World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (October 20, 2011)

The Washington Post reported that Hollywood organizations and entertainment unions are uniting in support of filmmakers jailed in Iran. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, American Society of Cinematographers, International Documentary Association and American Cinema Editors released statements Wednesday condemning the arrests of six independent filmmakers in Iran last month. The groups were joined by guilds representing directors, writers, actors and producers. The coalition also called for the release of other artists arrested for making movies.

The Los Angeles Times reported Turkey launched land and air assaults into neighboring Iraq on Wednesday after Kurdish militants killed at least 24 soldiers and injured 18 in the latest in a series of deadly strikes near the border, authorities said. The Turkish offensive across the Iraqi border included helicopter gunships, ground commandos and fighter jets, authorities said. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan canceled a foreign trip and labeled the operation a legal "hot pursuit" of terrorists operating out of Iraq's Kurdish region. The overnight attacks were blamed on the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, which has long used mountain bases in rugged northern Iraq to stage guerrilla-style attacks into Turkey, Erdogan said.

“U.S. Denies Iran Claims That Saudi Plot Defendant Belongs to Exile Group” is an article published by The New York Times. It says that Obama administration officials on Wednesday denied Iranian news reports that a man charged in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States is actually an agent of an exiled Iranian opposition group. “We note that these reports originate solely with Iranian state media sources, which have a documented history of fabricating news stories,” said Rhonda H. Shore, a State Department spokeswoman. American officials said they are sure that the man, Gholam Shakuri, is an officer of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, as asserted in the criminal complaint unveiled last week by the Justice Department.

The Turkish information agency Hurriyet published the article headlined “US seeks to ease Russia’s fears over radar system.” The United States has invited Russia to use its own radar technology to assess one or more U.S. missile-defense flight tests as part of a new push to persuade Moscow that a planned NATO missile defense system poses it no threat, a Pentagon official said Oct. 18. The idea is to let Russia measure for itself the performance of U.S. interceptor missiles being deployed in and around Europe in what Washington says is a layered shield against missiles that could be fired by countries like Iran.