Iran
Stringent new sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union against Iran have curbed the country’s oil exports by more than 1 million barrels of oil a day, according to new data released by the International Energy Agency. – Washington Post
Western economic sanctions imposed on Iran over its disputed nuclear program have severely depressed the value of its national currency, the rial, causing higher inflation and forcing Iranians to carry ever-fatter wads of bank notes to buy everyday items. But the sanctions have also presented a new complication to Iran’s banking authorities: they may not be able to print enough money. – New York Times
Western governments believe that Iran’s economy is imploding so quickly that it could essentially collapse next spring under the combined pressure of international sanctions, an oil embargo and internal mismanagement by officials in Tehran, said a European diplomat here. – LA Times’ World Now
The US-led sanctions are just one target of blame for the hardship. More and more, lawmakers and ordinary Iranians blame the high inflation and unemployment as much on the government’s mishandling of the oil revenue windfall of recent years as on sanctions. – Christian Science Monitor
Iran’s supreme religious leader on Tuesday said pressure tactics would not force Tehran to “surrender” to major governments in discussions over its disputed atomic activities, Agence France-Presse reported. – Global Security Newswire
Sohrab Ahmari writes: Khomeinist ideologues in the movie, as in life, detest Hollywood, which they believe is a central weapon in Washington’s “soft war” against their wretched regime. It is a delectable irony, then, to see how the movie business helped a CIA agent successfully infiltrate Iran at the height of the revolution. “Argo” should send the mullahs’ conspiratorial minds reeling all over again. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Syria
Aleppo’s Old City, a United Nations-recognized World Heritage Site, has become a battleground. The core of the covered market is abandoned and dangerous, a place where rival snipers train their rifles and shells fall almost every afternoon. – Los Angeles Times
While the European Union denounces the escalating violence in Syria, not all of its member nations have welcomed fleeing Syrians with open arms, the United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday. – Christian Science Monitor
Syria’s divided rebels have agreed to set up a joint leadership to oversee their battle to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, two insurgent sources said on Tuesday as fighting raged in cities across the country. – Reuters
The U.N.-Arab League mediator in the Syria conflict, Lakhdar Brahimi, is attempting to persuade the Syrian government and rebels to accept a ceasefire and allow U.N. monitors into the country to oversee the truce, diplomatic sources told Reuters – Reuters
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he had suggested to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad three-way talks including Egypt on the Syria crisis, given the apparent Saudi objection to Iranian involvement in a current quartet. – Reuters
Syrian government warplanes unleashed deadly airstrikes on rebel strongholds in the country’s north on Tuesday, activists reported – Associated Press
The U.S. and regional allies are closely monitoring Syria’s chemical weapons — caught in the midst of a raging civil war — but options for securing the toxic agents stuffed into shells, bombs and missiles are fraught with risk. – Associated Press
Scores of Iraqi Shi’ite militants are fighting in Syria, often alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s troops, and pledging loyalty to Iran’s supreme Shi’ite religious leader, according to militia fighters and politicians in Iraq. – Reuters
Libya
The founder of Libya’s Islamist militia Ansar al-Sharia was at the U.S. consulate compound during the deadly attack here, Libyan officials say, but he remains free a week after those allegations were disclosed to Libyan political leaders and U.S. investigators in Tripoli. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s acceptance of responsibility for any shortcomings that led to last month’s terrorist attack in Libya did little to quell growing Republican demands that 44 more thoroughly disclose what the administration knew about the siege that killed four Americans. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is demanding to know why security measures at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, were not increased after two previous attacks against the diplomatic outpost earlier this year. – DEFCON Hill
In the months before the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya, U.S. and allied intelligence agencies warned the White House and State Department repeatedly that the region was becoming an increasingly dangerous vortex for jihadist groups loosely linked or sympathetic to al Qaeda, according to U.S. officials. – Reuters
New evidence implicates Libyan militias in an apparent execution of dozens of detainees in rebel custody following the capture and death of Muammar Gaddafi last year, Human Rights Watch said. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: At least one of the family members of the victims of the Sept. 11 attack on Benghazi wants the world to know that she is happy with the treatment she has got from the Obama administration since the tragedy. – The Cable
Egypt
