Iran
Iran’s already fragile currency, the rial, has fallen in value by about 40 percent over the past week, battered by a combination of potent Western sanctions over the disputed Iranian nuclear program and new anxieties among Iranians about their government’s economic stewardship, analysts said. – New York Times
Iran’s foreign minister on Monday accused Israel’s leaders of being “war drum beaters” and said his country will zealously defend itself against any attack. – Washington Times
Aerial bombing of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs offers little political, deterrent or military value. That judgment encompasses bombing raids by either Israel or the U.S., contend a growing number of U.S. analysts. – Aviation Week
Britain is for the first time spelling out details of a fresh raft of sanctions that it wants to see imposed on Iran by the EU, amid signs that international diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear programme will be stalled until the end of this year. – Financial Times
Iranian authorities have reopened access to Google Inc’s email service a week after blocking it, a government official and Iranians said on Monday – Reuters
The rare protest document — described to The Associated Press this week by labor activists and others — suggests growing anxiety among Iran’s vast and potentially powerful working class as the ruling system struggles with the latest sanctions, which have targeted critical oil exports and blackballed Iran from international banking networks. – Associated Press
Azerbaijan, the oil-rich ex-Soviet republic on Iran’s far northern border, has, say local sources with knowledge of its military policy, explored with Israel how Azeri air bases and spy drones might help Israeli jets pull off a long-range attack. – Reuters
Analysis: U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to get what they hoped for at the annual U.N. General Assembly after closing ranks to send a message to Iran that it may face war over its nuclear program. – Reuters
Syria
Chaos continued to spread in Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, on Monday, as rebels attacked the towering municipality building with rockets, sending civil servants fleeing from one of the few government buildings still functioning as dozens of soldiers worked to defend the city center. – New York Times
Syria’s foreign minister told the United Nations on Monday that the violence racking his country was entirely the fault of other nations supplying the armed opposition, that the refugee crisis was concocted by Syria’s enemies and that a dialogue on a political transition was still possible. – New York Times
Christians in Syria say they are coming under increasing pressure to choose sides in the 18-month-old civil war that has engulfed their country, as Syria’s foreign minister, in a speech Monday, accused some members of the U.N. Security Council of supporting “terrorism.” – Washington Times
Video footage has emerged showing U.S. freelance journalist Austin Tice being held by a group of masked men toting assault rifles in the first direct evidence of his condition since his disappearance in mid-August. – Washington Post
Ammar Abdulhamid writes: For months, Syrian opposition members, rebels, and activists have heard that the United States will not act until after the presidential election. As such, many now expect a clear policy to emerge by the end of the year. If the next American president fails to provide such a policy, the conflict may well spiral out of control, dragging neighboring countries along with it. – Foreign Policy
Libya
The Obama administration has withdrawn all official government personnel from Benghazi, the Libyan city where the country’s revolution was born and where the U.S. ambassador was killed last month, U.S. officials and local residents said Monday. – Washington Post
Pentagon and State Department officials are considering using the Marine Corps counterterrorism units currently in Libya to provide security for the FBI team investigating the U.S. Consulate attack there. – DEFCON Hill
A small team of U.S. commandos was dispatched to assess security at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and train local forces to better to protect that facility following an attack on a U.N. convoy there in April, an administration official told CNN. – CNN’s Security Clearance
Eli Lake reports: In the five months leading up to this year’s 9/11 anniversary, there were two bombings on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, and increasing threats to and attacks on the Libyan nationals hired to provide security at the U.S. missions in Tripoli and Benghazi. – The Daily Beast
Michael Hayden writes: Even in the best of times, the burden on intelligence is heavy, as it is the intelligence professional’s task to get into the heads of policymakers and deepen the officials’ understanding. That must be done without breaking the linkage to his fact-based, dark, inductive, world-as-it-is roots. Often this means making life more difficult and more complicated for the policymaking consumer. – Washington Post
