Iran
Iran said Tuesday that it had amassed new evidence of attempts by saboteurs to attack Iranian nuclear, defense, industrial and telecommunications installations, including the use of computer virus-infected American, French and German equipment. – New York Times
Threats from Iran that it will attack the forces of the U.S. or any country that tries to take out its nuclear program are not mere boasts, say experts, but any such strike could be met with devastating counter-attacks. – USA Today
Pentagon officials tell the E-Ring they have no reason to believe that Iran conducted any missile tests in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, rejecting a claim made by Iranian state television. – The E-Ring
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, once one of Iran’s most influential men, now has two children in Tehran’s Evin prison — where opposition activists and critics of the Islamic establishment are routinely held. – RFE/RL’s Persian Letters
With elections in nine months to select the successor for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — who is making his last presidential visit to the U.N.’s General Assembly this week — speculation is rising on who will be the ruling system’s choice and, therefore, the instant front-runner. Until recently, Mr. Rafsanjani had not been mentioned among the top possible contenders to replace Mr. Ahmadinejad, who must step aside because of term limits. – Associated Press
He is loathed in the West and weakened at home, but Iran’s outspoken president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seems intent on raising hackles one more time during his last official visit to the United Nations this week. – Reuters
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Tuesday the next round of European Union sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program would focus on the financial industry and trade. – Reuters
Iran is prepared to defend itself in case of a “cyber war” which could cause more harm than a physical confrontation, a commander in the country’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Iran condemned the planned removal of the Iranian dissident group Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK) from the United States’ list of terrorist organizations, Iranian media reported on Wednesday. – Reuters
Editorial: In his U.N. speech Tuesday, President Obama took a tougher-than-usual election-season line against Iran, stating that “the United States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” But the cold reality is that after nearly four years of failed diplomacy and half-hearted sanctions that he opposed until Congress forced his hand, neither Iran nor Israel believe him. Someone should put Orwell on the President’s reading list before it’s too late. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
There are those who argue that an American president should never make a threat that he may not want to carry out. But President Obama has already committed his administration to preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, which necessarily means employing the military option if all else fails. He has also told the world that he does not bluff. If that is true, then there is no downside to his stating U.S. policy and intentions explicitly. – Wall Street Journal
Syria
The emir of Qatar called on Arab nations Tuesday to form a political and military coalition to intervene in Syria to stop the bloodshed there, posing a direct challenge to U.N. efforts to resolve the conflict through negotiations. – Washington Post
At least two large explosions struck a military headquarters in a busy square in central Damascus on Wednesday morning, setting fire to the building on the second day of dramatic bombings in the Syrian capital as the conflict dominated debate at the United Nations in New York, according to witnesses and state television. – New York Times
The Damascus Volcano, as the rebels termed the offensive, quickly fizzled as the government exhibited its willingness to bomb neighborhoods of its own capital, forcing outgunned rebels to swiftly withdraw. But it’s not clear how strong the government’s grip really is and how long it can last. – Los Angeles Times
The United Nations must immediately provide protection to areas liberated by rebels in Syria, French President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday, adding that President Bashar al-Assad’s government has no future on the international stage. – Reuters
Khalid, 15, said he was hung by his arms from the ceiling of his own school building in Syria and beaten senseless. Wael said he saw a 6-year-old starved and beaten to death, “tortured more than anyone else in the room”. The first-person accounts come from interviews with refugees who have fled the Syrian conflict conducted by the British-based charity Save the Children and published on Tuesday. – Reuters
Alawite residents in Homs say they are being coerced into helping fund the war effort of the “shabbiha”, brutal sectarian militias supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on an 18-month-old rebellion. – Reuters
North Africa
44 on Tuesday used his last major address on a global stage before the November election to deliver a strong defense of America’s belief in freedom of speech, challenging fledgling Arab and North African democracies to ensure that right even in the face of violence. – New York Times
Read the text of the President’s remarks at the U.N. General Assembly – The White House
