Middle East/North Africa

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Beth Jones leads an interagency team with defense and intelligence officials in Istanbul today to continue a bilateral discussion with Turkey about what to do in Syria. The meeting comes as France is “seriously mulling” the possibility of establishing a no-fly zone in Syria with the aim of protecting civilians, according to Syrian National Council leader Abdel Basset Sayda.

“We’re evaluating with our partners the effectiveness of what we are already doing,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland when asked if no-fly zones will be on Jones's agenda. “And then we are looking at the ground situation, which is evolving very rapidly, and talking together about what more we can do together, what more we can do collectively to support the opposition, but against this litmus test that the secretary laid down when she was in Istanbul that we don’t want to increase the suffering of the Syrian people.”

Meanwhile, President Obama has come under fire for laying out a “red line” on chemical weapons that critics say could embolden Bashar Assad's regime to suppress the insurgency by any other means. [Washington Post]

Eastern promises: Today's the day Russia joins the World Trade Organization, but U.S. businesses won't reap the benefits of easier access to the Russian market after Congress failed to establish permanent normal trade relations before breaking for summer recess. Business leaders expect Congress to act next month.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey visited Iraq on Tuesday for the first time since U.S. troops pulled out last year, where he said that the United States still has an important role to play.

“We still retain significant investment and significant influence. But now it's on the basis of a partnership and not on the basis of ownership," Dempsey told Agence France-Presse in an interview Tuesday.

Dempsey, who was the highest-ranking military officer to visit Iraq since 2011, met with Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Babaker Zebari, according to AFP.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) declared “victory” Tuesday in his quest to have the Obama administration allow cash transfers to Iranian groups helping victims of the Aug. 11 earthquake.

Kucinich had led a group of 14 lawmakers in urging the administration to allow U.S. nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to send money to help the victims of the earthquake, which they're barred from doing under sanctions aimed at getting Iran to renounce its alleged nuclear weapons program. The Treasury Department on Tuesday issued a temporary exemption to the sanctions, known as a general license, that allows U.S. NGOs to transfer up to $300,000 until Oct. 5 to be used for humanitarian relief and reconstruction activities related to the earthquake response. NGOs interested in transferring more than $300,000 during the 45-day period may apply for a specific license.

“The people of Iran are suffering, and we have it in our capacity to alleviate some of that suffering,” Kucinich, a leading opponent of military action against Iran, said in a statement. “It is the strength of the American people that we help those in need. I thank President Obama for heeding our call, and the call of the American people to allow humanitarian aid to reach the people of Iran.”

Military leaders in Tehran publicly unveiled a raft of beefed-up missile and weapon systems on Tuesday, which the country claims are necessary to defend Iran's borders against growing threats in the region. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday reiterated his country's opposition to any external intervention in the Syrian conflict a day after President Obama warned that the United States could take action against President Bashar Assad's regime if it uses chemical weapons.

Russia and China are committed to "the need to strictly adhere to the norms of international law...and not to allow their violation,” Lavrov said after meeting with Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo in Moscow, Reuters reported. The two countries have vetoed United Nations sanctions against Syria three times.

Also speaking from Moscow, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil scoffed at Obama's threat.

"Direct military intervention in Syria is impossible because whoever thinks about it ... is heading towards a confrontation wider than Syria's borders," Jamil said, according to Reuters.

Republicans meeting in Tampa to draft the party's platform ahead of next week's convention voted Tuesday to continue endorsing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Washington Post reports.

Several of the 112 delegates to the Republican National Committee platform meeting offered amendments to strike the language that was in the 2008 platform, arguing that it undermines Israel. Former Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.), an adviser to presidential candidate Mitt Romney on national security issues, however, urged the delegates to retain the language, as a two-state solution is Israel's own official policy.

“How do we express support for Israel if we offer an amendment that is pushing them in the direction of abandoning the policy they’ve chosen?” Talent said, according to the Post.

Read more...

King asked the Obama administration to look into attacks by Afghan soldiers and policemen against U.S. troops.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has decided to sit out a meeting of 120 developing nations in Iran at the end of the month that has infuriated U.S. lawmakers, the Mehr news agency reported Monday.

Iran is set to take the helm of the Cold War-era Non-Aligned Movement during the Aug. 30-31 summit in Isfahan. The decision to host the summit in Iran at a time when the United States is leading efforts to isolate Iran and get it to abandon its alleged nuclear weapons program riled the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and prompted a senior Democrat on the Senate panel to personally urge Ban not to attend.

“Iran has not complied with its obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency, is an active state sponsor of terrorism and continues to support the murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad,” Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations panel on Near Eastern affairs, wrote Friday. “I am concerned that your presence in Tehran could serve to legitimize the actions of this regime at a critical time in the region and urge you to reconsider attending this conference.”

Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Iranian Majlis — or parliament — said Ban's decision will reduce U.N. influence in the world, according to Mehr.

The full text of Casey’s letter is below:  

Obama said the likelihood of a “soft landing” for Syrian President Bashar Assad seemed pretty remote.

Your morning global affairs speed-read

The last few remaining United Nations monitors were seen pulling out of Syria Monday morning after their mandate ended Sunday night amid U.N. squabbling, Reuters reports.

Somalia has delayed its presidential vote that had been expected for Monday, the day the mandate for the U.N. mission there ended. [Associated Press]

The wife of disgraced former Chinese official Bo Xilai received a suspended death sentence Monday for the alleged murder of a British businessman, paving the way for China's Communist Party to announce its plans for dealing with Bo himself in the country's worst political scandal in decades. [Wall Street Journal]

Burma abolished direct censorship of the media on Monday, the most dramatic move yet toward allowing freedom of expression in the former military dictatorship. [Associated Press]