Despite recent gains, American officials are still coping with an increasingly "volatile situation" in Iraq, punctuated by one of the most violent months in the country since U.S. forces pulled out six months ago. 

China, the world's largest purchaser of Iranian oil, will not be subject to the new sanctions targeting Tehran’s nuclear program.

A former ally of strongman Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday won a mandate to form Serbia's next government, sparking fears of a return to the nationalist tensions that engulfed the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Ivica Dacic, the leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia, was formally approved by new nationalist president Tomislav Nikolic, The Associated Press is reporting. Nikolic, who is supported by Russia, defeated incumbent pro-European Union president Boris Tadic last month.

Dacic for his part was a spokesman for Milosevic during the Balkan wars that tore apart Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. Milosevic was ousted in a democratic uprising in 2000 and subsequently arrested for his role in those wars; he died during his war-crimes trial at The Hague in 2006.

Asked about reports earlier this week that Dacic would get the nod, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday that the election of Milosevic allies wouldn't automatically cause a rift with the United States.

“I’m not going to prejudge whatever negotiations might be going on in Serbia,” Nuland said, “but as a general matter, assuming that the government is legitimately formed, then we will obviously work with them, but let’s await what is decided in Serbia.”

Moscow is pushing through deliveries of Russian-built helicopters to Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar Assad despite international efforts to block the sale. 

American and NATO commanders are considering carrying out their own cross-border raids into Pakistan to root out terror cells along the country's border with Afghanistan. 

Thomas Donohue, the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — and no friend of the Obama administration — said Thursday that he helped instigate the latest push to get the United States to accede to the United Nations's Law of the Sea Treaty.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) repeatedly drew attention to Donohue's support in a bid to deflect conservative attacks during his panel's fourth hearing on the treaty. Some critics have alleged that Kerry is pushing the treaty to ingratiate himself with the White House in order to gain the secretary of State job if President Obama is reelected. 

“Everybody's kind of got it wrong so far,” Kerry said. “I was actually out to dinner with Tom Donohue, maybe a year and a half ago ... and at the very end of the dinner Tom turned to me and said, 'when are you going to get this Law of the Sea Treaty done?' And I was completely taken aback.”

The chairmen of the House Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees have banded together to introduce legislation calling on the Obama administration to designate the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) dropped their legislation late Wednesday. The move follows bipartisan letters from the House and Senate Intelligence committees last month urging Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to move forward with the designation.

Doing so would make it unlawful to provide material support or resources to the group.

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Your morning global affairs speed-read

The latest batch of U.S. sanctions against Iran kick in today, with the aim of further crippling the nation's oil exports and forcing the regime to rethink its nuclear ambitions. The sanctions come as a round of negotiations in Istanbul, Baghdad and Moscow over the past couple of months failed to achieve a breakthrough on Iran's nuclear program, which the United States and other countries say has a military purpose.

Starting today, the United States will be able to impose sanctions on foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran’s central bank, which deals with oil transactions. And a full European Union embargo on Iranian crude starts July 1, fostering hopes that Iran will be reeling by the time technical negotiations on its nuclear program resume on July 3. Still, the U.S. Senate isn't waiting and is already pushing for tougher sanctions. [Reuters]

Under the sea: After the military brass, it's the business community's turn to make the case for U.S. accession to the United Nations' Law of the Sea Treaty. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers and Verizon Communications Inc. will all testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today that the United States is losing out to China and other nations whose ratification of the treaty gives them an edge in deep-sea mining and other activities.

Business in Africa: In the afternoon, the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on African Affairs holds a hearing on Africa's market potential. U.S. officials in charge of Africa at the Department of State, USAID and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative are slated to testify.