Iran
Iran’s president admitted Tuesday that the American-led economic sanctions on the country were partly to blame for a breathtaking 40 percent fall in value of the Iranian currency, the rial, over the past week. He pleaded with Iranians not to exchange their money for dollars and other foreign currencies. – New York Times
The Iranian military was so apprehensive about the threat of an Israeli airstrike on its nuclear installations in 2007 and 2008 that it mistakenly fired on civilian airliners and, in one instance, on one of its own military aircraft, according to classified American intelligence reports. – New York Times
Iranian authorities have embarked on a “severe clampdown” on journalists and human rights advocates, the United Nations human rights office said Tuesday, drawing attention to a broadened pattern of arrests and actions against critical voices. – New York Times
Iran already has enough low-enriched uranium for several atomic bombs if refined to a high degree but it may still be a few years away from being able to build a nuclear-armed missile if it decided to go down that path. – Reuters
Iran would enrich uranium up to 60 percent purity if negotiations with major powers over its nuclear program fail, an Iranian lawmaker said on Tuesday, in comments that may add to Western alarm about Iranian intentions. – Reuters
Syria
State television in Syria issued a withering attack late Monday on a longtime ally, the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Khaled Meshal, addressing him as if he were an ungrateful child, saying he was having a “romantic emotional crisis” over the Syrian uprising and accusing him of selling out “resistance for power.” – New York Times
An online video appears to provide the first glimpse of American journalist Austin Tice since he went missing in Syria in August, showing the former Marine blindfolded and uttering, “Oh Jesus, oh Jesus,” between the Arabic words of a Muslim prayer. – LA Times World Now Blog
Syria’s approximately 1.7 million Kurds, nearly 10 percent of the population, are the only group with a history of organized opposition to President Bashar al-Assad’s government, but while many towns have seen anti-government protests during the 18-month uprising, they have refrained from joining the armed opposition. – Washington Post
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday joined senior diplomats from a number of nations in demanding that Syria refrain from using its chemical weapons against its growing list of enemies. – Global Security Newswire
A Hezbollah commander and several other fighters from the Lebanese Shiite militant group have been killed in Syria, a senior Lebanese security official and Syrian activists said Tuesday. – Associated Press
Three bombs exploded on a main square in a government controlled central district of Syria’s second city Aleppo on Wednesday and Syrian state television said many people had been killed. – Reuters
Libya
The United States is laying the groundwork for operations to kill or capture militants implicated in the deadly attack on a diplomatic mission in Libya, senior military and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday, as the weak Libyan government appears unable to arrest or even question fighters involved in the assault. – New York Times
Three weeks after the attack that killed four Americans in this city, the investigation of its causes remains in its initial stages, with just a handful of suspects detained, the crime scenes minimally secured and Walid Faraj waiting for a phone call from someone, anyone, asking him what he saw on the night he was injured while protecting the U.S. mission. – Washington Post
Fighters linked to one freed militant, Muhammad Jamal Abu Ahmad, took part in the Sept. 11 attack on U.S. diplomatic outposts in Libya that killed four Americans, U.S. officials believe based on initial reports. Intelligence reports suggest that some of the attackers trained at camps he established in the Libyan Desert, a former U.S. official said. – Wall Street Journal
U.S. intelligence and the Pentagon have begun assembling preliminary information about potential targets and militant personnel in Libya that could be struck if President Barack Obama ordered such action. – CNN’s Security Clearance Blog
Libyan militias operating alongside the defense ministry readied their forces Tuesday to advance on a town that remains a bastion of support for the ousted regime of Moammar Gadhafi, stoking fears of an impending battle that has already sent dozens of families fleeing. – Associated Press
Within hours of last month’s attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, President Barack Obama’s administration received about a dozen intelligence reports suggesting militants connected to al Qaeda were involved, three government sources said. – Reuters
Tom Malinowski writes: Terrorists can strike anywhere. But it is how governments and societies react that determines whether terrorism succeeds or fails. And Libyans’ reaction to the tragedy vindicated what Stevens believed the country is and could become. – Foreign Policy
