Lockheed Martin CEO Bob Stevens is pushing the White House to spell out how automatic cuts would affect the defense industry.

The Topline: Nuclear negotiations between the six world powers and Iran did not produce much in terms of substantive agreements this week, but the two sides have agreed to meet for the fourth time this year in Istanbul on July 3.

That’s unlikely to satisfy critics in Congress who believe the diplomatic negotiation with Iran is mostly a waste of time and giving Tehran more time to develop its nuclear program.

“The P5+1 negotiations with Iran have failed again. Yet the Administration still refuses to admit that the negotiations game is up," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement.

Many critics of the Obama administration’s diplomatic pursuits have said that a credible military option must be on the table to persuade Iran to stop enriching uranium, a military option that will get discussed in detail in the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday.

The committee is holding a hearing titled “Addressing the Iranian Nuclear Challenge: Understanding the Military Options,” at which former Sen. Charles Robb (D-Va.), now at the Bipartisan Policy Center, will testify with two other think-tank experts.

Read more...

Two days of tense negotiations over Iran's nuclear program ended Tuesday with no breakthrough but with an agreement to hold a technical follow-up meeting in Istanbul on July 3.

The Moscow meeting was the third between Iran and the international community since a 15-month hiatus ended in April. The lead Iranian negotiator, Saeed Jalili, had sought to gain some relief from pending sanctions as a precondition for curbing Iran's nuclear activities but his counterparts – the United States, France, Great Britain, Russia, China and Germany – were having none of it.

The latest news was greeted with skepticism by Congress.

 “The P5+1 negotiations with Iran have failed again. Yet the administration still refuses to admit that the negotiations game is up," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “More talks are not the answer, but only a dangerous diversion. Time is rapidly running out to stop the nightmare of a nuclear-weapons-capable Iran from becoming reality. The administration and other responsible nations must abandon the current ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ incremental approach and impose game-changing sanctions to compel the regime to abandon its nuclear program now.”

And on Friday, 44 senators wrote to President Obama urging him to cease meetings with Iran if they don't produce anything while allowing Iran to stall for time.

Senate Democrats are standing behind the White House's diplomatic approach to the crisis in Syria despite a major setback for the U.S.-Arab League peace plan.

"I am hoping certainly that diplomacy still has time and opportunity to work," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.) told The Hill on Tuesday. “We need to assess what the options are, and I think we still have some time [but] not a lot.”

The administration's efforts to depose President Bashar Assad peacefully and end the carnage in the country took a significant step backwards this past week. 

United Nations officials withdrew their observers from the country after those forces came under attack by forces loyal to the Assad regime.  

Democrats expressed concerns the powers could target American citizens, but Republicans say it is a necessary tool to combat terrorism.

Any involvement by Iran in a potential Syrian peace plan is a "non-starter" for Congress, despite calls for Tehran's input into the process, according to Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).

The United States and Israel developed together the Flame computer virus that was designed to collect intelligence on Iran’s computer networks, The Washington Post reported.

Flame, the virus that became public last month, was one part of an effort by the National Security Agency, the CIA and the Israeli military to try to slow Iran’s nuclear program, according to the Post.

The cyber operations included the Stuxnet attack that caused Iranian centrifuges to malfunction, which became publicly connected to the United States and Israel in a New York Times report last month that first confirmed the United States has used offensive cyber weapons against Iran.

Iran, Syria, Russia and China are planning a joint war games exercise involving 90,000 troops from the four countries, according to Iranian media reports, but Russian and Syrian officials are denying that the report is accurate.

Iran’s semi-official FARS News Agency reported that the joint amphibious exercises along the Syrian coast were scheduled to take place in the coming weeks.

The administration says it is not yet planning for sequestration, instead urging Congress to find a solution to avoid cuts.