World press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (November 9, 2010)

The Washington Post has recently published an article headlined "UN
can't say Iran's nuke program is peaceful". The author reports that
the U.N. nuclear chief has said on Monday that he still can't confirm
that all aspects of Iran's nuclear program are peaceful; he has also
expressed serious concern at North Korea's refusal to allow the return
of nuclear inspectors. Yukiya Amano, the head of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, has called upon Iran to fully implement all
resolutions of the IAEA board of governors and the U.N. Security
Council, including demands to suspend uranium enrichment and start
negotiations to ease global concerns that it is seeking to make atomic
weapons.

Another article published recently by The Washington Post is devoted
to the Sunday's statement of the Israeli Prime Minister. Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told U.S. Vice President Joe Biden
that Iran must be made to fear a military strike against its nuclear
program. Netanyahu, meeting with Biden in New Orleans on Sunday, said
that although sanctions have hurt Iran, Tehran will be determined to
produce nuclear weapons unless it thinks a military strike is a real
option.

The Lost Angeles Times has published an interview with the Iranian
Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi. Mrs. Ebadi has said on Monday that
opposition to the Iranian government is growing, spurred by an
increase in government violence, more human rights violations and
deepening poverty. The human rights lawyer, who won the Nobel Peace
Prize in 2003 for her efforts to promote democracy, said in an
interview with The Associated Press that she came to the United
Nations to talk about the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran
and seek support for a draft U.N. General Assembly resolution that
would condemn the country's rights record.

Another article published by the Los Angeles Times deals with the
parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. International vote monitors
said Monday that ballot box stuffing and an uneven playing field for
candidates marred Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections, which look set
to be won by President Ilham Aliyev's ruling party, the author
reports. Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe and the Council of Europe declared that voters in the former
Soviet republic were denied all the necessary information on
candidates to make an informed choice. "Limitations on media freedom
and the freedom of assembly and a deficient candidate registration
process further weakened the opposition and made a vibrant political
discourse almost impossible," a statement said.

The New York Times has also published information about the elections
in Azerbaijan. "Opposition candidates may not have won a single seat,
and independent monitors reported that the balloting was marred by
fraud and other severe violations. They said the country had not made
progress in moving toward a democratic system", says the article.

Turkish news agency Hurriyet has published an article headlined
"Turkish media silence on EU's press freedom remarks troubling,
experts say". The article touches upon the problem of the media
freedom in the country. According to the author, the deafening silence
in the media in response to a leaked copy of the EU's annual Progress
Report on Turkey is a sign of waning interest in the European Union
among the Turkish public. Experts say it is worrying that media
outlets did not make more noise regarding the report's criticisms of
the lack of press freedom in the country.

Another article published by Hurriyet entitled "Turkey to approve
missile system if principles met" is devoted to the coming summit of
NATO. According to well-informed sources, Turkey is hopeful it can
find the diplomatic means to make support of NATO's plans for a
regional missile defense shield unanimous at an upcoming summit, but
only if its principles are upheld. The Turkish position toward the
missile defense system is based on two principles, namely that
security will be guaranteed for each and every NATO member state and
that no country will be listed as a specific threat.

Today Iranian news agency Press TV has published an article headlined
"Iran urges goodwill of P5+1 in talks". According to the article, Iran
has called on the five permanent members of the UN Security Council
plus Germany to manifest sincerity and good will in any upcoming
multifaceted talks with Tehran. "Iran, in a letter, has announced its
readiness to resume talks based on the contents of Secretary of Iran's
Supreme National Security Council Mr. Saeed Jalili's letter to EU
foreign policy chief Ms. Catherine Ashton," Iran's Deputy Ambassador
to the UN Eshaq Ale-Habib told the UN General Assembly meeting.