Iraq
Iraq’s government says it rejects the presence of foreign bases on Iraqi soil and will oppose any foreign military forces that enter Iraq to chase rebels. – RFE/RL
After years of rising influence, a new sign of Iran’s presence in Iraq has reached the streets. Thousands of signs can be seen depicting Iran’s supreme leader gently smiling on a population once mobilized against the Islamic republic in eight years of war. – Associated Press
Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, plans to travel to Europe before the end of the year, among other things to press for a toughening of sanctions against Tehran, Israeli officials said on Tuesday. The plans appeared to be another indication of a shifting Israeli emphasis, at least for now, toward efforts to stop the Iranian nuclear program by means other than military action. – New York Times
Human Rights Watch says Hamas’ security forces in Gaza are committing severe abuses, including torture of detainees, arrests without warrants, forced confessions, unfair trials and mock executions. – Associated Press
Egypt
Two deaths at an Egyptian police station last month have stoked fears that the country is not moving beyond its repressive past. – New York Times
Amnesty International sent a letter Tuesday to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi urging him to stem the “bloody” legacy of state repression highlighted in two reports that detail killings, torture and sexual assaults that have shaken the nation since last year’s uprising. – LA Times World Now Blog
In the year since Hosni Mubarak’s fall from power, there’s been no shortage of animosity between Israel and Egypt. Violence along the Sinai border and protests at Israel’s embassy in Cairo last year have created considerable tension between the two countries. Yet as this tension has mounted, Israel and Egypt have managed to maintain some semblance of economic partnership—something that analysts point to as a positive sign for bilateral relations. – The Daily Beast
Josh Rogin writes: Outgoing House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) issued a Spanish-language press release Tuesday to announce her opposition to the Obama administration’s plan to send $450 million to the new Egyptian government. – Foreign Policy’s The Cable
Elliott Abrams writes: Egypt has apparently been in no great rush to conclude its agreement with the IMF. Moreover, where’s $450 million in cash from each of Egypt’s friends in the Gulf? For the most part, Gulf Arab oil producers have made deposits at the Egyptian central bank—but the money is supposed to stay there, not be spent. If we are serious about bailing out the Morsi government, why just hand money to Egypt instead of seeking some kind of agreement from other donors that they too will lend a hand? – Pressure Points by the Council on Foreign Relations
Afghanistan
Taliban officials are surprisingly subdued in response to the news that U.S. officials have finally quit seeking peace with the Afghan insurgents’ leadership. Instead of celebrating the passing of another landmark on the path to victory, they’re quietly bracing for prolonged conflict even after 2014, when the last U.S. and NATO combat forces are supposed to leave the country. – The Daily Beast
China
Several big Chinese banks say they’ve canceled participation in the high-profile annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to be held in Tokyo next week as well as in the constellation of events taking place alongside. Some of the banks say they’ve also pulled out of another big financial-industry conference scheduled to take place in the western Japanese city of Osaka at the end of the month. – Wall Street Journal
Dissident artist Ai Weiwei says a Chinese government decision to shut down a company controlled by his wife amounts to a likely effort by authorities to “maintain face” in their long-running battle with him. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
As home prices have skyrocketed, many Chinese households have gone all in on real estate by pouring years of savings into buying as many homes as they can. But as the country’s economy slows to its worst pace in years, China’s dependence on real estate for growth — it’s a bigger driver than even exports now — has put the government in a tough position. – Washington Post
South Korea
The Obama administration’s strategic pivot toward Asia could be imperiled by a territorial dispute between two key U.S. allies, Japan and South Korea, over a rocky outcrop of islands, a South Korean official said Tuesday. – Washington Times
Robert Farley writes: Over the past fifteen years, the Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN) has expanded dramatically, acquiring a substantial fleet of modern, powerful warships. While the ROKN continues to prepare for the contingency of conflict with North Korea, it has become a force capable of significant foreign deployment. – The Diplomat
Russia
A freshly adopted report by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe strongly criticizes Russia, highlighting limitations on free speech, political meddling in the judiciary, and multiple violations of human rights. – RFE/RL
