Russian President Vladimir Putin worked Wednesday to place himself in the center of efforts to secure a Syrian cease-fire, speaking by phone to the leaders of Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran and drawing promises of cooperation, according to the Kremlin. – Washington Post

Three days before a planned cease-fire in Syria, there is widespread uncertainty over how it will be implemented and monitored, and what is likely to happen if it does not hold. – Washington Post

The Islamic State has been taking advantage of Russian airstrikes in Syria, using the newfound air cover to maneuver and reposition fighters, according to a report released by IHS Janes’ Terrorism and Insurgency Center on Wednesday. – Washington Post’s Checkpoint

A decade ago, the current U.S. vice president wanted to partition Iraq as a political solution to a civil war that ended militarily. Now the current secretary of state believes that partition may be the only viable course left for Syria if and when a ceasefire he co-brokered fails. – The Daily Beast

The outcome of Syria’s long-running civil war is effectively settled, according to the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And Russia won. – The Hill

The United Nations will name a date on Friday for Syria’s warring parties to return to the negotiating table for a second round of talks, U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday. – Reuters

The United Nations is ready for a huge aid effort if the warring Syria parties stop fighting, but even then aid workers will proceed carefully and assess the safety of each delivery, a U.N. spokesman said on Wednesday. – Reuters

Symposium: Can the United States do anything to keep Assad from decimating his opponents and to widen the fight against ISIS? – NYT’s Room for Debate

FPI Senior Policy Analyst Tzvi Kahn writes: The Syrian cease-fire agreement reached on Monday doubles down on a White House strategy that so far has failed to achieve results. Rather than seek Assad’s ouster and the removal of Russian and Iranian forces from the region, the Obama administration has embraced Damascus, Moscow and Tehran as partners in the hope that diplomacy and goodwill will spur them to reduce their aggression – Foreign Policy Initiative

Seth Jones writes: U.S. officials must accept this reality—and act accordingly to keep some of Mr. Assad’s opponents on their feet. A stalemate may be the best way to secure a political agreement and end the war. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

ISIS

These financiers ensure that millions of dollars in cash churn in and out of Islamic State’s territory every day, muting international efforts to isolate the terror group from the global banking system, say people involved in the business. They operate across borders and battlefields in the midst of one of the world’s most dangerous conflicts, protected by profits and their integral role in the regional economy. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

This week’s fighting in Syria has seen major changes for the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s grip there, leaving some in the Pentagon wondering if ISIS is trying to expand its territorial hold or is in its last throes. – The Daily Beast

Islamic State militants have built a fast and effective supply chain for making improvised explosive devices, one that is flowing underneath the radar of international rules designed to halt weapons sales, according to a new report. – Military Times

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Nathaniel Barr write: As this article illustrates, al-Qaeda has repeatedly rebuffed the Islamic State’s advances, consolidating its territorial control and strengthening its organizational cohesion in the process. Indeed, while the Islamic State continues to dominate international headlines, al-Qaeda is quietly building its global network and preparing itself for the eventual collapse of the “caliphate.” We should not forget this, even as we continue to degrade the Islamic State. – War on the Rocks

Iraq

The Obama administration’s reliance on Kurdish militants to fight the Islamic State has prompted deep friction with Turkey, but Secretary of State John F. Kerry says U.S. weapons will continue to flow to the so-called peshmerga forces, with some 5 million rounds of ammunition expected to be delivered soon. – Washington Times

The unlikely group is part of an effort to set up a string of field hospitals in northern Iraq for Kurdish fighters known as the peshmerga, troops who have proved to be among the most effective soldiers in the field trying to turn back the jihadi group. – Washington Times

For three months, more than 500 men, women and children have been living in no-man’s land in northern Iraq, caught in the crossfire between Kurdish forces and Islamic State. Their dilemma illustrates the wider predicament in which Sunni Arabs find themselves in the new order emerging from the conflict, which has displaced millions and is redrawing internal boundaries in both Iraq and Syria. –Reuters

Iran

Secretary of State John F. Kerry defended Wednesday the Obama administration’s decision not to punish Iran for carrying out two recent ballistic missile tests, but said that if another test occurs anytime soon, the White House might respond with fresh sanctions against Tehran. – Washington Times

An elderly U.S. citizen whose son was arrested in Iran last fall has also been detained in Tehran, his family said Wednesday. – Washington Post

[T]he vote also presents an opportunity for relative moderates led by President Hassan Rouhani to cement political gains from last year’s nuclear deal with world powers. That pact brought the Islamic Republic relief from sanctions and an opportunity to reset relations with the U.S. and other countries. –Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

The Obama administration has announced that it will not enforce new counter-terrorism measures passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress because they could harm Iranian business interests, according to new instructions issued by the Department of Homeland Security. –Washington Free Beacon

Iran’s hardliners are trying to rally support ahead of elections on Friday by alleging that their reformist opponents are being supported by shadowy foreign groups — including the UK’s BBC. – Financial Times

Libya

The U.S. military believes that an air strike against the Islamic State in Libya last week did not kill two kidnapped Serbian diplomats, as Belgrade has asserted, and instead suspects the Westerners were kidnapped by a separate criminal group that killed the foreigners and tried to pass off their deaths. –Washington Post

Islamic State affiliates in Libya briefly took over the security headquarters in the western city of Sabratha, killing and beheading 12 security officers before being driven out early Wednesday morning, two city security officials said. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

[T]he popular memory of King Idris, who died in Cairo in 1983, has quietly endured in Libya. And now, after Colonel Qaddafi’s own fall and the years of violent turmoil that have followed, the country’s closet royalists have emerged with a radical suggestion: Restore a form of monarchy, at least temporarily, to let Libyans rally behind a respected father figure and begin to rebuild their splintered nation. – New York Times