Morocco presented its case late on Monday for U.S. businesses to consider investing in the stable North African nation but is frustrated to be lumped together with some radical Islamists found in the region. – Reuters
Editorial: It is important for the president and his administration to try to make clear to the majority of Muslims — who do not participate in demonstrations but follow the controversy — that the United States does not sponsor or endorse religious slander. That fact, while obvious to Americans, is not widely understood in the Middle East. But it is just as important to send the message that American free speech will not be curbed to suit religious sensibilities and that violence will not be tolerated. – Washington Post
Libya
The decision to withdraw the team from Benghazi drew criticism from former CIA officers, who called it an overly cautious response to the Sept. 11 attack, which killed two security officers, an information technology officer and the U.S. ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens. – Los Angeles Times
Libyan militia fighters assaulted a hotel in Tripoli housing members of the newly elected General National Congress on Tuesday, dramatizing the challenge the government faces in enforcing its ultimatum that all unauthorized brigades must submit to its authority or disband by the start of the day. – New York Times
It might seem like Libya’s Islamist militias are reeling in the face of the popular backlash that followed the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on September 11. But Libya analysts say these groups are well-entrenched and used to operating in hostile environments. They may have melted away for now – but maybe not for long. – CNN’s Security Clearance
One of the young Libyan rebels credited with capturing Muammar Gaddafi in a drainage ditch nearly a year ago died on Tuesday of injuries after being kidnapped, beaten and slashed by the late dictator’s supporters – the latest victim of persistent violence and instability in the North African country. – Associated Press
Eli Lake reports: Within 24 hours of the 9-11 anniversary attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi, U.S. intelligence agencies had strong indications al Qaeda–affiliated operatives were behind the attack, and had even pinpointed the location of one of those attackers. – The Daily Beast
Josh Rogin reports: Two top senators on the Foreign Relations Committee don’t want to wait for the State Department to do its own investigation into the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens; they want Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to show them Stevens’s diplomatic cables and other correspondence now. – The Cable
Egypt
The troubled process of drafting Egypt’s post-revolutionary constitution has turned rancorous, as secular-minded politicians and intellectuals forcefully object to what they call hard-line Islamists’ efforts to use the document to impose Islamic law. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Egypt’s new Islamist president Mohamed Mursi delivered a call on Tuesday for “genuine cooperation” between cultures, but in the wake of violent assaults on U.S. diplomatic missions in the Muslim world he also cautioned that a joke in one culture may not be funny in another. – Reuters
Gulf States
For the second year in a row, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will meet with representatives of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in New York City alongside the United Nations General Assembly opening session. – The E-Ring
Kuwait’s highest court declined to approve a government bid to amend electoral boundaries on Tuesday, leaving the cabinet without a clear option to break a parliamentary deadlock that has held up crucial economic bills. – Reuters
The daughter of an imprisoned Bahraini activist was jailed for two months on Wednesday for tearing up a picture of the Gulf Arab state’s king, her lawyer said. – Reuters
Fahad AlBinali and Vanessa Tucker discuss Freedom House’s recent report on Bahrain – Foreign Policy
Yemen
Following the revolution in their country, four out of five Yemeni women who spoke to the international group Oxfam said their lives, beset by hunger and violence, had worsened in the past year. – LA Times’ World Now
The U.S. ambassador to Yemen says the government is fighting an effective war against al Qaeda militants but he is concerned about security lapses during an attack on the U.S. Embassy. – Reuters
Yemenis are using street art to lobby the government to tell what happened to hundreds of people who disappeared in years of political turmoil, but even their images on the walls have troubled powerful figures who sought to remove the graffiti. – Reuters
Iraq
After years of growing influence, a new sign of Iran’s presence in Iraq has hit the streets. Thousands of signs, that is, depicting Iran’s supreme leader gently smiling to a population once mobilized against the Islamic Republic in eight years of war. – Associated Press
Peter Feaver writes: Given the prominent role that the Iraq story played in Obama’s approach to the 2008 election, it is ironic that it seems to play no role whatsoever in 2012. If Gordon’s book reinforces the assessment that his excerpt provides, the lower profile may benefit Obama. The closer one looks at the facts, the less they seem to support the campaign spin of a “responsible” end to a troubled war. – Shadow Government
Israel
