World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (June 28, 2011)

The Washington Post reported that a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander claimed on Tuesday that his country has the ability to produce even longer range missiles than those currently in its arsenal. The remarks came as Iran is conducting 10 days of war games, its latest show of military force amid a standoff with the West over the country’s controversial nuclear program. The missiles, he said, were specifically designed for Israeli and U.S. targets. Iran’s known missiles of such range are the Shahab-3 and the Sajjil. Iran considers Israel and United States its top enemies. As part of the exercise, Iran on Tuesday also fired 14 missiles, including Shahab-1, Shahab-2 and Shahab-3 as well as Zelzal missile.

The New York Times continued the same theme and published the article headlined “Iran Unveils Missile Silos as It Begins War Games.” It says that state television broadcast images of an unspecified number of silos deep underground, saying they held medium- and long-range missiles ready to hit distant targets. Subterranean silos are considered harder to destroy than surface installations, and Iran hailed them as a defensive asset meant to thwart attackers. Western powers have long cited evidence that Iran was investigating the design of nuclear warheads for its missiles, a charge Tehran denies. It insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

The Guardian added to the topic of discussion that in Israel, a foreign ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, denounced Hajizadeh's remarks. "This new Iranian bragging demonstrates once again the aggressive policies of the ayatollahs' regime," Palmor said. "Not that we had any doubts prior to this statement. But this renewed threat makes it obvious why Iran is the number one threat to this whole region and beyond." Western intelligence reports say Iran wants to produce intercontinental missiles with a range of up to 3,750 miles, a claim Iran has denied. Hajizadeh said some US bases in Iraq and Afghanistan were as close as 75 miles from Iran's borders and could easily be hit by Iran in case of an attack.

“Brinkmanship pushes Ankara to edge of the abyss” is an article published by the Turkish information agency Hurriyet. It says that Tuesday’s opening of the new Turkish government opens the way for a new game of brinkmanship in the country, threatening to push it into deep political chaos at the very beginning of a new legislative term and seemingly dashing hopes of consensus on a new constitution. What makes the situation worse is the failure of the political parties and the judiciary to find a way out of the ongoing crisis stemming from legislative mistakes and legal interpretations that are keeping eight elected deputies behind bars.

The Iranian information agency Press TV published an article subtitled “'Iran will not initiate military attack'.” It says that Deputy Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami says Iran will not initiate a military operation, but its responses will be purely aggressive. He said that the missiles have aggressive, tactical, strategically deterrent and defensive features, of course Iran will not initiate any operation but its responses will be purely aggressive. On the first day of the exercises, which began on Monday, Iran unveiled underground missile silos and fired Fateh-110 missile. Salami pointed out that Iran will also fire long-range missiles toward targets at sea.