World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (March 22, 2011)

The Washington Post published an article called “Russia, U.S. warm up on missile defense.” It says that in September 2009, Obama announced that he was overhauling Bush’s plan for a European shield. Obama’s approach will rely more heavily on anti-ballistic missile radars and interceptors based on Navy ships in the Mediterranean Sea. The new system, which is seen as less threatening by the Kremlin, will be phased in starting this year and is scheduled to become fully operational in 2020.

“Women in the Muslim world, as captured on film.” The Los Angeles Times reports on filmmakers Mostafa Heravi, Alka Sadat and Laila Hotait Salas from three different countries — Iran, Afghanistan and Lebanon. They recently traveled to Los Angeles for "Women's Voices From the Muslim World," a screening of 63 shorts from 21 countries, last week at the Los Angeles Film School. The three-day event, however, was just the beginning: Films will remain viewable on the Web and the festival's parent organization, the nonprofit Women's Voices Now, plans a roster of screenings, panel discussions and other events throughout 2011 both domestically and abroad. The filmmakers represented in the festival reflect the difficulties of working creatively in the Muslim world.

The Guardian reports that a breach within Britain's political and military leadership has opened up as David Cameron argued that the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, may be a legitimate target while the chief of the defence staff, Sir David Richards, said he was "absolutely not".Barack Obama, on tour in South America, echoed the dispute in London, saying there was no contradiction between the Pentagon saying removal of Gaddafi was not a goal and the White House saying it was.

The Turkish information agency Hurriyet reports that criticizing the Western-led airstrikes in Libya, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed Tuesday that Turkey would never point guns at the Libyan people, a position he said Ankara would make clear to NATO. Speaking to his party’s parliamentary group amid ongoing debate about how NATO should proceed on the issue, Erdoğan said the United Nations should only head up humanitarian operations, not military ones, in Libya. Erdoğan discussed the situation in Libya with U.S. President Barack Obama in a telephone conversation late Monday after chairing a summit with his ministers and military commanders. The prime minister did not give details of the talks.

 “Iran ups radius of naval operations” is an article published by Press TV. A senior Iranian naval commander says the Islamic Republic has managed to increase the radius of its naval operations to 7,000 kilometers by sending vessels to the Mediterranean Sea. Iran's Navy has conveyed the message of peace and friendship to the world by sending its navy ships on international missions, he added. Iran says consolidating ties with regional countries, providing security for shipping lines in the Gulf of Aden and training naval students were among the objectives accomplished during the mission.