The Palestinians’ envoy to the United States said Tuesday he was unimpressed by President Obama’s renewed call for peace with Israel in his address to the United Nations, which got just 86 words in a 4,000-word speech devoted to progress in the Middle East. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Aaron David Miller writes: We can choose to pretend that the main obstacle standing in the way of Israeli-Palestinian peace is Bibi. That explanation suits our need to personalize problems, find easily digestible answers, and turn the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a morality play that pits the forces of right against wrong. But it’s also fundamentally incorrect. – Foreign Policy
Turkey
The party’s September 30 congress is unlikely to offer any sign Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, viewed by many Turks as their strongest leader since Ataturk, is loosening his grip on a heavily-centralized party or on the country as a whole. – Reuters
Soner Cagaptay writes: After weeks of attacks and riots against their embassies elsewhere in the Middle East, Americans may well be wondering if the Arab Spring has had any positive consequences at all for the U.S. The severing of Turkish-Iranian ties, at least, can count as one. – Wall Street Journal Europe
Afghanistan
Afghan soldiers and police officers have gunned down 51 American and allied troops so far this year, and now no one is taking chances. The advisers’ extreme caution lays bare the steep challenge ahead after the official end of the American troop “surge” on Friday and as the mission shifts toward the next chapter of the war: preparing the Afghans to fight on their own. – New York Times
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday said the production of an anti-Islam film and publication of cartoons perceived as insulting to Muslims cannot be justified as freedom of speech or expression, but that they also must not be used as an excuse for violence. – Washington Times
The Afghan government has banned Pakistani newspapers from eastern Afghanistan. Granted, that is an area where only 29 percent of the population can read, but it was at least a symbolic smack in the mouth. – New York Times
After years of taking the lead on the battlefield, Army leaders from Fort Campbell are learning how to take a backseat role when they return to Afghanistan this fall to serve as military advisers. – Associated Press
Lt. Gen. David Barno (USA, Ret.) writes: It is time to put President Karzai and his troops in the lead and more rapidly draw down U.S. military forces to a sustainable, modest level of support. It is now time — finally — for Afghans to take full ownership of their conflict with the Taliban. – Foreign Policy
Rajiv Chandrasekaran writes: For the surge and its accompanying countersurgency strategy to prevail in Afghanistan, four main things needed to occur: The Afghan government had to be a willing partner, the Pakistani government had to crack down on insurgent sanctuaries on its soil, the Afghan army had to be ready and willing to assume control of areas that had been cleared of insurgents by American troops, and the Americans had to be willing to commit troops and money for years on end. Did all of that happen? Let’s examine them one by one – Foreign Policy
Pakistan
Now, the rationale used by the administration, interpreting Pakistan’s acquiescence as a green light, has set off alarms among some administration legal officials. In particular, lawyers at the State Department, including top legal adviser Harold Koh, believe this rationale veers near the edge of what can be considered permission, though they still think the program is legal, officials say. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
An Al Qaeda operative of Turkish origin and an Iraqi reported to be a liaison between Al Qaeda and the Taliban were among five people killed on Monday in a United States drone strike in Pakistan’s lawless North Waziristan region, a Pakistani security official confirmed Tuesday. – New York Times
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday slammed critics who say his country has not done enough in the fight against terrorists and blamed U.S. drone attacks against suspected terrorists for complicating efforts to win hearts and minds. – Washington Times
India
Harsh Pant writes: Despite all the hyperbole in New Delhi about “non-alignment,” policy makers there recognize that cooperation with Washington can best thwart a rising China. This is something that Delhi and Washington will have to seriously think about as the balance of power alters in the Indian Ocean. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
East Asia
Moves by Chinese and Taiwanese state vessels and fishing boats to challenge Japan’s de facto control of the islands could lead to a potentially fatal accident that some analysts say could further escalate hostility from China. – Washington Post
Ai Weiwei, the rebel artist and acid critic of the Chinese Communist Party who was detained by the government last year, said Tuesday that the authorities were still holding his passport, which means he cannot travel to the United States for long-planned artistic events there next month or start a job as a visiting professor in Germany. – New York Times
Poised to soon reclaim power, Japan’s main opposition party on Wednesday elected as its leader a failed former prime minister whose sharp nationalist bent figures to strain already-damaged relations with neighbors China and South Korea. – Washington Post
The Obama administration’s highly touted “rebalancing” of U.S. military forces to the Asia-Pacific region attracted a barrage of flak during a briefing at an influential Washington think tank Monday. – AOL Defense
The [Chinese White] paper, “Diaoyu Dao, An Inherent Territory of China,” said the Japanese-controlled islands are “China’s inherent territory in all historical, geographical and legal terms, and China enjoys indisputable sovereignty.” – Defense News
