Tunisia's central bank on Monday closed on a $485 million bond offering, leaving the United States on the line for the principal and interest under a deal approved in April.

The Treasury Department touted the accelerated loan guarantee process as the best way to reintegrate Tunisia into the world financial system. The seven-year sovereign bond marks the first time the country has tapped international bond markets since 2007.

“We welcome today’s $485 million bond issuance by Tunisia, an important milestone in its efforts to re-enter the international capital markets and advance its democratic transition,” said Lael Brainard, Under Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. “This U.S.-backed issuance demonstrates the U.S. government’s commitment to help restore Tunisia’s economy and supports the Tunisian government’s effort to finance key development goals at affordable rates, which is vital to its economic and political transition.”

Tunisia's revolt against then-President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in December 2010 ignited a wave of protests across the Arab world that came to be known as the Arab Spring. Islamists won the legislative elections in October 2011.

The Senate champion of the United Nations's maritime convention declared himself unfazed Monday by reports that opponents have garnered enough Republican opponents to kill the Law of the Sea Treaty if it ever comes up for a vote on the floor.

The conservative Heritage Foundation, which is leading the fight against the treaty on the grounds that it would violate U.S. sovereignty, declared victory after 34 Republicans vowed to oppose it, depriving Democrats of the two-thirds majority needed to pass a treaty.

But Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) vowed to continue pushing the treaty and hold a vote after the November election, predicting that Republicans would cave to industry groups and the Navy, who back treaty provisions.

"Senator Kerry has been here long enough to know that vote counts and letters are just a snapshot of where our politics are in this instant, and it's not news to anyone that right now we're in the middle of a white hot political campaign season where ideology is running in overdrive,” Kerry spokeswoman Jodi Seth said in a statement. “That's why Senator Kerry made it clear there wouldn't be a vote before the election and until everyone's had the chance to evaluate the treaty on the facts and the merits away from the politics of the moment.”

The State Department on Monday released its annual digest of U.S. views on international law for the year 2011, which covers the raid against Osama bin Laden and the NATO intervention in Libya.

The digest, unsurprisingly, concludes that the May 1, 2011, raid in Pakistan was “lawful.” While most of the administration's legal justifications are well known, the report does offer some insights into the disagreements with some U.S. allies about the geographic scope of the conflict against al Qaeda — the administration thinks it extends beyond “hot” battlefields like Afghanistan — while providing new details about the U.S. reaction to the so-called Arab Spring.

“The Arab Awakening presented a variety of challenges for the practice of international law in 2011,” reads the introduction to the 2011 Digest of United States Practice in International Law. “In addressing events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, and elsewhere, the United States government carefully applied what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called 'smart power,' utilizing a wide array of foreign policy tools to fit the needs of the particular circumstance.”

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Opponents of the controversial Law of the Sea Treaty have secured the 34 votes needed to block ratification.

The U.S. State Department doesn't have enough experienced diplomats to fill increasing demands for overseas postings, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report Monday.

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Machine guns, sniper rifles, aerial drones, and two new operating bases are all part of a $75 million Pentagon counterterrorism package for Yemen sent to Capitol Hill.

Some lawmakers are eyeing the conflict in Syria as a golden opportunity to weaken Iran, the United States's main foe in the Middle East, according to a new Congressional Research Service report.

The July report to members of Congress weighs the pros and cons of potential U.S. responses to the 17-month conflict, without advocating for any of them. It explains that Iran uses Syria to funnel arms to Hezbollah, its proxy militant group in Lebanon, and reminds lawmakers that the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly visited Syria earlier this year to pledge more Iranian military aid to President Bashar Assad's forces.

“The prospect of weakening Iran's regional influence also makes regime change attractive to some policy makers,” the report states. “The Obama administration and some in Congress have already made the strategic choice to call for [Assad's] resignation and a political transition in Syria.”

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Iranian officials are once again threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz as sanctions against the country continue to bite at Iran’s economy.

Iranian news agencies have reported several statements from military and political officials that Iran could close the strait, a key oil pipeline in the Middle East.

“The control of the Persian Gulf region is in Iran’s hands,” said Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, according to Iran’s Mehr News Agency.

An official cautioned not to "over-read" an incident where Clinton's motorcade was pelted with shoes and tomatoes Sunday.