In a speech on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will lay out the Trump administration's new diplomatic path on Iran now that the President has withdrawn America from the nuclear deal.
What we're hearing: It's Pompeo's first foreign policy speech since taking over as Secretary. A source with direct knowledge of the speech gave me a snippet: "Iran advanced its march across the Middle East during the JCPOA... It did so with house money, with wealth created by the West... This will not continue."
Authorities in the U.K. have yet to renew billionaire Russian oligarch and Chelsea F.C. owner Roman Abramovich's visa after its expiration last month, the Financial Times reports. The visa snafu forced him to miss his team's FA Cup win this weekend.
Why it matters: British officials have pondered cracking down against Russian oligarchs after ex-spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned. Conservative MP Bob Seely told the FT: "Either there is an innocent explanation [for the delay in Mr Abramovich’s visa], or the government is becoming less sympathetic to Russian oligarchs in the UK. Either way, denying visas to oligarchs is potentially important.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was admitted to a hospital in Ramallah today after undergoing surgery last week, marking the third time Abbas has been treated in a hospital over the past few days.
Why it matters: Abbas is 82 years old and has no agreed-upon successor from within his Fatah Party, the Palestinian Authority, or the Palestine Liberation Organization.
China's air force announced in a statement on Saturday that it conducted take-off and landing training for nuclear-strike capable bombers on unidentified islands in the South China Sea, per The Guardian.
Why it matters: The South China Sea — and who exactly controls it — is one of the most hotly contested issues between the United States and China, and the U.S. has threatened consequences for increased activity in the area.
Anyone viewing this week's split-screen images of happy Israelis and Americans celebrating the U.S. embassy opening in Jerusalem alongside the confrontation and killing at the Israeli-Gaza border fence could be forgiven for writing off the prospects for peace.
Where it stands: Whether the two-state solution is merely dead or fully dead and buried, a number of factors have combined to stall its progress and make further deterioration much more likely. Yet in a Friday morning conversation I moderated at the Wilson Center with PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and former Israeli negotiator Gilad Sher, a mutual conviction that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be resolved still emerged.
The big picture: The regime has hundreds of operatives around the world, helping the country side-step sanctions, per the Journal. The various schemes carried out by the operatives generated "hundreds of millions a dollars a year in cash and goods." A former Asia diplomat at the State Department, Daniel Russel, told WSJ: "North Korea has an army of these people."