An ongoing U.S and Japanese wargame designed to bolster Tokyo’s island defenses against an unnamed aggressor is not driven by any specific threat from China or other regional powers, a Department of Defense official said on Tuesday. – DEFCON Hill
South Korea is refusing to allow a Japanese warship to dock at its port during a joint naval exercise, media said on Sept. 25, as ties between the pair remain strained over disputed islands. – AFP
Taiwan has decided to drop a plan to buy a second advanced early-warning radar from the U.S., officials said Sept. 25, following criticism that the first had become a “money pit.” – AFP
North Korea
North Korea got a lukewarm reception to a plea on Wednesday for investment in two special economic zones set up with China, with businesses expressing worries about the impoverished state’s stability and lack of basic infrastructure like banks. – Reuters
North Korea has stopped construction on a launch pad where intercontinental-range rockets could be tested, an interruption that possibly is due to heavy rains and that could stall completion up to two years, according to an analysis of new satellite imagery. – Associated Press
Burma
Myanmar’s president is pushing to give overseas investors greater flexibility in their holdings in joint ventures with local businesses in certain sectors, as both reformist and protectionist elements of the nation’s legislature debate proposed foreign-investment laws, an official in the presidential office said Tuesday. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Thousands of elated supporters greeted Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi with rapturous cheers and a standing ovation as she took to an arena stage in an Indiana city that is home to one of the largest Burmese communities in the United States. – Associated Press
New Zealand
The 2012 Annual Report of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) reveals enhanced attention on the South Pacific. – Defense News
Russia
Two police officers in Kazan, Russia, were sentenced to less than three years in prison Tuesday after the first convictions in a high-profile case that involved the illegal detention and death of a resident. Human rights activists complained that the sentences were too short to discourage abuses by police. – Los Angeles Times
Russian lawmakers are calling for jail sentences for people guilty of offending religious feelings, in a move that could tighten the bonds between President Vladimir Putin and the resurgent Orthodox Church. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: Russia President Vladimir Putin is well on his way to reestablishing Russia as a regional hegemon and the West has been too slow to recognize and deal with Putin’s strategy, according to the foreign minister of the Czech Republic. – The Cable
Europe
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili lashed out at Russian criticism of a recent prison abuse scandal in Georgia, saying on Tuesday that his government’s handling of the case showed it is more democratic than Russia, where nobody “gives a damn” about such crimes. – Reuters
Ukraine’s ruling party put plans to try to re-instate defamation as a crime punishable by jail on hold on Wednesday after politicians and media slammed the Soviet-era law as another curb on the free press ahead of a parliamentary election next month. – Reuters
United States of America
House Republicans blasted President Obama on Tuesday for issuing an executive order aimed at eradicating trafficking by federal contractors or subcontractors, arguing that it’s a sign that Obama would rather politicize the issue rather than work with Congress on more effective legislation. – The Hill’s Floor Action Blog
On Tuesday, three former Pentagon officials, representing some of President Obama’s most-visible defense names during his first term, vigorously defended the administration’s Middle East accomplishments and attacked Mitt Romney’s criticisms of them. – The E-Ring
Josh Rogin reports: Mitt Romney pledged Tuesday to shift foreign aid toward the private sector and deprioritize humanitarian aid in favor of promoting free enterprise and business development around the world. – The Cable
Read the text of Gov. Romney’s remarks to the Clinton Global Initiative – MittRomney.com
Venezuela
With just 12 days left before the OPEC nation’s presidential election, the 40-year-old state governor is whipping up crowds like never before, creeping up in the polls and becoming increasingly aggressive in his attacks on Chavez’s policies. – Reuters
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for a new fight against crime on Tuesday, acknowledging an issue that voters say is their top concern ahead of an election in less than two weeks. – Reuters
Mali’s interim leaders are capable of commanding a regional effort to combat Islamist militants in the north of the country despite their own internal differences, a senior African Union official said on Tuesday, dismissing suggestions new elections were needed before any military intervention could take place. – Reuters
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to resolve a conflict over rebels in eastern Congo whose military advances have stoked tensions in one of Africa’s most volatile regions. – Reuters
South African ANC renegade Julius Malema was charged with money laundering on Wednesday in a high profile corruption case his supporters say is part of a political plot to silence President Jacob Zuma’s most vocal critic. – Reuters
