World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (October 19, 2011)

The Washington Post reported that In the ongoing political skirmishes among Iran’s leadership, it was the equivalent of bringing out the heavy ammunition: The country’s most powerful figure warning that the post of elected president could someday be scrapped. Although no overhauls appear on the immediate horizon after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comment — he spoke only vaguely about possibilities in the “distant future” — the mere mention of eliminating Iran’s highest elected office shows the severity and scope of the power struggle between Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Khamenei and his allies are expected to use their many tools, including the ability to vet and block candidates, to try to steamroll Ahmadinejad’s backers and push the president — once Khamenei’s protege — farther into the political margins.

“Iran Says Saudi Plot Defendant Belongs to Exile Group” is an article published by The New York Times. It says that Iran injected a new twist on Tuesday into the week-old American accusation of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, asserting that one of the defendants really belongs to an outlawed and exiled opposition group. The defendant, Gholam Shakuri, identified by the Justice Department as an operative of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, is actually a “key member” of the Mujahedeen Khalq. The agency did not explain the group’s possible motive but left the implication that the plot was a bogus scheme meant to frame and ostracize Iran. The group, also known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran, is regarded by Iran as a violent insurgent organization with a history of assassinations and sabotage aimed at overthrowing the Islamic government that took power in 1979. While the group claims to have renounced violence a decade ago, it is still clas
sified as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department, but not by Britain or the European Union. It maintains a headquarters in Paris.

The Hurriyet Daily News published the article headlined “Turkey launches incursion into Iraq.” It says that Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into Iraq on today, hours after alleged members of the outlawed Kurdistan Wokers' Party (PKK) killed 24 soldiers and wounded 18 others in multiple attacks along the border. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey had launched large-scale operations, including "a hot pursuit within the limits of international law." He did not elaborate, but added, "We will never bow to any attack from inside or outside Turkey." Erdogan canceled a visit to Kazakhstan after the attacks as the chief of the military as well as interior and defense ministers rushed to the border area to oversee the anti-militant offensives.

The Iranian information agency Press TV reported that Tehran and Islamabad have started a new round of negotiations on increasing the volume of Iran's natural gas exports to Pakistan. Deputy Oil Minister Javad Oji said on Wednesday that the talks were held in the Iranian capital, Tehran, following a request by the Pakistani side in September for increasing the level of exports from 21.5 to 30 million cubic meters per day. In June 2009, Tehran and Islamabad signed a 25-year agreement, commencing from February 2014, based on which Iran agreed to export 7.8 billion cubic meters of its natural gas to Pakistan per annum through a multi-billion-dollar pipeline. Iran has no restrictions in raising the volume of natural gas exports to Pakistan, Oji told Mehr News Agency.