Iran
Iranian police officers moved to arrest unlicensed currency dealers and increase patrols in the center of the capital on Monday to prevent unofficial trading from disrupting new government-imposed rates of exchange for the national currency, the rial. – New York Times
Iran accused Israel of launching cyberattacks on its oil facilities and derided the Jewish state’s air defenses, although it didn’t take responsibility for a drone that entered the Jewish state’s airspace Saturday before Israel shot it down. – Wall Street Journal
Iran has the capacity to enrich enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear warhead in two to four months’ time, a think tank reported Monday. – DEFCON Hill
The recent collapse of Iran’s currency has led foreign policy experts to caution President Barack Obama’s administration against declarations that economic sanctions are the key to ending Tehran’s clandestine nuclear arms program. – Washington Free Beacon
Republican Senator Mark Kirk, who last year co-authored a package of U.S. sanctions on Iran’s banking and oil sectors, is working on new legislation that would further tighten the economic noose on Tehran, an aide to the lawmaker said Monday. – Reuters
Analysis: A battle of wills between Iran’s government and foreign exchange traders may end with authorities taking over all legal trade in the rial, leaving many Iranians to seek hard currency illegally in a poorly supplied black market. – Reuters
Daniel Cloud writes: The inability to import things like food and medicine and gasoline, combined with economic chaos, a collapsing currency, and eventually hyperinflation, all put together with a complete failure to come up with any sort of constructive response, are going to be very bad for the regime’s authority. A fatal deflation of state power, and a protest movement that succeeds where the protests of 2009 failed, are now not inconceivable as outcomes. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Syria
Syria escalated tensions with Turkey on Monday, accusing its neighbor and former friend of imperialist delusions harking back to the centuries of Ottoman dynastic rule, as Syrian army gunners exchanged artillery blasts with their Turkish counterparts across the border for the sixth consecutive day. – New York Times
There has been a rise in the number of foreign fighters, many of them Islamist extremists. But there has also been a small, though noticeable, number of men like Mr. Hitto, of Syrian descent and with Western passports, who have made the journey to join the Free Syrian Army. Experts estimate they number roughly a hundred and come from the United States, Britain, France and Canada. – New York Times
Iraq is quietly shipping vital supplies of fuel oil to Syria in a deal that has triggered concern in Washington and exposes Damascus’s difficulties keeping its economy afloat in the face of a growing civil war and economic sanctions. – Financial Times
Syria’s energy crisis has tightened by the month as the first peaceful demonstrations in March last year have turned into an ever-spreading civil war. Power cuts plague even relatively peaceful areas such as central Damascus, while petrol and mazut, a fuel oil widely used for home heating, have periodically run short as fighting has ebbed and flowed. – Financial Times
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Monday the “worst-case scenarios” were now playing out in Syria and Turkey would do everything necessary to protect itself, as its army fired back for a sixth day after a shell from Syria flew over the border. – Reuters
Suicide bombers attacked a security compound on the edge of Syrian capital Damascus overnight, in the latest assault by rebels against units loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, insurgents said. – Reuters
The United Nations Children’s Fund has agreed with the Syrian government to expand humanitarian work across the country in a move that could save tens of thousands of lives, UNICEF chief Anthony Lake said on Monday. – Reuters
Libya
The Obama administration is confronting a legal and policy dilemma that could reshape how it pursues terrorism suspects around the world as investigators try to determine who was responsible for the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. – Washington Post
The U.S. Ambassador to Libya who died during a terrorist attack against the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi had requested a security team to remain with him after their deployment was scheduled to end, the commander of that group of special forces plans to testify this week. – DEFCON Hill
A lifelong anti-Qaddafi dissident, Mr. Abu Shagur had appeared to be a strong candidate to head Libya’s first democratic government. But analysts say he failed to build political support in a country with strong regional and tribal loyalties. – Christian Science Monitor
Shelling by Libyan pro-government forces has killed three people including a child in the former Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid, a local militia leader said on Tuesday. – Reuters
The top U.S. counter-terrorism adviser will visit Libya on Tuesday to discuss the investigation into the killing of the U.S. ambassador at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last month, a Libyan protocol official said. – Reuters
The attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi on September 11 has sharpened congressional scrutiny of a State Department office that protects diplomats in the world’s most dangerous corners, as lawmakers ask whether it fatally misjudged the dangers of post-revolution Libya. – Reuters
Egypt