Bret Stephens writes: No doubt the administration would now like to shift blame to Mr. Clapper. But what happened in Benghazi was not a failure of intelligence. It was a failure of policy, stemming from a flawed worldview and the political needs of an election season. – Wall Street Journal
North Africa
The White House has held a series of secret meetings in recent months to examine the threat posed by al-Qaeda’s franchise in North Africa and consider for the first time whether to prepare for unilateral strikes, U.S. officials said. – Washington Post
The revolutions that swept the Middle East and North Africa also emptied prisons of militants, a problem now emerging as a potential new terrorist threat. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The tenor of the debate, coupled with the news emerging from meetings of the constitution-drafting body, has whipped up a frenzy of alarm in the press and on the airwaves. Liberals, feeling increasingly embattled, and women’s rights advocates have hit back on nightly political talk shows. – Financial Times
Egypt’s negotiations for a $4.8 billion loan from the IMF have been delayed to give the government more time to draw up its economic reform program, the two sides said on Monday. – Reuters
A Moroccan appeal court on Monday upheld the conviction of a dual Belgian-Moroccan national for terrorism charges that included plotting to train militants in Algeria, in a case that revived allegations about the use of torture to extract confessions. – Reuters
Yemen
Analysis: Seven months after he reluctantly handed over the presidency, Ali Abdullah Saleh’s continuing sway over Yemen is worrying Gulf neighbors and Western nations who fear that the political transition could descend into chaos. – Reuters
Iraq
The death toll from militant attacks across Iraq doubled in September to 365, the highest toll for more than two years, with most of them killed in bomb attacks, according to government figures released on Monday. – Reuters
Josh Rogin writes: The Pentagon is scrambling to figure out how to keep its personnel in Iraq after Congress failed to authorize funding for the hundreds of U.S. military personnel involved in training the Iraqi security forces. – The Cable
Michael Gordon and Wesley Morgan write: Today, al Qaeda in Iraq has trained its sights on Assad, just as the intelligence reports predicted, becoming a small but deadly part of the resistance in an escalating civil war that has killed more than 20,000 people over the past year and a half. Perhaps the only thing that U.S. officials and Assad might agree on at this point is that al Qaeda should not have a foothold in the new Syria. – Foreign Policy
Michael Weiss writes: We act surprised at Maliki’s betrayal of US interests and his alliance with America’s regional rivals and enemies. But this can have been avoided. It’s become a catechism of Obama administration to say that “there are no good options.” In fact, when it came to Iraq, there was one. The administration just went the other way. – The New Criterion
Afghanistan
With the surge of American troops over and the Taliban still a potent threat, American generals and civilian officials acknowledge that they have all but written off what was once one of the cornerstones of their strategy to end the war here: battering the Taliban into a peace deal. – New York Times
In a war in which insider attacks have become commonplace, what happened next made the incident extraordinary, the American official said. Another Afghan soldier at the checkpoint opened fire on the Americans, killing a U.S. civilian contractor and wounding two other American soldiers. Soon, Afghan soldiers and possibly insurgents began firing at the Americans from several directions. – Washington Post
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) blasted President Obama’s Afghanistan policy on Monday, saying the administration had provided an opening to U.S. enemies because “all the president has done is announce withdrawals.” – Hill Tube
The retreat of western forces from Afghanistan could come sooner than expected, the head of Nato has said as he conceded that the recent Taliban strategy of “green on blue” killings had been successful in sapping morale. – Guardian
Afghan journalists are claiming a small victory in their battle for press freedom after the government agreed to some softening of media restrictions, industry representatives said on Monday – Reuters
Ahmad Majidyar writes: There are five things the next president should do to sustain the gains of the past decade and ensure that Afghanistan will not become a safe haven for global terrorism once again – CNN’s Global Public Square
China
With only six weeks to go before the formal unveiling of a new set of leaders for China, Communist Party elders and senior officials are still deciding who will ascend to the top ruling bodies and what policy direction they will adopt for the new team, political insiders and analysts say. – New York Times
Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer friend of Ai Weiwei, the artist and frequent critic of the Communist Party, has said in an online posting that Chinese officials have revoked the business license of Mr. Ai’s art production company, Beijing Fake Cultural Development. – New York Times