Vladimir Kara-Murza writes: By abolishing gubernatorial elections, Putin’s regime pursued two goals at once: imposing its top-down control over the country and eliminating the main source of potential opposition. – World Affairs Journal
Russia and the United States must do more to strengthen relations because the “reset” in ties cannot continue forever, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Wednesday. – Reuters
Georgia
President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has ruled Georgia virtually unchallenged for nearly nine years, declared Tuesday that his party had lost parliamentary elections and would go into opposition. – Washington Post
Editorial: Georgia, a small Caucasian nation that has been a focus of U.S. foreign policy for a decade because of its push for integration with the West, has achieved a democratic breakthrough — at the price of losing the reformists who have led the country since the 2003 “Rose Revolution.” – Washington Post
James Kirchick writes: On Monday, voters in the former Soviet republic of Georgia went to the polls in what international observers have called the country’s most competitive and credible election in history. The results took most international observers by surprise, as the opposition Georgian Dream coalition, led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, won an upset victory over the ruling party of the pro-Western, American-educated President Mikhail Saakashvili. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Spain
Spain’s 17 regional governments agreed Tuesday to stick to budget deficit targets set by the central government, giving Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy some breathing space at a time when he faces pressure from investors and his European partners to clean up Spain’s banks and public finances. – New York Times
United States
Republicans on the House oversight committee charged on Tuesday that officials in Washington turned down repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi, Libya, before the fatal attack on the diplomatic compound there last month. – New York Times
A Border Patrol agent was shot to death Tuesday in Arizona near the U.S.-Mexico line, the first fatal shooting of an agent since a 2010 firefight with Mexican bandits that spawned congressional probes of a botched gun-smuggling investigation. – Wall Street Journal
Max Boot writes: There is an obvious danger lurking for Republicans in the Benghazi affair: The more they attack President Obama for alleged weakness in allowing the U.S. consulate to be attacked and the ambassador killed, the more vulnerable they make themselves to a backlash should Obama act decisively to capture or kill the perpetrators of the attack. – Commentary
Josh Rogin writes: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrel Issa (R-CA) Tuesday afternoon to pledge the State Department’s full cooperation with Congress in getting to the bottom of the Sept. 11 attack on the Benghazi consulate that killed Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans. – Foreign Policy’s The Cable
Jonah Goldberg writes: The Libya follies are merely the most visible flashpoint of the larger unraveling of the Obama administration’s foreign policy. The U.S.-Israel relationship has become a bad soap opera. Afghanistan is slipping away, as our troops are being killed by the men they’re supposed to be training for the handover. Egypt is now run by the Muslim Brotherhood. Russia casually mocks and defies us. China is rapidly replacing us as an Asian hegemon and rattling sabers at our ally Japan. – National Review
Mexico
A senior U.S. official says there is strong circumstantial evidence that Mexican federal police who fired on a U.S. Embassy vehicle, wounding two CIA officers, were working for organized crime in a targeted assassination attempt. – Associated Press
Brazil
The sharp increase in murders of police officers, up almost 40 percent since last year, has raised fears of a resurgence of the First Capital Command, a criminal organization that carried out a harrowing four-day uprising here in 2006 during which almost 200 people were killed. – New York Times
Venezuela
Henrique Capriles is a skinny marathon runner and opposition governor who has done something no Venezuelan politician has managed in the past 14 years: pose a serious threat to President Hugo Chávez. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged his supporters to vote early at Sunday’s election, saying the key to him winning another six-year term as leader of South America’s biggest oil exporter was organization and logistics. – Reuters
African Union troops took full control of the Somali port city of Kismayo on Tuesday, capturing the last stronghold of the al Shabaab Islamist group in Somalia. – Wall Street Journal
Unknown assailants killed at least 25 polytechnic students in northeastern Nigeria, invading the campus dormitory and shooting or stabbing their victims, authorities said Tuesday. – LA Times World Now Blog
