The Obama administration is sending one of its top Treasury officials on a tour of the Middle East this week to help ramp up sanctions against Iran and Syria.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin's trip to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia comes as the administration is under fire from Republicans and Israel to turn the screws on Iran and get the country to abandon its alleged nuclear weapons program. 

Wolin is expected to press Lebanon to “prevent abuse of the Lebanese financial sector by illicit actors” and “discuss the need for Lebanese banks and regulatory authorities to remain vigilant against the evasion of sanctions by Iran and Syria.” The Treasury Department last year imposed sanctions on the Lebanon-based subsidiary of the Commercial Bank of Syria.

The nation's trade deficit increased slightly in July, with drops in exports and imports. 

The gap increased to $42 billion, up 0.2 percent but below estimates, from a revised $41.9 billion in June, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. 

Exports, which fell 1 percent to $183.3 billion from $185.1 in June, had been on the rise since April. Demand decreased for auto parts and engines and increased for food, feeds and beverages. 

Your morning global affairs speed-read

The two presidential campaigns are taking a short break from campaigning to mark the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks today even as Osama bin Laden's death has become a potent weapon for the Obama administration to tout the president's commander-in-chief credentials. The Hill has the story here.

Iran crisis: The United Nations's atomic agency has received new intelligence that Iran has moved further toward the ability to build a nuclear weapon, The Associated Press reports. The new revelations come as Israel and the Obama administration appear increasingly at odds over a "red line" for Iran. [Washington Post]

Taking a stand: Congress is back from summer break today and will immediately bring up a slew of human-rights bills under the fast-track process called suspension of the rules. 

Mitt Romney said Tuesday that he continues to view Russia as a serious "geopolitical adversary" despite needling from the Obama campaign.

“Russia is a geopolitical adversary, meaning that almost everything we try to do globally they try and oppose,” Romney said during an interview on the Hugh Hewitt radio show. 

"We try and put pressure on Iran; they fought against crippling sanctions. We tried to get tough language at the U.N. and action against the brutality of [President Bashar] Assad in Syria; they instead send attack helicopters to Syria. I mean, Russia has been opposing us in political circles for some time," he said.

Romney's remarks come less than a week after Obama used an earlier comment from the GOP nominee calling Russia America's "No. 1 geopolitical foe" to insinuate he was naive on foreign policy.

President Obama's electioneering on the killing of Osama bin Laden has shaped the presidential contest.

President Obama on Monday named a former ambassador to Jordan to lead the world's largest embassy in Baghdad after his first choice was felled by a sex scandal.

Robert Beecroft served as ambassador to Amman from 2008 to 2011 before being named deputy chief of mission in Iraq since July 2011 and chargé d'affaires since June 2012. If confirmed, he will replace James Jeffrey, who stepped down in June to retire. 

Obama's first pick, Brett McGurk, withdrew his nomination in June when Republicans threatened to block him after racy e-mails with a Wall Street Journal reporter whom he later married became public.

Resettlement for Syrians displaced by the civil war in their country isn't on the agenda as the top U.S. official for migration issues visits Turkey this week, the State Department said Monday. 

Anne Richard, the assistant secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration, is scheduled to visit an Istanbul refugee processing center that mostly handles Iraqis during her week-long visit to Turkey. She won't be announcing any agreement to resettle Syrians, an agency spokeswoman told The Hill. 

Deborah Sisbarro said resettling the displaced Syrians to the United States would be “more of a last resort,” and the administration is not there “yet.”

“Right now everything is kind of based on the hope that the [Bashar] Assad regime will fall,” she said, adding that Syrian refugees would then be able to return home.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) wants Uganda's ambassador to the United States to answer questions about the slaughter earlier this year of 22 elephants at Garamba National Park.

The congressman's letter follows a Sept. 3 New York Times report suggesting the U.S.-funded Ugandan military could have been behind the March 15 slaughter, which is estimated to have netted more than $1 million in ivory. The Obama administration has awarded tens of millions of dollars in military aid to Uganda over the past four years and sent 100 military advisers to the region to hunt for Joseph Kony, whose Lord's Resistance Army is a main player in the ivory poaching epidemic now threatening Africa's elephants, fueled by Asia's growing middle class.

“It is imperative that we do all that we can to protect the lives and future populations of the elephant,” Kucinich wrote to Perezi Kamunanwire. “The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) is conducting an investigation into this mass elephant killing. I ask that you fully cooperate with this investigation and work to protect the endangered elephant population.

“I look forward to hearing from you regarding any information you may have regarding this incident.”

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