Editorial: Beijing’s use of trade as a weapon is one more piece of evidence that rather than being constrained by its accession to the WTO, China is a free-rider. And it’s proof of why democracies are more trustworthy partners: The way a government treats its own citizens is a good indication of how it will treat its neighbors. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
Minxin Pei writes: The Party’s leadership transition today is less about policy than about the protection of entrenched interests. The various factions at the top can trust only those who will ensure the security of their respective factions and families. The policy preferences of the incoming leaders may matter, but since they choose to say nothing, we have no choice but to wait and find out. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
Tom Mahnken writes: Although there is much in Jeffrey Lewis’ piece with which I disagree, I do believe that the United States and China should enter into more serious discussions about nuclear weapons. Indeed, I believe that the United States should refuse to enter into future nuclear arms limitation talks without the participation of the Chinese. A failure to do so could jeopardize the nuclear balance that has underpinned American and allied security since the end of World War II. – Shadow Government
East Asia
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda picked a lawmaker versed in political bargaining as his new finance minister in a cabinet reshuffle Monday—widely seen as a bid to win opposition cooperation to avert a government shutdown. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The United States military sent the first batch of a sophisticated but accident-plagued new aircraft to an air base on Okinawa on Monday, going forward with its planned deployment despite unexpectedly fierce opposition by islanders and warnings that any crash could threaten the huge American military presence on the island. – New York Times
Small and occupied largely by seabirds, goats and a unique indigenous species of mole, the islands named Senkaku by Japan and Diaoyu by China have long been largely ignored. But as rising powers face off against each other in a battle not just for influence but also vital resources, such disputed islets, reefs, and areas of seabed are swiftly growing in importance; and not just in Asia. – Reuters
Koreas
The United States and South Korea have suspended for the rest of the year delicate bilateral talks for a new civilian atomic trade agreement, an anonymous source told the Yonhap News Agency on Thursday. – Global Security Newswire
U.S. policy toward North Korea has made the Korean peninsula the most dangerous place on the planet because a “spark” there could ignite a nuclear war, a senior North Korean official told the U.N. General Assembly on Monday. – Reuters
Analysis: The North Korean regime is feeling increased pressure over its abysmal human rights record. The latest challenge came to light Friday, in a report by a reputable Seoul-based online news organization saying that it had confirmed the closing of political prison camp number 22 at Hoeryong, in the far northeastern province of North Hamgyong, near the Chinese and Russian borders. – Global Post
Southeast Asia
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III ramped up an electoral campaign Monday that will be crucial to ensuring his anti-corruption drive outlasts his single presidential term, proclaiming a slate of Senate candidates whom he hopes will strengthen control of the chamber in next May’s national elections. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Max Boot writes: There is an obvious opportunity here for the United States to draw closer to Vietnam and further contain the rise of Chinese power with a series of alliances with the states that ring the rising dragon. Don’t forget, however, that Vietnam is a fundamentally illiberal, oppressive, and illegitimate government. As we have recently seen in Egypt, such allies cannot necessarily be counted upon for the longer term – The Weekly Standard
Central Asia
Interview: In his new book on Central Asia, “Great Games, Local Rules,” U.S.-based author Alexander Cooley paints a picture of the intense competition between China, Russia, and the United States for influence in the region. RFE/RL’s Rikard Jozwiak spoke with Cooley about military-base rights, political influence, and access to natural resources in this strategically important part of the world. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Russia
The U.S. Agency for International Development wrapped up its work here Monday, leaving many of the Russian activists it has supported during the past 20 years feeling a chill they thought had disappeared with the demise of the Soviet Union. – Washington Post
Russia could conduct new sub-critical atomic tests on its nuclear arsenal at the old detonation site in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper reported on Friday, citing informed sources with the state energy company Rosatom. – Global Security Newswire