The state of Egypt’s public healthcare mirrors a nation burdened by economic turmoil, striking workers, widespread poverty, overwhelmed institutions and the sense that little has improved since President Hosni Mubarak was deposed in February 2011. Public services withered under the former autocrat and the country has not recovered from decades of mismanagement. – Los Angeles Times
Egypt’s state prosecutor has ordered an investigation into allegations that two leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood group instigated violence against protesters demonstrating against Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist president. – Financial Times
A court will rule on October 23 on whether the assembly drafting Egypt’s new constitution is legal, a judge said on Tuesday. – Reuters
An Egyptian Coptic Christian arrested on suspicion of posting online an anti-Islam film that ignited Muslim protests around the world should be freed immediately, Amnesty International said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Egypt’s former ruling generals will be investigated by a civilian judge who is examining accusations they are responsible for the deaths of activists killed in protests during the army’s stewardship of the country. – Reuters
North Africa
Algeria is a young country ruled by old men…But with a presidential election due in 2014 there is no clarity on who might take over Africa’s biggest country, an OPEC oil producer which supplies a fifth of Europe’s gas imports and cooperates with the West in combating al Qaeda-style militancy. – Reuters
Gulf States
Britain came under fresh pressure over its diplomatic relations with Bahrain on Tuesday after a group of MPs criticised ministers for taking too lenient an approach towards the kingdom’s breaches of human rights. – Financial Times
Kuwaiti security forces detained at least five people, including the son of a prominent opposition figure, at an anti-government protest against possible changes to an election law, witnesses said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Yemen
Yemen’s interim president has won U.S. praise for cooperating in a war on al Qaeda, but his recent public support for drone strikes that sometimes kill civilians could undermine his domestic popularity and stir sympathy for militants. – Reuters
One al Qaeda militant and three tribesmen allied to the army were killed in an attack on a military checkpoint in southern Yemen, tribal sources said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Two masked men on a motorcycle shot dead an Iraqi military adviser to Yemen’s army on Tuesday, security and medical sources said, extending a series of killings bearing the hallmarks of al Qaeda. – Reuters
Iraq
The Iraqi government abruptly announced the appointment of a new central-bank chief to succeed Sinan al-Shabibi, a respected and politically independent technocrat who has held the position for more than nine years. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Jordan
Jordan’s electoral commission set January 23 as the date for early parliamentary elections on Tuesday after King Abdullah dissolved parliament halfway through its term, responding to pressure for an acceleration of political reforms. – Reuters
Israel
As Egypt’s closure of some of the smuggling tunnels from Gaza drives up prices in the tiny coastal enclave, it has also spurred anger toward Egypt’s new Islamist president for throttling one of Gaza’s main sources of goods. – Christian Science Monitor
Israel’s assassination two days ago of the leader of Gaza’s growing salafi underground highlights how the rising activity of Al Qaeda-inspired militants in Gaza and the adjacent Sinai peninsula in Egypt is threatening years of relative calm with Israel. – Christian Science Monitor
The Palestinians fended off on Tuesday U.S. criticism of their bid for upgraded status at the United Nations, saying the move would improve prospects for a peace accord with Israel, not damage them. – Reuters
Qatar on Tuesday launched a $254 million plan to rebuild and modernize Gaza, the biggest injection of reconstruction aid for the Palestinian enclave since it was devastated in an Israeli military offensive nearly four years ago. – Reuters
Turkey
Political wrangling at home and mounting risks abroad are jeopardizing Turkey’s bid to overhaul its constitution, analysts and politicians say. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Afghanistan
An officer for the Central Intelligence Agency was killed on Saturday in a suicide bombing in southern Afghanistan, American officials said Tuesday. – New York Times
A U.S. soldier and a former American military officer were killed Tuesday in the latest attack on coalition personnel by a member of the Afghan forces. – DEFCON Hill
A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a joint Afghan-U.S. base in the country’s east on Wednesday, wounding at least 45 Afghan soldiers, local officials said. – Reuters
Violence is returning to what has long been the most tranquil region of Afghanistan, where fears of a resurgent Taliban are as stark as the ragged holes left by the bombing of two ancient Buddha statues in cliffs facing the Bamiyan valley. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: Despite statements by Vice President Joe Biden, the State Department is about to begin formal negotiations over the extension of U.S. troops past 2014, a top State Department official said Tuesday. – The Cable
South Asia
