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Daybreak: Syrian Peace Presently Off the Table

Plus A’jad’s dangerous game, Galliano in court, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
June 23, 2011
John Galliano leaving his trial yesterday.(Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images)
John Galliano leaving his trial yesterday.(Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images)

• While insisting on the need for eventual Israeli-Syrian peace, a U.S. senior administration official said no deal was conceivable with the Damascus regime as it is currently behaving. [JTA/Forward]

• President Ahmadinejad and Grand Ayatollah Khamanei are basically playing the Game of Thrones in Iran. [NYT]

• The International Committee of the Red Cross wants proof that captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit is still alive, nearly two years after the last sign that he was. [Reuters/JPost]

• John Galliano exercised the substance-abuse defense. His verdict is due September 8. [NYT]

• Five Russian nuclear experts who helped design Iran’s facility at Bushehr died in a plane crash. [Haaretz]

• President Obama announced a speeded-up pullout from Afghanistan, as well as a changed mission there that will now, in more limited fashion, focus on counterterrorism. [NYT]

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.