Yulia Gorbunova writes: As part of the process for awarding any games, the bidding countries should have to prove that there is in place a sound, legally enforceable mechanism to protect the human rights—including property rights—of host states’ residents impacted by the Olympics. With that, perhaps Tatiana and her family might have solace that the injustice wrought on them won’t be repeated in future Games. – Wall Street Journal Europe
Eastern Europe
Georgia’s larger-than-life president, Mikheil Saakashvili, conceded defeat on Tuesday after early results in Georgia’s hotly contested parliamentary race showed that a coalition backed by the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili had edged out his party, news agencies reported. – New York Times
The Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday scrapped a draft bill which would have made defamation a crime punishable by jail, a move the opposition and media had feared was a step towards censorship before a parliamentary election later this month. – Reuters
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Monday said the authorities had told her they planned to discharge her from hospital and send her back to prison, a move she said amounted to “another act of revenge”. – Reuters
James Kirchick writes: Taking part in an election that, by all early indications, was free and fair, the Georgian people have done their job. Now responsibility lies in the hands of their respective political leaders. Billionaires and headstrong presidents are used to getting what they want. If there’s one thing that Ivanishvili and Saakashvili have in common, it’s reluctance to compromise. But Georgia’s young democracy now hinges on whether these two men are willing to do just that. – Foreign Policy’s Democracy Lab
United States of America
Mitt Romney, encouraged by the Obama administration’s flawed approach to security in Libya and its muffed response in the aftermath of tragedy, is engaging at least part-time in a classic Karl Rove tactic: going straight at an opponent’s strength to try to make it a vulnerability. – National Journal
GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said Monday that he would “let other people speak on” whether U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice should resign, after some of his Republican colleagues in the House called for her to step down. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) writes: Should a foreign-policy record like this be considered a success, and part of a case for reelection? Not if we care about maintaining the trust of our allies and the respect of our adversaries. Not if we care about separating politics from national security…And not if we care about refuting the idea that America is a declining power. – National Review Online
Peter Feaver writes: After giving the Obama team a pass for the first couple weeks on the likely al Qaeda 9/11 anniversary attacks in Benghazi, the media is finally asking tough questions. And what they are finding raises troubling questions about what the Obama administration did before, during, and after the al Qaeda anniversary attacks. – Shadow Government
Venezuela
The candidate challenging Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez called on the government Monday to ensure safety and order in the run up to the Oct. 7 elections after opposition activists were gunned down at a political rally over the weekend. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
In facing a tough re-election fight on Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is trying to improve his odds by repeating his past formula for electoral success: lavish government spending to pull support. – Wall Street Journal
Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles pledged to help Colombia in its peace talks with rebels and distance himself from Iran should he defeat President Hugo Chavez in an increasingly tight race ahead of Sunday’s election. – Reuters
Colombia
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Monday he would undergo surgery for a non-aggressive prostate cancer in a health scare that seemed unlikely to derail his government’s imminent talks with Marxist rebels to end decades of war. – Reuters
West Africa
The purported leader of Boko Haram, the Islamist sect in Nigeria, has denied government statements the group is involved in peace talks and has said its spokesman Abu Qaqa has been captured by security forces. – Reuters
East Africa
Somali troops and their foreign allies on Monday occupied the key city of Kismayo, the last strategic base for Islamist militants who had relied on the local port as a main source of revenue. – LA Times’ World Now
The United States on Monday called on Rwanda to publicly denounce rebels who have seized swathes of eastern Congo in an appeal that highlighted its frustration over Kigali’s alleged role in its neighbor’s conflict. – Reuters
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, announced last week that harmonized elections – which will include presidential and legislative elections – will be held in March next year in the southern African country. But political analysts and parties have described the proclamation as “daydreaming.” – Christian Science Monitor
