Press review on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (January 6, 2012)

The Washington Post reported that at a time when U.S. officials are increasingly confident that economic and political pressure alone may succeed in curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the mood here has turned bleak and belligerent as Iranians prepare grimly for a period of prolonged hardship and, they fear, war. In Tehran, that tightening is being felt by millions of people, economists and independent analysts say the sanctions have aggravated the country’s chronic economic problems and fueled a currency crisis that is limiting the availability of a broad array of goods. Ahmadinejad has allowed domestic energy prices to rise and ended massive state subsidies. But, at the same time, he has sought to ease the pain through direct state aid, paying 60 million Iranians nearly $40 a month.

The same agency reported that a former Cabinet member close to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is calling for a rerun of the country’s fraud-tinged parliamentary elections. Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said in his blog Friday that the government must open a dialogue with the opposition on holding a repeat ballot under a revised electoral law. Kudrin’s statement appears aimed at bolstering Putin, whose bid to reclaim the presidency in March elections has been undermined by the public outrage over last month’s parliamentary vote. Kudrin said authorities must acknowledge that the Dec. 4 parliamentary election was unfair, warning that failure to do so would undermine the legitimacy of the presidential vote.

The Los Angeles Times published the article headlined “Strait talk with Iran.” It says that The world has grown used to chest-thumping by Tehran, and there was nothing particularly noteworthy about the exercises conducted by Iranian armed forces last week to demonstrate their ability to close the Strait of Hormuz. But how the U.S. reacts to the threats is crucially important. Iran's large arsenal of mines would certainly present a challenge to shipping in the region if Tehran makes good on its threat. Iran has the ability to lay mines from many platforms: small boats, combatants, submarines, midget submarines, even merchant ships. And Western navies, including America's, have long underinvested in minesweeping technology. The U.S. Navy and its allies would be challenged, therefore, to sweep the strait clear of mines laid in large numbers.

The Turkish information agency Hurriyet reported that Iran’s foreign minister said yesterday he would like to see talks with world powers on his country’s nuclear program resume in Turkey but was waiting for a venue and date to be agreed upon. “Personally I think that Turkey is the best place for the talks to take place. But it should be at a place of mutual agreement,” Ali Akbar Salehi said in a televised joint news conference with his counterpart Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Agence France-Presse reported. Salehi said he had asked EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, who was representing the world powers, to propose a time and place for the talks when the two met briefly recently in the German city of Bonn. Ashton’s office, however, has said it was still waiting for Iran to formally respond to an October 2011 letter Ashton sent offering to resume the talks, which were suspended a year ago.