World Press on Iran, Turkey and Caucasus (September 1, 2011)

The Washington Post reported that Iran says its parliamentary speaker will visit North Korea to discuss the “expansion of cooperation” with Pyongyang. The trip underlines the close ties between the two nations. The U.S. has accused North Korea of providing Iran with advanced missiles capable of targeting European capitals. Iranian and North Korean officials have said in the past that the two countries are in “one trench” in the fight against “arrogant powers.” Both are bitter enemies of the U.S. and the West.

“Iran's supreme leader warns against U.S. benefit from uprisings” is an article published by The Los Angeles Times. It says that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, congratulated the "revolutionaries" behind the so-called Arab Spring rebellions but warned them against allowing the United States to take advantage of the upheaval, reflecting the Iranian leadership's deep unease with the uprisings that have swept the region. Khamenei, in a sermon for the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, lauded the protesters and rebels of Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt — but, notably, not Syria, where Iranian-allied President Bashar Assad is using military force to try to crush a popular uprising.

The Turkish information agency Hurriyet reported on the terrorist attack in Grozny. Three suicide bombers blew themselves late on Tuesday in the Chechen capital Grozny, killing five policemen, an emergencies ministry official and a passer-by and wounding more than 20. Two more policemen died later of their wounds, said Alvi Karimov, spokesman for Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. Karimov said 21 people remained hospitalised, five of whom were in a "very serious" condition. The attacks came as Muslims celebrated Uraza Bairam (Eid al-Fitr), the feast marking the end of the Ramadan holy month of fasting.

The Iranian information agency published the article entitled “Iran, Afghanistan vow to foster bonds.” It says that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai have mutually highlighted the significance of strengthening “friendly bonds” between the two nations. The Iranian and Afghan presidents called for fostering friendly ties between the two nations in accordance with blessings of the holy month of Ramadan. On August 1, Iranian Ambassador to Kabul Fada Hossein Maleki said the volume of the Islamic Republic's annual exports to Afghanistan increased from USD 300 million to USD 1.3 billion a year.