Nearly 3 out of 4 Americans surveyed think the United States should reduce its aid to Egypt or cut it off entirely after angry protesters pulled down the American flag at its Cairo embassy last month. – LA Times’ World Now
Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s Islamist president, has issued a general pardon covering political activists jailed since last year’s revolution over clashes with the security forces. – Financial Times
Egypt is aiming to cut its energy subsidies by up to a third over the coming year as part of an ambitious plan to reform the economy, said Hisham Kandil, the prime minister. – Financial Times
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch on Monday urged Egyptians drawing up a new constitution to amend the current draft which it said did not adequately protect women and children’s rights, ensure freedom of religion or speak out clearly against torture. – Reuters
Morocco
Morocco, which was lauded for responding to last year’s democracy protests with constitutional reforms and free elections, may be less of a model for the region than previously believed. – Christian Science Monitor
Gulf States
Gulf Arab countries should work together to stop Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood plotting to undermine governments in the region, the United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister said on Monday. – Reuters
Human Rights Watch called on Bahrain’s king on Monday to overturn convictions against nine medics for their role in last year’s pro-democracy uprising, saying confessions had been obtained by torture and trial proceedings were unfair. – Reuters
Yemen
Al Qaeda militants have beheaded three Yemeni men in the provincial city of Maarib after accusing them of spying on their operations, a tribal source close to Islamist militants said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Iraq
Iraq’s oil output is to more than double by the end of the decade and by the 2030s it will be the world’s second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, according to an in-depth study by the International Energy Agency. – Financial Times
Israel
Israel has deployed Patriot anti-missile batteries near the northern port city of Haifa, Israeli media reported Oct. 8, just two days after an unidentified drone infiltrated the country’s airspace. – AFP
Afghanistan
More than two weeks of peaceful protests over the renaming have all but shut down the university, a teacher-training institution with 7,000 students, the second-largest college in Kabul…On Monday, though, things turned violent, as supporters of the name change — mostly not from the school itself — converged on the protesters, who numbered a few hundred, pummeling them with stones and running them off from outside the campus gates. – New York Times
An increase in “insider” attacks on U.S. troops by terrorists posing as Afghan policy or soldiers shows the Taliban is “desperate,” Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno said Monday. – Hill Tube
The Afghanistan war is getting worse for civilians, with armed groups on the rise across the country and access to healthcare deteriorating as foreign combat troops depart, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday – Reuters
Interview: Afghanistan’s drug business poses a threat to the entire Central Asian region. But more regional trade, not just tighter borders, could help solve the problem. UN Office of Drug Control (UNODC) Executive Director Yury Fedotov tells why in an interview with RFE/RL correspondent Charles Recknagel. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
China
The House Intelligence Committee recommended on Monday that the United States government be barred from doing business with two Chinese telecommunications firms and American companies should avoid buying their equipment, saying it could be used for spying in this country. – New York Times
Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Inc. lashed out Monday at a scathing congressional report, calling allegations that it may be spying on Americans and violating U.S. laws “little more than an exercise in China-bashing.” – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
A Chinese telecommunications company considered a threat to U.S. national security was linked to an elite Chinese military cyberwarfare group, according to a House committee report made public Monday. – Washington Free Beacon
Seeking to put to rest months of controversy and demonstrations, Hong Kong officials said Monday they would shelve “national education” course guidelines that many residents of the former British colony had protested as an indoctrination tool being imposed by mainland China. – LA Times’ World Now
East Asia
North Korea claimed on Tuesday to have missiles that can reach the American mainland, and it said that the recent agreement between Washington and Seoul to extend the range of South Korean ballistic missiles was increasing the risk of war on the Korean Peninsula. – New York Times
China is steadily cranking up the heat in its territorial row with Japan, with several big Chinese banks a no-show at the IMF-World Bank meeting in Tokyo and government patrol boats continuing to venture into disputed waters. – WSJ’s Japan Real Time
Michael Auslin writes: Whoever becomes Japan’s next leader is likely to continue the country’s conservative stance on foreign and security issues. While that may well lead to further problems with Japan’s neighbors, it also may be the most realistic path in a region that is unwilling to accept Japanese apologies for World War II, refuses to develop normal relations with Tokyo, and abets Japan’s natural sense of isolation. – Wall Street Journal Asia (subscription required)
