The Guardian informs its readers that Iran's judiciary confirms that Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal have been finally released on $1m bail after two years in jail. Iran has freed two Americans held as spies for over two years on bail of $1m after Iraq and Oman mediated for their release. The country's judiciary confirmed on Wednesday that Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 29, had been released a month after a court sentenced them each to eight years in jail for espionage and illegally crossing the border into Iran. The two men are reportedly preparing to return home. It is not clear why Iran has finally decided to grant the two clemency, but analysts have interpreted the move as an attempt to reduce tensions with the international community at the time when negotiations over its nuclear programme are in a stalemate.
The same media agency published an article headlined ‘Erdogan plays Palestinian saviour, but what about the Kurds?’ It states that Turkey's ‘noisy championing of Palestinian rights’, a source of growing friction with the US and Israel, jars uncomfortably with Ankara's treatment of its own disadvantaged and stateless minority – the Kurds. Bomb attacks this week in Ankara, blamed on Kurdish PKK militants, highlight the deteriorating internal security situation and stoke fears that Turkey's troubles could spill over into Syria and Iraq, further aggravating Arab spring instability.
Apparently oblivious to possible double standards, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, has been in voluble form of late. His tour last week of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia played upon a common theme – Turkey's support for the justified aspirations of oppressed peoples everywhere. Erdogan's long-running feud with Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians reached new heights when he warned the Turkish navy might escort future relief flotillas to Gaza. The author suggests that it's time Erdogan stopped playing Palestinian saviour and put Turkey's problems first.
Another article, devoted to Iranian problems is titled ‘Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: the deviant president’. The annual trip to the United Nations in New York will this year be a rite of passage for more than one leader. The spotlight is on the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, but in its own way Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's pilgrimage will be just as instructive. Last year, he flew into New York brimming with lines to lambast and provoke. He was the Islamic republic's trusted messenger. This year, if Ahmadinejad represents any faction in Iran it is one that has been branded "a deviant current". His political backers have been arrested, his chief of staff accused of involvement in a £1.64bn bank fraud, undermining clerical power and even sorcery. Iran's other power centres, such as the Revolutionary Guards, have distanced themselves from their errant protege. Or, to put it another way, Ahmadinejad has fallen out with his former patron, Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei – big time. The rift became public in April, but Ahmadinejad had long been thought to be grooming his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, as his successor.
The Hurriyet Daily News published an article headlined ‘The Islamic case for a secular state’ The author says that when Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promoted the secular state last week during his trip to Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, many were surprised. Especially ultra-secularist Turks, who are used to calling Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, “Islamist,” could not believe their eyes. The athor comes to a conclusion that ‘Today, Turkey is more secular but less secularist. And that is why it is making more sense to Arabs and other Muslims’.
According to the Los Angeles Times With world leaders in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Republican presidential hopefuls used the opportunity Tuesday to blamePresident Obama for the most contentious issues looming over the gathering, saying he had emboldened the Palestinians to push for statehood and endangered Israel by kowtowing toIran, Muslim militants, and, in the words of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, "the orchestrators of terrorism."