Two Libyan military officials say French special forces are in the eastern city of Benghazi helping Libyan troops battle Islamic State militants. – Associated Press

There are signs of a growing Western urgency to stop Islamic State (ISIS), and Libyan commanders say Western weapons and air strikes will make a vital difference in the coming battle against their better-armed enemy. – Reuters

All sides in Libya have committed war crimes and other human rights abuses in the past two years and those responsible should face investigation and prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC), a United Nations report said on Thursday. – Reuters

North Africa

After months of cautious silence, Egypt acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that terrorists had downed the Russian jetliner that broke up over the Sinai Peninsula in the fall. – New York Times

Mr Jaidane is one of up to 40,000 people set to testify in front of the country’s truth and dignity commission, established after the 2011 overthrow of the Ben Ali regime. Modelled on South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the body is entrusted with uncovering past human rights violations over almost 60 years of authoritarian rule…But the commission, which began work last year, is already struggling with diminishing political support, and resistance from some in the ruling elite. –Financial Times

Egypt’s president said Wednesday that excessive criticism of the government is contributing to attempts to bring down the state, telling Egyptians not to listen to anyone but him. – Associated Press

Spanish police arrested a Moroccan man in Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta on Thursday, accusing him of promoting Islamist militancy via social media, the Interior Ministry said. – Reuters

Arabian Peninsula

The Gulf states are planning to introduce sales tax by 2018, a senior official said on Tuesday, as the decline in oil prices forces the six-member group to seek new revenues to cover gaping fiscal deficits. – Financial Times

Levant

Saudi Arabia and several regional allies have warned their citizens against traveling to Lebanon, as the Gulf’s Sunni Muslim monarchies step up pressure on Beirut to side with them more forcefully in their rivalry with Iran. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Israeli soldiers accidentally shot an army officer in the West Bank on Wednesday while they were trying to thwart an attempted stabbing, the Israeli military said. The officer, who was hit in the chest, died of his wounds. – New York Times

Iran on Wednesday stoked the current round of violence on the West Bank and Jerusalem by promising to pay the family of every Palestinian “martyr” $7,000 and to pay $30,000 for every home of a terrorist demolished by Israel. – Washington Free Beacon

South Asia

Russia on Wednesday delivered 10,000 automatic rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition to Afghanistan on Wednesday as a sign of Moscow’s deepening involvement in the war-torn region. –Washington Times

A Swedish aid group has demanded an independent investigation of a raid on a hospital in Afghanistan last week in which it said that three people, including a boy, were summarily executed by Afghan forces who were accompanied by NATO troops. – New York Times

Pakistan on Wednesday launched a push on the remaining pockets of Pakistani Taliban (TTP) fighters holed up in the remote Shawal Valley bordering Afghanistan. Though the advance had long been expected, the timing was surprising. – Defense News

India

For decades, India’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) — which sprawls across 1,000 leafy acres in Delhi frequented by roving antelope — has been an oasis of thought in the chaotic capital…But since students chanted ­anti-India slogans at an event to honor a man executed by the government as a terrorist, JNU has become a flash point over freedom of expression in India. – Washington Post

Competing companies in the Indian Navy’s surface surveillance radar (SSR) tender question whether the low bidder will be able to produce the radar at its proposed cost. – Defense News

Mr Modi, prime minister for nearly two years since the Bharatiya Janata party’s sweeping victory, was defensive and resentful this week when he spoke to farmers at a political rally in the eastern state of Odisha. – Financial Times

China

A former high-level Chinese energy official accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes said this week that he was tortured into confessing to the crime, a Chinese news outlet reported – New York Times

Strikes and other labor protests have spiked across the country as manufacturing plants lay off workers and reduce wages in the face of mounting economic headwinds. But the unrest is particularly intense in the southern province of Guangdong, the vast urban sprawl bordering Hong Kong that is the heart of China’s export industry — and its economic success story. – Washington Post

As financial and economic troubles threaten to undermine confidence in the Communist Party, Beijing is tightening the flow of economic information and even criminalizing commentary that officials believe could hurt stocks or the currency. – New York Times

Chinese shares slumped on Thursday as senior policymakers failed to dispel jitters ahead of a two-day gathering of the world’s top finance ministers and central bankers in Shanghai. – Financial Times

China commissioned a domestically produced missile frigate this week, the official People’s Liberation Army Daily reported on Thursday, as Beijing works to expand and modernize its navy. – Reuters

China on Thursday confirmed it would send warships to join a major U.S.-hosted naval drill this summer, even as tension between the world’s two largest economies mounts over the South China Sea. – Reuters

East Asia

The U.S. and China agreed to a U.N. resolution that diplomats said would impose significant new sanctions on North Korea in response to its recent nuclear and missile tests. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

[A]nother, tougher round of sanctions is far from the cure-all that some politicians imagine. China and the United States remain at odds over what the new rules are supposed to achieve. – Washington Post

The commander of American forces in the Pacific is worried that the United States doesn’t have enough submarines to meet the rapidly modernizing fleets being put to sea by China and Russia — and that things will only get worse before they get better. – Foreign Policy’s The Cable

The United States and China have agreed on a draft resolution that would expand U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea over its latest nuclear test and hope to put it to a vote in the coming days, council diplomats said on Wednesday. – Reuters

Southeast Asia

Bill Gertz reports: The U.S. military should consider offering new security guarantees to the Philippines similar to those promised to Japan in response to any military attacks by China in maritime disputes in Asia, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific said this week. – Washington Times’ Inside the Ring

Australia

Responding to the military challenge from China, the Australian government on Thursday announced a robust increase in military spending, including the biggest expansion to its navy since World War II. –New York Times