The British police said on Tuesday that they questioned and turned away two people who tried to visit Malala Yousafzai in the British hospital where the 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl is being treated after being shot by the Taliban. – New York Times
Yousafzai’s shooting spoke to a larger truth: The threat of Pakistani Taliban attacks pervades the entire nation, especially the northwestern frontier and the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. – Washington Post
After months of behind-the scenes strategizing, India’s anti-corruption campaigners have exploded back into life by exposing a series of scams that have blown the cover on the cozy relationship between politicians, bureaucrats and big business. – Washington Post
Taliban insurgents said on Tuesday that the Pakistani schoolgirl its gunmen shot in the head deserved to die because she had spoken out against the group and praised U.S. President Barack Obama. – Reuters
China
The vast majority of Chinese people believe their country is heading in the right direction, according to a Pew Research Center survey, although there is rising discontent over issues from corruption to food safety—and a growing fondness for U.S.-style democracy. – Wall Street Journal
44 and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney repeatedly chided China during Tuesday night’s debate, elevating a sensitive economic and diplomatic issue just three weeks before the election. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The U.S. government has become less reliant on the Chinese to fund its gaping budget hole over the past two years, even as the political rhetoric over borrowing from China has heated up. – Washington Post
Hong Kong’s antigraft body has charged former Development Minister Mak Chai-kwong and a current official in the Highways Department with conspiracy to defraud the government. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
East Asia
The top US military commander in the Asia-Pacific region has played down tensions between China and its neighbours over rival territorial claims and stressed the need for long-term military co-operation between Washington and Beijing. – Financial Times
The leader of Japan’s main opposition party, who is favourite to become the country’s next prime minister, visited the controversial Yasukuni shrine on Wednesday in a move likely to raise already heightened tensions with China. – Financial Times
Japanese military officials said they were closely watching seven Chinese warships spotted Tuesday in waters off a southern island – Associated Press
Southeast Asia
The 44th administration has sent more than 20 Defense and Homeland Security officials to Burma, London’s Guardian newspaper reports, marking the strongest U.S. overture in decades to a military force that ruled the country until 2010 and prompting concerns from human-rights activists. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
Russia
As it turns out, the U.S. military interacts almost daily with Russian forces — in training, exercising, building personal relationships, and performing real-world national security missions side-by-side. According to Montgomery, things have never been better between the old Cold War foes. – The E-Ring
Russia’s Investigative Committee on October 15 announced it had completed its probe into Kosenko and asked the Prosecutor-General’s Office to refer him to a mental health institution for compulsory treatment…Lawyers and rights groups are stunned by the severity of the charges against the protesters, some of whom face up to 10 years in jail. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Russian authorities launched criminal proceedings against opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov on Wednesday, accusing him of planning “mass disorder” in protests against President Vladimir Putin’s 12-year rule. – Reuters
President Vladimir Putin told security forces on Tuesday that they must outsmart and outmuscle Islamist militants to prevent attacks on major events to be hosted in Russia like the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 World Cup. – Reuters
Editorial: President Obama may not wish to publicly bury this part of his foreign policy, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is happy to oblige. Last week, he told the Moscow daily Kommersant: “If we talk about the ‘reset,’ it is clear that, using computer terminology, it cannot last forever. Otherwise it would not be a ‘reset’ but a program failure.” Failure about sums it up. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Douglas Feith and Seth Cropsey writes: The one thing that can be said for the administration’s Russia policy is that it truly reflects Obama’s understanding of world affairs and of America’s proper place therein. This is not good news. – Foreign Policy
Jackson Diehl writes: Obama clearly still hopes that in a second term he will be able to strike deals with Putin, starting with a new treaty to reduce nuclear arms. He will seek to forge an early partnership with Xi as well, focused on reducing trade frictions and stopping the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran. Rhetorically, Romney promises a harder line. But neither is prepared for the hard landing many Russians and Chinese see in their near future. – World Affairs Journal
Europe
