National Security Brief: March 30, 2012

post from ThinkProgress on 30 March 2012 10:00:03 AM. © ThinkProgress

– Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday that Iran will defend Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime if the U.S. or its allies take military action against government forces.

– Saudi Arabia has pressed Jordan to open its border with Syria to allow weapons to reach rebels fighting Assad’s forces.

– A spokesperson for former U.N. secretary general and now peace envoy to Syria Kofi Annan said that Assad must implement the Annan-brokered peace agreement “immediately.” “The deadline is now,” Annan’s spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.

– The U.S military is sending its most advanced radar system to the Pacific region ahead of North Korea’s expected launch of a long-range missile.

– House Armed Services Committee ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) said yesterday that Congress can no longer afford to look at the defense budget in isolation and to do so is to ignore the gravity of the country?s debt problem.

– Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has spoken of irregularities ahead of Sunday’s by-election and said the campaign could not be considered ”genuinely free and fair.”

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