World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (December 14, 2010)

The Washington Post has published an article headlined "Iran: Foreign minister firing won't affect policy". Iran's foreign policy will not be affected by the firing of the foreign minister, the ministry
spokesman said Tuesday, amid criticism by lawmakers and the media over the president's unexpected decision. "With the change, we will not see any alteration of Iran's basic policies," the author quotes a ministry spokesman. The author also quotes experts who believe that the differences between Ahmadinejad and Mottaki were never resolved after the president's appointment of special foreign envoys to work alongside the diplomatic service.

The same topic is discussed in an article published today by The Los Angeles Times. "Officials disclosed no reason for the ousting of Mottaki, who was in Senegal at the time, and the Foreign Ministry's website did not announce his replacement. It was unclear whether supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the ultimate arbiter of Iran's foreign and national security policies, signed off on the dismissal," the article says.

The issue is also discussed in an article published by The New York Times. According to the author of the article, the firing seemed to represent a victory for Mr. Ahmadinejad, who has been embroiled in a
power struggle with a faction of moderate politicians centered in the Parliament and headed by the speaker, Ali Larijani.

The Washington Post has recently published an article devoted to the recent nationalistic riots in Moscow. The article is entitled "Kremlin vows to punish violent racists after clash". Police will track down
and punish the hooligans and racists who rampaged in Moscow this weekend, President Dmitry Medvedev declared, warning that Russia itself could be torn apart if seething ethnic tensions spin out of control, the author reports. According to him, the latest violence  raised fresh doubts about the government's ability to control the rising tide of xenophobia, which poses a grave threat to Russia's
existence as multiethnic state.

The topic is also discussed in the article headlined "Two dead as far-right football fans riot in Moscow" published by the Guardian. "Activists have long warned that Russia's far-right tensions could boil over. Government officials, particularly in the wake of the financial crisis, have played up populist fears over immigration. Since coming to power two months ago, Moscow's new mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has focused on reducing the presence of migrant labourers in the city," the article says. The author cites an expert, who believes that the authorities aren't in control of the situation and allowed a gang loyal to the government to do what they want.

The New York Times has published an article entitled "Iran Decries Crackdown' on U.K. Protesters". "While Iran replaced its foreign minister on Monday, diplomacy went on in Tehran. In a meeting with the British ambassador to Iran on Monday, the head of Iran's office of human rights condemned British police for using force during student protests last week," the author reports. The British Ambassador said in response that nowhere are human rights violated in such an outrageous manner as in Iran.

The Turkish news agency Hurriyet has published an article entitled "EU's Turkey debate deepens further". "It must be a source of serious annoyance for those who are trying to keep Turkey out of the EU to have four key European foreign ministers giving strong support to Ankara's membership bid," the author believes, "this flies in the face of Europe's apparently ascendant ultra-right wing, whose existence in fact tells us more about Europe than about Turkey".

"Clinton: US policies on Iran unchanged", is the headline over an article which was published recently by Iranian news agency Press TV. United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Washington's
policies on Tehran will not be affected by the change of Iran's foreign minister, the author reports. "Our relationship toward Iran is not toward any individual," said Mrs. Clinton on Monday. "Whether one
person or another is foreign minister is not as important as what the policy of the Iranian government is," she added.