Southeast Asia
The election is three years away, but Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has taken a hedged step in signaling a run for the presidency in what amounts to an incremental test of the ruling regime’s willingness to further democratic reforms. – WSJ’s Southeast Asia Real Time
The long-standing U.S. counterterrorism outpost in the Philippines will remain in place, in case a landmark peace deal between Manila and Muslim extremists in the southern part of the country falls apart. – DEFCON Hill
The Philippines should receive a significant fiscal peace dividend after striking an outline agreement with its largest Muslim rebel group that could end 40 years of conflict, the finance minister said on Monday. – Financial Times
The Philippines on Oct. 8 said a former U.S. naval base facing the South China Sea could play a key role as a hub for American ships as Washington moves to strengthen its presence in the Asia-Pacific. – AFP
Russia
The election Sunday offers the chance of a rare electoral victory for the opposition movement, which has organized a 10-month-long campaign of protests against the rule of President Vladimir Putin, who has tightened restrictions on dissent. The winner of Khimki’s mayoral election also will decide the fate of nearby woodland slated for destruction to make way for a proposed billion-dollar highway that would link Moscow and St. Petersburg. – Washington Times
Masha Gessen writes: Politkovskaya was not the first journalist to be murdered in Putin’s Russia; the country has consistently been ranked by the Committee to Protect Journalists as one of the world’s most dangerous places to be a reporter. Nor was it the most brutal killing in recent years. But in part because the victim was a woman, in part because the murder occurred in broad daylight, and in part because it took place on Putin’s birthday, Politkovskaya’s death signaled a turning point for many people. – IHT’s Latitude
Europe
Jewish and Muslim leaders here warned on Monday of rising anti-Semitism among young Muslims, two days after the police arrested 11 men and fatally shot one in raids in a handful of cities aimed at young radical French Muslims. – New York Times
More than 20 years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the West has become familiar with a wide variety of leaders to emerge in this space — Soviet apparatchiks, fierce nationalists, K.G.B.-trained strongmen — but Bidzina Ivanishvili, nominated Monday as Georgia’s next prime minister, does not resemble any of them, not even remotely. – New York Times
Georgian Dream coalition leader Bidzina Ivanishvili has named candidates for his prospective cabinet, one week after voters in the fractious and strategically significant Transcaucasus state dealt a blow to President Mikheil Saakashvili and his ruling party. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Poland’s conservative opposition Law and Justice party could win a parliamentary election, an opinion poll showed, but would likely have problems building a majority government when the next election is due in 2015. – WSJ’s Emerging Europe
The Western-style liberal party of heavyweight boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko has surged in popularity to second place behind President Viktor Yanukovich’s party ahead of Ukraine’s October 28 parliamentary election, polls showed on Monday. – Reuters
Christopher Caldwell writes: The West has much to gain from letting nations follow any peaceful inclination that would allow them to serve as laboratories of policy. To judge from their reaction to Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, never have Western leaders been less willing to countenance any such thing. – The Weekly Standard
NATO
NATO defense ministers will pave the way this week for the alliance’s training mission in Afghanistan once it ends combat operations in 2014, as a surge in insider attacks raises questions about its timetable and strategy. – Reuters
United States of America
Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan accused President Obama of failing to offer “spirited and principled leadership” at home or abroad here Monday, echoing ticket-mate Mitt Romney’s wide-ranging critique of the president’s foreign policy earlier in the day. – National Journal
Much of Romney’s speech appeared addressed to an audience already attuned to national security differences between Democrats and Republicans, as he left many details unsaid. Yet many of the policies and actions Romney advocated would require a different or greater use of the Pentagon and the military. – The E-Ring
Josh Rogin reports: A top advisor to the Romney campaign argued in a book that the United States must at times negotiate with some of the world’s most objectionable actors, including terrorists, rogue states, and even the Taliban. – The Cable
Rogin also reports: The United States is failing to recognize the connection between economic security and national security, according to former World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who is now the head of the Romney campaign’s national security transition team. – The Cable
Analysis: Mitt Romney launched a broad attack on Monday against what he termed President Obama’s failure “to shape history” in the Middle East, but he found himself walking a fine line between criticizing the president he is running against and avoiding any endorsement of the type of international interventions undertaken by the most recent president from his own party, George W. Bush, whom he rarely mentions. – New York Times
Read and watch Gov. Romney’s remarks at VMI.
