Iran Snapshot: The Difficulties of Getting Around Sanctions (Zeb Khan)

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad & Pakistan President Asif Ali ZardariSanctions-hit Iran has been offering new trading agreements to countries in an effort to skirt around the restrictions but it may be reluctant to extend the same to Pakistan, according to sources.

“We are ready to export the 200,000 tons of rice that Iran needs but its tariff and non-tariff barriers and unwillingness to agree to a currency swap arrangement stand in the way,” the president of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan, Javed Islam Agha, said on Sunday.

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Southeast Asia Feature: Maher Zain, Technology, and Modern Islam (Foley)

Maher Zain, with Fadly 'Padi', sings Insha Allah live on Indonesian television

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Zain's songs clearly reflect a wide-spread feeling of discontent and a desire for a different future among Islamic and secular activists in the Arab world. His awareness of that discontent and of the need for hope is an element of his popularity—epitomized by an Egyptian fan who stated at his Cairo concert in March 2010 that she loved the "revolutionary" feel of his music, which was neither materialistic nor in line with classical religious sermons.

Zain tapped into this same feeling of discontent and the need for hope in the first song he released after the start of the Arab Spring, "Freedom." He premiered the song, which is entirely in English, in Malaysia in February 2011. The song thanks God for giving friends and neighbors the strength to hold hands and demand an end to oppression. It presents a vision for a new Arab Muslim society in which people will no longer be prisoners in their homes or afraid to voice their opinions in public. While Zain acknowledges that the dream of a new Arab society has yet to be fulfilled, he promises his listeners that they are on the verge of achieving it, that God is with them, and that he will not let them fail. In the background as Zain sings, there are images of Arab flags and protestors of all ages peacefully challenging their governments in the Arab World.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: After the Speech, the Battle

2130 GMT: According to the voice on the video, this was taken in Baba Amr, Homs. It was uploaded today, and claims to show fighters for the Free Syrian Army's Farouq Batallion replacing a regime flag with their own, during what sounds like an intense gunfight:

We are unable to confirm any of these claims at the current time.

2114 GMT: Fuel isn't the only thing that is in short supply in Syria. Due to recent environmental issues, the wheat harvest is down, but the Syrian government appears that it may not be able to import the grain that it plans on using to supplement the shortfall:

Syria's state grains agency, which traditionally purchases soft milling wheat via international tenders, is finding it difficult to secure food at competitive prices, European traders say.

The agency Tuesday said it had rejected all tender offers and made no purchase in an international auction to buy 100,000 metric tons of wheat, citing expensive market prices.

According to the Wall Street Journal, European traders are unwilling to sell grain without adding a risk premium, adding to Syria's inability to secure good pricing.

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Pakistan Feature: US Preparing for a Curtailed "Post-9/11" Relationship With Islamabad? (Schmitt)

Schmitt cites a "senior United States official" who speaks of closing "the chapter on the post-9/11 period", trying to frame a decade of US actions guided by a necessary, perhaps even moral, campaign against terrorism.

The reality is murkier. Speaking of a "post-9/11 period" conveniently ignores not just the years after 2001 but the complications of decades before that, as it serves a US administration keen to bracket Bush-era foreign intervention as being exceptional, rather than business as usual. It is not as easy for the "post-9/11 period" to wash away the instability in the Pakistani system.

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Pakistan Analysis: Will There Be a Coup? (And Why It Doesn't Really Matter)

Asif Ali ZardariBeyond the headline talk of a "coup", the truth is that it may only be symbolic. "There won't be a take-over of power by Kayani because well, he already rules," said one Pakistani analyst. The military has only ceded power to the elected government in name: all national security initiatives have to be run past the generals before they can be implemented by the government. Frequent meetings are held between the civilian officials and the military to decide matters such as the fate of Osama bin Laden, the flood disaster relief efforts, relations with Afghanistan and the US, foreign aid, terrorism within Pakistan, law and order, eand ven some aspects of the economy.

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Pakistan Feature: A "Crisis in Relations" After NATO Kills 26 Pakistani Soldiers in Airstrikes?

Pakistanis Protest after NATO AttacksReading and comparing the coverage from websites in Pakistan, the US, and Britain over Saturday's NATO airstrikes that killed 26 Pakistani troops....

Dawn (Pakistan)

The United States stressed the “importance” of its ties with Pakistan after up to 26 soldiers were killed in cross-border Nato air strikes Saturday, plunging already frosty relations into crisis.

In a joint statement, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered their “deepest condolences” and said they backed “Nato’s intention to investigate immediately.”

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India Follow-Up: 17 Dead, 131 Injured in Mumbai Bombs, No Claim of Responsibility (Times of India)

No other city in the world has been the tragic target of as many serial terror attacks and bombings as Mumbai, which went through the agony in 1993, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2008 and now July 13, 2011. On Wednesday evening, three serial bomb blasts in the span of ten minutes ripped through three of the busiest hubs in the city — Zaveri Bazar, Opera House and Dadar — at rush hour, killing 17 people and injuring 131. 

The first explosion was at 6.54pm at Zaveri Bazar, followed by another at Opera House a minute later. The third explosion was at 7.06pm outside Kabutarkhana, a few metres from the western side of Dadar railway station.

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India Breaking: 3 Blasts in "Terrorist Attack" in Mumbai, Deaths Reported

1650 GMT: A series of photos of the blast sites and victims has been posted (Warning: Graphic).

UPDATE 1640 GMT: The Home Ministry has revised the casualty figures to 20 dead and 113 injured.

UPDATE 1620 GMT: Important clarifications from the Mumbai Police Commissioner....

The three blasts were not from car bombs, as initial reports claimed in at least two cases, but from improvised explosive devices. The IED near the Opera House was "high-intensity"; the others in Zaveri Bazaar and Dadar West.

The three devices exploded between 6:50 and 7:04 p.m. local time.

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Pakistan Feature: US Government "Pakistani Intelligence Killed Journalist Saleem Shahzad"

Saleem ShahzadNew classified intelligence obtained before the May 29 disappearance of the journalist, Saleem Shahzad, 40, from the capital, Islamabad, and after the discovery of his mortally wounded body, showed that senior officials of the spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, directed the attack on him in an effort to silence criticism, two senior administration officials said.

The intelligence, which several administration officials said they believed was reliable and conclusive, showed that the actions of the ISI, as it is known, were “barbaric and unacceptable,” one of the officials said.

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War on Terror Special: Pakistani Intelligence Announces Its Full Cooperation With U.S. Forces During Upcoming Top Secret June 12 Drone Strike On Al-Qaeda At 5:23 A.M. Near Small Town Of Razmani In North Waziristan (The Onion)

The attack will be at 5:23 a.m. --- got it?Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency restated Thursday its commitment to the fight against terrorism, pledging full cooperation with U.S. forces during the upcoming strike on an al-Qaeda safe house on June 12 at 5:23 a.m. near the small town of Razmani in the remote tribal region of North Waziristan.

At a hastily convened press conference, ISI chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha called Pakistan's long- standing partnership with the United States "stronger than ever," explaining that both countries share an interest in rooting out al-Qaeda before its leaders have time to gather their secret cache of hidden weapons and move to a new location, possibly a tribal area in northwest Pakistan where Pasha said U.S. intelligence is limited in both its sophistication and reach.

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