World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (November 5-8, 2011)

The Washington Post published the article headlined “The growing threat of Iran’s nuclear program.” It says that this week the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Is expected to report new details on Iran’s efforts to design a nuclear device.  This is worrying enough, but the true measure of Iran’s progress toward nuclear weapons capability is the rate at which it is producing enriched uranium. By this measure, Iran is closer than ever to a nuclear weapon and its nuclear enrichment program has not been slowed but, rather, continues to accelerate. The last IAEA inspection report, issued in September, found almost 6,000 centrifuges spinning at Iran’s enrichment facility at Natanz — more than ever before — and these centrifuges were enriching faster than ever. More troubling still has been Iran’s foray into progressively highly levels of uranium enrichment.

The same agency reported that Iran needs to show “flexibility and sincerity” over its nuclear program, China’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, as tensions rise ahead of the release of a new report on its atomic activities by a U.N. agency. Spokesman Hong Lei said China is firmly opposed to any use of force against Iran to prevent it from acquiring an atomic weapon. “China always holds that the Iranian nuclear issue should be properly solved through dialogue and cooperation,” Hong told a daily news briefing. “The Iranian side should also show flexibility and sincerity,” he said.

The theme of the Iranian nuclear program is continued by The Los Angeles Times. It reported that The IAEA report provides no "smoking gun" proof that Iran's government intends to build a nuclear weapon, said a European diplomat. But the report is likely to add pressure on the Islamic Republic, and bolster those who have called for stiffer sanctions or military strikes in an effort to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed state. Iran insists its nuclear program is only for civilian purposes, and Iranian officials suggest documents buttressing the U.N. report are forged. The report cites previously undisclosed evidence indicating that Iranian scientists secretly developed nuclear technology after 2003, despite a widely publicized U.S. intelligence assessment in 2007 that Iran had halted such work four years earlier.

“Turkey's main opposition warns government on charter method” is an article published by the Turkish information agency Hurriyet. It says that main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has warned that a parliamentary drive to rewrite Turkey’s Constitution could become meaningless if the government refuses to review the 26 constitutional amendments approved during last year’s referendum. The head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) challenged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to publicly confirm media reports that he was against discussing last year’s amendments, which the opposition blames for having placed the judiciary under government control. The CHP “does not wish to give negative messages” at a time when the cross-party Constitution Conciliation Commission is just beginning its work, but Turkey needs to embrace the standards of Western democracy, Kılıçdaroğlu said.

The Iranian information agency Press TV reported that Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi says the country's natural gas output will rise to 1.47 billion cubic meters per day by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015). The minister put the amount of current daily gas production at 630-650 million cubic meters and said, “By the end of the Fifth [Five-Year Development] Plan, most of Iran's [natural] gas will be produced at the joint fields with Qatar and Saudi Arabia,” IRNA reported on Tuesday. Qasemi said that an increase in oil production is also high on the ministry's agenda, and attached further importance to the production and exports of oil products.