IRAN
Israeli minister: Don’t take eyes off Iran
George Jahn, Associated Press – July 1, 2011
Israel’s foreign minister warned Thursday that Iran is using Mideast unrest as a smoke screen to advance missile and nuclear programs in its alleged development of nuclear arms.
US Suspects Iran behind increase in troop deaths in Iraq
Ed O’Keefe and Tim Craig, Boston Globe – July 1, 2011
Iran is furnishing new, more deadly weapons to Shiite Muslim militias targeting U.S. troops in Iraq as part of a pattern of renewed attempts to exert influence in the region, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.The U.S. has raised the attacks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and others, said Gates, who leaves office today. Gates will be succeeded by Leon Panetta, director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
NORTH KOREA
S. Korea still waiting for N. Korea’s response on bilateral nuclear talks
Yonhap News Agency, July 1, 2011
South Korea is still waiting for North Korea’s response to its proposal to hold bilateral talks to gauge the North’s sincerity on denuclearization, despite a recent series of fiery threats from the communist neighbor, Seoul’s foreign minister said Thursday.
PAKISTAN
How to get Pakistan to break with Islamic militants
Zalmay Khalilzad, Washington Post- June 30, 2011
In his Afghanistan speech last week, President Obama said we must “address terrorist safe havens in Pakistan.” He vowed to “press Pakistan to expand its participation in securing a more peaceful future,” “work with the Pakistani government to root out the cancer of violent extremism” and “insist that it keep its commitments.”
Missing from the president’s remarks was a strategy on how to induce a Pakistani break with Islamic militants.
Will Pakistan play the spoiler to U.S.-Taliban talks?
Tony Karon, TIME- June 30, 2011
That the U.S. has been talking to the Taliban has been known for some time now — Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged as much two weeks ago. A political agreement with the Taliban remains the key to securing a U.S. departure from Afghanistan, because the idea that the Afghan security forces will be able to hold the line against a gathering insurgency once the U.S. completes its withdrawal in 2014 is clearly a pipe-dream.
DEFENSE SPENDING
The peril of deep defense cuts
Donald Rumsfeld, Wall Street Journal- June 30, 2011
It will be tempting to accede to the White House’s proposal to carve out $400 billion, if not more, from the national security budget by 2023. It would also be a grievous mistake.
MISSILE DEFENSE
Russia, NATO have 9 years to agree on missile plan
Associated Press- June 30, 2011
Russia’s NATO envoy says that Moscow and the alliance have until 2018 to find agreement on a prospective U.S.-led missile defense plan in Europe.
GATES
On final day as defense secretary, Obama surprises Gates with Presidential Medal of Freedom
Associated Press- June 30, 2011
A visibly moved Defense Secretary Robert Gates paused briefly at a Pentagon retirement ceremony rife with pomp and pageantry, collected himself and told his president: “You’re getting pretty good at this covert ops stuff.”
