Daybreak: Obama Warns Leader About Strait

• Extraordinarily, President Obama used a secret back channel to directly warn Grand Ayatollah Khamanei that Iran’s closing of the Strait of Hormuz would provoke a U.S. response, military if necessary. [NYT]

• A meeting this month in Vienna with Iranian nuclear scientists could reveal whether Iran has secretly been working on nuclear weapons. [AP/Vos Iz Neias?]

• Eli Lake reports both that the Mossad is likely responsible for the Iranian scientist assassinations and that it would like other countries to think it is anyway. [The Daily Beast]

• Because you couldn’t get enough of the first two, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will meet for round three of the latest talks in Amman on Satuday (Shabbos?). [Reuters/Haaretz]

• “It’s the economy, stupid.” With a plurality and near-majority in the forthcoming parliament, the Muslim Brotherhood begins to turn its attention to bread-and-butter issues. [LAT]

• Charles Krauthammer agrees that the threat of Ron Paul isn’t Paul himself, it’s lingering Paul-ism, including in the form of his son, Rand. [WP]