British authorities on Tuesday blocked a longstanding demand for the extradition of Gary McKinnon, a computer hacker wanted in the United States to face charges of intruding into Pentagon computer networks in a case that has become a touchstone of the delicate jurisdictional balance between the two countries since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. – New York Times
He was once known for his virulent speeches throughout Bosnia, but on Tuesday as Radovan Karadzic began his defense in a new phase of his genocide trial, he told international judges that he was a “mild and tolerant man” and that instead of standing accused, he should be “rewarded for all the good things I have done.” – New York Times
Since the October 1 elections, which were won by the opposition Georgian Dream coalition of billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili, a growing number of senior officials and former officials from the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement have disappeared. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
NATO
We should celebrate all that the European Union has done, and the Nobel Peace Prize committee clearly wanted to send a signal that European leaders cannot let the current economic crisis lead to an unraveling of what their predecessors achieved. But peace in Europe has not simply been the result of greater prosperity, it has also been the prerequisite for economic growth. U.S. leadership of NATO helped make both peace and prosperity possible. – International Herald Tribune
United States of America
In an effort to stimulate deeper debate on U.S. foreign policy, particularly on the future of democracy and human rights around the world, Freedom House submits the following questions to the presidential candidates – Huffington Post
44 and Mitt Romney sparred over whether 44called the Sept. 11 murder of four Americans in Benghazi a “terrorist” attack. In fact, 44 did refer to the attack as “an act of terror,” but he did not do so directly in the Rose Garden the next day. – The Cable
44 may have stopped Romney’s momentum, but it’s hard to believe he reversed it. So we’re likely to have a dead-even race going into the third and final debate Monday night. That potentially decisive debate is on foreign policy. So, after all the talk about how this election was inevitably and only going to be about the economy, foreign policy could well be the tie breaker. – The Weekly Standard Blog
We tested whether telling voters that “most members of the military and veterans” support one candidate or the other had an impact on voter’s preferences for 44 or Governor Romney. We found that in the aggregate, such endorsements did not seem to move vote choice by a statistically significant amount, but that they did have a statistically significant effect on voters who claimed to be independents and especially on independents who claimed not to follow foreign policy very closely. – Shadow Government
Latin America
Battered by the re-election of President Hugo Chávez this month, Venezuela’s fractious opposition is struggling to remain united and rally its followers for crucial elections for governors in December. – New York Times
A daughter of Mexico’s most-wanted drug lord is in custody in the United States after she tried to cross the border illegally into California to give birth in Los Angeles, an American law enforcement official said on Tuesday. – New York Times
The Cuban government announced Tuesday that it would terminate the exit visa requirement as of Jan. 13, letting many Cubans depart for vacations, or forever, with only a passport and a visa from the country where they plan to go. – New York Times
Colombia’s government and Marxist rebels will start peace talks as planned on Wednesday in Oslo in a bid to end nearly half a century of conflict after logistical problems delayed departure of the delegates, Colombia’s government said. – Reuters
Editorial: What’s sure is that Mr. Carromero should not be in prison because of Mr. Payá’s death. That he is offers a clear answer to those who wonder whether the Castro regime is changing for the better. – Washington Post
West Africa
Eli Lake reports: Groups with far less blood on their hands have been so designated by the State Department. But for now, Boko Haram does not join al Qaeda, Hizbullah, and other groups that have used mass murder to advance an extreme, fanatic version of Islam. – The Daily Beast
East Africa
The stakes as the country prepares to go to the polls in March could not be higher for both the country and the region. Kenya’s $34bn economy is the largest in east Africa, constituting more than half that of the region and 60 per cent of its middle class. – Financial Times
Crack Kenyan police shot dead three suspected supporters of the Somali militant group al Shabaab on Wednesday during a raid in Kenya’s turbulent coastal region in which a police officer also died. – Reuters
More than 600 people have been killed in insurgencies that erupted in two Sudanese states bordering South Sudan last year, Sudan’s interior minister said on Tuesday in the first official count – Reuters
South Sudan’s parliament ratified a border and oil deal with Sudan on Tuesday intended to settle issues that brought the countries close to resuming their two-decade civil war and allow the South to revive its vital crude oil exports. – Reuters
Central Africa
Rwanda’s defense minister is commanding a rebellion in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that is being armed by Rwanda and Uganda, both of which sent troops to aid the insurgency in a deadly attack on U.N. peacekeepers, according to a U.N. report. – Reuters
