. – WSJ’s China Real Time Report
East Asia
Protesters turned out in force in Chinese cities on Tuesday, escalating a territorial dispute between China and Japan, while Japanese companies again shut down stores and factories as a precaution against violence. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
China is likely to express concerns about the U.S. deployment in Japan of a radar system that can track Chinese anti-ship missiles that are the linchpin of plans to keep the U.S. Navy away from its territorial waters. – Washington Times
As anger increases over a territorial dispute between China and Japan, Chinese authorities have been playing both sides of the issue by quietly encouraging recent anti-Japanese protests, then publicly reining them in. – Washington Post
As U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta visits China and Japan for assurance that a dispute over two rocky outcrops in the East China Sea does not turn into a bloodbath, a new report has been released from the U.S. National Defense University (NDU) outlining possible ways Panetta could control China’s more aggressive inclinations. – Defense News
An economic war between China and Japan could have serious consequences, as Asia’s two largest economies are integrally tied together in trade and investment. Total trade between the two: $345 billion. – WSJ’s Japan Real Time
China’s most powerful military leader, in an usual public statement, last week ordered military forces to prepare for combat, as Chinese warships deployed to waters near disputed islands and anti-Japan protests throughout the country turned violent. – Washington Free Beacon
Russia has signed a deal to write off 90 percent of North Korea’s $11 billion debt to Moscow, Konstantin Vyshkovsky, head of the debt department at the Finance Ministry told Reuters on Tuesday. – Reuters
Southeast Asia
An independent commission set up by the Thai government to investigate deadly clashes in Bangkok two years ago warned Monday that conflicts in Thai society were still simmering and that the country risked another “escalation to violence.” – New York Times
One of Asia’s most prominent democracy advocates will warn the Obama administration and members of Congress on a visit to Washington this week against “reckless optimism” over the chance for real political reform in her native Myanmar. – Washington Times
Democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi’s first trip to the U.S. in decades starting Monday could prompt a further easing of U.S. economic sanctions against Myanmar, analysts said, although the visit will mainly serve as a victory lap for the demure figure celebrated by Republicans and Democrats alike. – LA Times’ World Now
Myanmar pardoned more than 500 prisoners on Monday in an amnesty that included at least 80 political detainees, according to activists, a step that could strengthen the former military state’s growing bonds with Washington. – Reuters
Bonnie Glaser writes: Southeast Asian nations periodically urge Washington to help them stand up to Chinese pressure to accept Beijing’s expansive claims there — but when Washington acts to prevent China from running roughshod over the region, its partners’ concerns about U.S.-China tensions spike and they implore the United States to step back. It is this paradox that makes maintaining a consistent and principled U.S. policy on the South China Sea both challenging and essential. – Foreign Policy
Russia
Speaking to reporters last week, Putin said he appreciated Mitt Romney’s bluntness in his denunciations of Russia — because that stance lets Russia know where it stands, and reinforces Putin’s opposition to a missile defense shield in Europe. – Washington Post
The U.S. ambassador to Russia on Monday latched onto the Obama administration’s suit against Chinese auto subsidies to make the case for a trade pact with Russia. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
President Vladimir Putin oversaw Russian military exercises on Monday and warned soldiers that more conflicts around the world meant they had to “keep their powder dry” and improve Russia’s defenses. – Reuters
John Arquilla writes: Romney is still right about Russia. So far just in his instincts, as it seems he has not yet fully crystallized his thinking. As to the kind of thinking called for, he has made this clear: We must assess the world from a geopolitical perspective. This is most refreshing, given the utter lack of interest today among American institutions of higher learning in the intersection of geography and foreign policy. – Foreign Policy
Europe
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed on Monday that it had opened an investigation to identify the organizers of a protest outside the U.S. Embassy over the weekend against an American-made online video mocking the Prophet Muhammad. – New York Times
Belarus’s two main opposition parties said they would boycott a parliamentary election next Sunday, denouncing it as a fake exercise and are calling on people to “go fishing or visit your parents” instead. – Reuters
United States of America
The Obama campaign on Monday continued to hit Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on his reaction to the riots in the Middle East, even as both candidates refocused their attention on the economy. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Peter Feaver writes: Both the Obama and the Romney campaigns agree that the events of the last week raise important and perhaps awkward questions for the other side. I hope both sides will step up and answer those questions. That will only happen if we keep asking them. – Shadow Government
James K. Glassman writes: Effective public diplomacy begins with clear ends…and leaders have the responsibility to communicate up and down the line both those ends and the right messages to achieve them. Get that right, and then liberated diplomats on the ground can use the amazing tool of social media — a gift, really — to powerful effect. – Foreign Policy
Latin America
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets her Mexican counterparts at a security summit in Washington Tuesday to discuss the next phase in the drug war: how to train the judges and prosecutors that will be trying suspected drug lords. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Such attacks on electricity infrastructure, gas pipelines and trains transporting coal occurred almost daily in the 1990s and into the 2000s, as Colombia’s rebel groups targeted the energy industry….Now rebel sabotage is on the upswing again — a sign to some that the guerrillas have grown desperate as their armed strength has waned. – Associated Press
Venezuela’s opposition candidate Henrique Capriles slammed President Hugo Chavez on Monday for blocking a live broadcast of an opposition rally, highlighting criticism the leftist leader abuses state resources to guarantee his re-election. – Reuters
Cuba has proposed talks with the United States about resolving the case of jailed American contractor Alan Gross, but has received no response, indicating a lack of interest by Washington, a top Cuban diplomat said on Monday. – Reuters
West Africa
West Africa’s regional body is gearing up for a tough fight to help Mali’s government forces reclaim the north of the country from Islamist militants, telling the U.N. Security Council on Monday it needs major combat assets, including fighter jets. – Reuters
Nigerian troops have killed Islamist sect Boko Haram spokesman Abu Qaqa, long the shadowy group’s public messenger in its campaign to impose sharia law on Nigeria, in a gun battle in the northern city of Kano, a senior security source said on Monday. – Reuters
Authorities in Ghana have arrested three men for allegedly trying to buy arms for a planned coup in neighboring Ivory Coast, where a wave of violent attacks killed around 20 people last month, a local police chief said on Monday. – Reuters
South Africa
After suffering under apartheid’s institutional racism, poor, marginalized blacks now have a litany of complaints about the ANC, including authorities’ use of live ammunition to suppress antigovernment protests. – Los Angeles Times
