Damascus, Syria
Arming the rebels: The Syrian revolt looked likely to broaden after the Arab League agreed to let its members arm the Syrian rebels. A resolution passed at an Arab League meeting this week urged members to “provide all kinds of political and material support” to the opposition, even as President Bashar al-Assad stepped up his assault on civilian areas held by the rebel Free Syrian Army. Weapons and Sunni militants have already been trickling into Syria from across the Iraqi border. The U.N. stopped updating the death toll in January, after it hit 5,400, saying it was too difficult to get a count. Since then, Syrian activists say, hundreds have been killed as Syrian troops pound the cities of Homs and Hama. Assad ordered a referendum for later this month on a new, multiparty constitution, but it’s unclear how a ​vote could be held amid the fighting.
Tehran
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Iran boasts nuclear milestones: As Western sanctions began to pinch, a defiant Iran announced three nuclear breakthroughs and cut oil exports to Europe. It said it had loaded its first domestically made fuel rods into a nuclear reactor for medical research. The announcement means that Iran has mastered the entire cycle of nuclear fuel, from extracting uranium ore to producing the finished rods. Iran’s nuclear authorities also said they had begun operating a “new generation” of centrifuges for enriching uranium, and that an underground enrichment complex built deep in a mountain was now fully operational. In apparent retaliation for the EU’s energy and banking sanctions against it, Iran announced that it was halting oil exports to six European countries. After Iranian state TV announced the cuts, oil prices spiked to $102 a barrel.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Blasphemous tweets: A Saudi journalist faces the death penalty for sending out tweets perceived as insulting to the Prophet Mohammed. Hamza Kashgari, 23, tweeted a series of musings on Mohammed’s birthday addressing the prophet as a friend and equal, and saying, “I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more.” Within hours, the Saudi blogosphere had exploded in death threats. A Facebook group called “The Saudi people demand Hamza Kashgari’s execution” gained more than 25,000 members within days. Kashgari quickly fled, attempting to reach New Zealand, where he hoped to claim asylum, but he was arrested in Malaysia at the request of Saudi authorities and sent back to Riyadh.
Jaar, Yemen
Three killed for spying: Islamist militants beheaded three men in public this week for giving the U.S. information used to target drone strikes. Ansar al-Sharia, an al Qaida affiliate, said the three had been working for Saudi intelligence. Residents of Jaar said the militants made them watch the executions and told them that all who spied against them would be killed. “Jaar is mostly an al Qaida–run town where we have little to no influence in what happens inside,” a Yemeni official told CNN. The entire Yemeni province of Abyan, where Jaar is located, now calls itself an Islamic emirate.
Tbilisi, Delhi, Bangkok
Bombs blamed on Iran: Attacks on Israeli Embassy personnel in Delhi and Tbilisi, Georgia, ratcheted up tensions between Israel and Iran this week as Israel quickly blamed Iran. In India, the wife of an Israeli envoy was hurt when her car was destroyed by a magnetic bomb placed on it by a motorcyclist. In Georgia, an embassy staffer found a similar device on his car; police defused it safely. “Iran’s terror operations are now exposed for all to see,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “World countries must condemn Iran’s terror acts and draw a red line.” That claim was seemingly bolstered by explosions in Bangkok, where an Iranian man apparently building bombs accidentally blew his legs off while trying to escape from police. Police later found explosives fitted with magnets similar to those used in India and Georgia. The injured man and another Iranian were arrested in Bangkok, and a third was arrested after fleeing to Malaysia; a fourth suspect, a woman, is still being sought. Iranian authorities denied the allegations, saying that Israel carried out the attacks itself, “to launch psychological warfare against Iran.” Some terrorism experts said the attacks seemed too amateurish to be the work of Iran or its proxy, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. But the timing is suspicious: This week is the fourth anniversary of the killing of Hezbollah’s top commander, an assassination blamed on Israel’s Mossad intelligence service. Some analysts speculated that the attacks on Israelis could be revenge for that or for the spate of killings of Iranian nuclear scientists, also carried out with magnetic bombs.
