World press on Iranian nuclear prject and talks with 5+1 group and situation in Egypt (August 17-18, 2013)

The Jerusalem Post published an article devoted to the Iranian nuclear programme and the Islamic Republic's talks with the 5+1 groups. "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani appointed outgoing Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi to head the Atomic Energy Organization on Friday, state media said, replacing a hardliner with a so-called pragmatist to take charge of Tehran's nuclear program," the article reads.

"Rouhani, described a relative moderate who took office on August 3, has pledged to improve Iran's ties with the outside world and ease stringent international sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program."

"Appointing Salehi is a further signal that Rouhani intends to pursue a more flexible approach to Iran's nuclear dispute with the West than his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," the article reads.

Hurriyet Daily News publshed an article by Murat Yetkin devoted to the US stance on the situation in Egypt.

"The statement of U.S. President Barack Obama on Egypt on Aug. 15 was too little and too late," the article reads. "Too late because the massacre in Cairo as a result of a security forces attack on civilian protesters had taken place in the early hours of Aug. 14 and almost every other country on earth had given some sort of response about it. Too little, because many people think that the U.S. could use its military aid leverage on General Abdel Fettah Sisi who had toppled the Egyptian President through a coup d’etat and could stop at least the brutal use of force on civilians by police and military."

According to the author, if President Obama cancels the aid, the U.S. defense companies will be indebted to Egypt some $3.8 bln and penalties. If Obama calls the Egypt coup a coup, then he may have to face similar trouble in the Congress.

"That is a major reason why Obama cannot use the military aid as leverage to pursue Israel in order to stop more settlements and have peace with Palestinians. The amount, some $1bln more than the one to Egypt goes back to the pockets of a few American companies (one can add Boeing and Raytheon on top of the ones in Egypt); that means American jobs for Obama, too. And when it comes to record breaking (a $60,5 bln deal in 2010) military sales to Saudi Arabia, to one of the most autocratic regimes on earth, it is possible to see that Obama, too has difficulties in executing his foreign policy independent of the military-industrial complex, as former U.S. President Ike Eisenhower once defined," Yetkin writes.

"Can Obama sustain this policy in today’s world of mass communications, social media and awareness about human rights? The answer is “not so easy,” he concludes.