Editorial: In advocating a robust role for the U.S. overseas, Mr. Romney is placing himself in a long bipartisan tradition from Truman to Bush, while comparing Mr. Obama to Jimmy Carter in Presidential weakness. Foreign policy won’t decide this election, but voters should be pleased that the Republican has forcefully made a case for renewed American leadership in the world. – Wall Street Journal
Danielle Pletka writes: Still, this was a better speech, a serious speech, and — on the barometer of Obama promises and orations — serious in its vision and intent. Would wonks like me prefer more? Possibly, but this is not an election about national security. And the VMI address was enough. Maybe even more than enough. – Foreign Policy
Paul Bonicelli writes: There are a number of other points Romney makes in this speech, which is clearly an attempt not only to lay out his views but provide a stark contrast to President Obama. Gov. Romney succeeds at drawing the contrast and in ways that show the same kind of bold and clear leadership, complete with specifics, that he offered recently in the first debate on the economy and healthcare. Thus, we’ve got a preview for the debate that covers foreign policy. – Shadow Government
Fred Hiatt writes: [R]ecent events suggest that the next president, whether Romney or Obama, will get drawn into messy, difficult dilemmas in the Middle East and Central Asia. The longer a president holds America back from its expected role as leader and shaper of events, the messier the dilemmas will be. – Washington Post
Latin America
The Mexican Navy said Monday night it believed it had killed a man who it thinks may be a founder and the principal leader of the Zetas, one of the most violent criminal gangs to terrorize the country in years. – New York Times
Navy forces cornered the suspect, Salvador Alfonso Martínez Escobedo, in the border city of Nuevo Laredo over the weekend, and on Monday presented him to the news media. According to the Navy, Mr. Martínez, 31, is the leader of the Zetas drug gang in three border states. – New York Times
An American imprisoned in Cuba for nearly three years may have terminal cancer, his lawyer and wife said Tuesday. – Washington Post
Cuba’s signature industry is showing signs of life two years after the worst harvest in more than a century. – Associated Press
Latin American nations must try to use their police and not their military forces to enforce the law, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Monday, telling defense ministers here that the U.S. will help them build their capabilities. – Associated Press
Venezuela
President Hugo Chávez’s decisive victory in presidential elections has convinced many Venezuelans in the opposition that only a turn for the worse in the ailing president’s health or a sharp drop in oil prices will ever get the charismatic leader out of office. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
President Hugo Chávez followed his least convincing election victory — a still powerful 55 percent of the vote — with a phone call to his challenger on Monday and an appeal for national unity. But there appeared to be little prospect of concessions to the opposition, despite its relatively strong showing. – New York Times
His loss in Sunday’s presidential election was resounding, but in conceding defeat before tearful followers, Henrique Capriles hinted at an active political future that may yet pose a challenge to President Hugo Chavez’s self-proclaimed socialist revolution. – Washington Post
The White House on Monday congratulated the “Venezuelan people” for the peaceful, democratic election that gave President Hugo Chavez win his third six-year term. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Editorial: Mr. Chávez won’t live forever, whatever he may believe, and Venezuelans have to be ready to reclaim their democracy after he’s dead. Meantime, he continues to serve as a lesson that democracy can be hijacked more easily than many Americans choose to admit. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
West Africa
At least 35 people were killed on Monday when Nigerian soldiers opened fire after a bomb blast struck their convoy in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, nurses at the hospital that received the bodies said. – Reuters
East Africa
Six months later, the San Diego-based group Invisible Children is attempting to recapture the lost momentum of the spring with a new video — explaining the naked escapade and trying to refocus public attention on bringing down the messianic Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army. – Los Angeles Times
Insurgents shelled the main city of Sudan’s oil-producing South Kordofan state near the border with South Sudan on Monday, both sides said, their first assault on the government stronghold since last year. – Reuters
Somalia’s al Shabaab militants said on Monday they had banned Muslim aid agency Islamic Relief from areas under their control, a move that would deprive 1.3 million people of food, clean water and health care. – Reuters
Eritrea has asked the U.N. Security Council to lift sanctions against it after a recent U.N. experts’ report showed that the tiny east African state had cut its support for the al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab militant group in Somalia. – Reuters
