World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (December 29, 2011)

Iran remains at the center of attention of western media. "U.S. warns Iran
against closing Hormuz Strait" is an article published by the San Francisco
Chronicle. The newspaper reports that the US strongly warned Iran on
Wednesday against closing the vital Persian Gulf waterway, which carries
one-sixth of the world's oil supply, after Iran threatened to close
traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in case Washington imposes sanctions
targeting the country's oil exports.

Against the background of this event, prices of oil fell on Wednesday, as
Saudi Arabia said it will offset any loss of oil from a threatened Iranian
blockade of a crucial tanker route in the Middle East. In New York
benchmark crude fell by 1.15$ and amounted to 100.19$ a barrel, Reuters and
BusinessWeek report today.

"Turkish jets kill 35 in airstrike after mistaking smugglers for
terrorists" is an article published by the Daily Mail. At least 35 died in an
air strike in Turkey after the government apparently mistook smugglers for
Kurdish militants, Turkish officials informed today. The strikes are being
made in the battle against Kurdistan Workers Party guerrillas, the
newspaper reports.

On Wednesday Turkey warned France it would take further actions against
Paris should the French senate pass a bill making it a crime to deny that the
1915 mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey constituted genocide, the
Chicago Tribune reports. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan slammed the bill as
"politics based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia" and turned his
anger on French President Nicolas Sarkozy, accusing France of colonial
massacres in Algeria. France is Turkey's fifth biggest export market and
the sixth biggest source of its imports, with bilateral trade worth $14
billion in the first 10 months of 2011."Afghanistan roadside bomb leaves 10
police dead" Guardian reports today. Afghan officials reported today that a
roadside bomb killed 10 police officers and wounded one other in
south-western Helmand province. In a separate incident, two members of the
French foreign legion were killed by an Afghan national army soldier. The
Guardian places the shooting in the context of the latest attacks by
members of the Afghan security forces against their coalition partners.
Such attacks have raised fears of increased Taliban infiltration of the
Afghan police and army, as Nato speeds up the training of the security
forces, the Guardian reports.