U.S. Military Bolsters Mideast Presence Amid Warnings of Iranian Attack |
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East and expedited the travel of a carrier strike group equipped with F-35C fighter jets to the region. Yesterday, Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant about reinforcing U.S. capabilities to defend Israel as regional tensions escalate. Iran has vowed to retaliate for the July 31 killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which it blames on Israel.
Meanwhile, Hamas is putting up resistance to any new rounds of cease-fire negotiations. The group said yesterday in response to a U.S.-Egyptian-Qatari proposal for cease-fire talks on Thursday that mediators should submit a plan for implementing a previously agreed upon proposal from last month, “instead of going to more rounds of negotiations or new proposals that provide cover for the occupation’s aggression.” Israel’s military ordered more evacuations in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, including parts of an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone from which Israel said rockets had been fired. On Saturday, an air strike on a school-turned-shelter in northern Gaza killed at least eighty Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. Israel said the strike was targeting Hamas. (WSJ, AP)
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“For years, analysts focused on Iran had two core assumptions: that it wanted to fight Israel through proxies, rather than directly, and that it wanted to keep the conflict below the threshold of all-out war. Both assumptions look increasingly fragile,” the Economist writes.
“American officials should have been and should be saying,” CFR expert Elliott Abrams writes for the Pressure Points blog, “that they are 100 percent behind Israel, and if a war starts [Iran-backed militant group] Hezbollah will regret it for decades—and so will Iran.” This article by CFR’s Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow maps the growing U.S. presence in the Middle East.
Read the full suite of Foreign Affairs and CFR.org resources on Israel and the current conflict.
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Reports: China Adding Villages Along Disputed Border Territories |
The government built twelve new villages in frontier areas claimed by other countries in recent years, the New York Times reported based on satellite images. They are among more than fifty new villages in frontier areas, and while civilian in nature, they provide access points for China’s military. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said regarding border issues, Beijing seeks “fair and reasonable solutions” through peaceful consultation. (NYT)
Indonesia: Prabowo Subianto said the new capital city of Nusantara will be “functionally running” in four to five years. Indonesia held its first full cabinet meeting in the city today, though the capital of the country is still technically Jakarta. The head of the project to build the new capital resigned in June. (Bloomberg, Nikkei)
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Pakistani Army Backs IMF Reform Plan |
While past International Monetary Fund (IMF) overhauls in the country have led to public protest, the military supports the current government’s decision to hike tax collection and raise energy prices, unnamed analysts and officials told the Financial Times. (FT)
Bangladesh: The new interim government aims to maintain “smooth and positive” relations with all countries, including both China and India, a senior foreign affairs advisor said. Bangladesh strengthened its ties with India under its previous prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, who fled the country earlier this month after weeks of mass protests. (PTI, VOA)
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Middle East and North Africa |
Iran’s President Proposes Former Nuclear Negotiator as Foreign Minister |
Nominee Abbas Araghchi was part of the team that reached the 2015 nuclear deal. Lawmakers have two weeks to review minister nominations, which also include a nominee that, if selected, would be Iran’s first female minister in more than ten years. (AP)
This Backgrounder by CFR’s Kali Robinson explains what’s behind the nuclear deal. |
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DRC, Zambia Talk Trade Dispute |
Officials from the two countries are meeting today after a trade dispute led to a weekend shutdown of their shared border. Nearly two weeks ago, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) imposed a ban on Zambian beer, soft drink, and lime imports. Their spat has especially caused an issue for the DRC as the world’s second-biggest copper producer, which exports most of its product through Zambia to regional ports. (Bloomberg)
South Africa: The new government’s ambition to expand renewable power generation is coming up against a funding roadblock, Reuters reported. Incorporating more wind and solar power would require expanding the country’s energy grid, but high debt levels at state utility Eskom are causing investors to hesitate. (Reuters)
This In Brief by CFR’s Mariel Ferragamo looks at whether South Africa’s chronic Eskom crisis could sink its clean energy ambitions.
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Ukraine Advances Nearly Twenty Miles Inside Russia, Moscow Says |
Ukrainian forces’ push into Russia marks their deepest cross-border offensive in the country since the 2022 start of the war. Russian officials ordered evacuations today in a second region as Ukraine’s offensive progressed; some seventy-six thousand people have evacuated border areas in Russia. (BBC, Reuters)
Turkey: The government restored access to Instagram after a more than weeklong ban due to the media platform’s failure to respect Turkish laws. The country’s transportation and infrastructure minister said the social media platform had assured the government that accounts and content related to “terrorist” groups would be banned. (AP)
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Mexican Drug Boss Says He Was Kidnapped Before Flying to United States |
Detained drug ringleader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García said in a letter released by his lawyer that he was on the way to meet with local politicians, including the governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, when he was kidnapped and flown to the United States last month. The Sinaloa governor denied any links with organized crime and said Zambada García was not in the state that day. (AP)
This Backgrounder unpacks Mexico’s long war with drugs, crime, and the cartels.
Brazil: Technical investigators from Brazil and France are probing the cause of a plane crash Friday that killed all sixty-two people on board. The turboprop plane was made by French-Italian company ATR and operated by Brazilian airline Voepass. (AP)
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Trump Campaign Says It Was Hacked by Iran |
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign said some of its internal emails were compromised. It did not offer direct evidence but referenced a recent Microsoft report that cited Iran. Microsoft did not specify which campaign was breached, but an unnamed person familiar with the company’s probe told the Washington Post it referred to the Trump campaign. Several news outlets said they received a dossier of information that included what appeared to be vetting files on Trump’s potential vice-presidential candidates, including Ohio Senator JD Vance. U.S. lawmakers have called on the government to quickly declassify information related to the hack. (FT, WaPo)
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