World Press on Turkey, Iran and the Caucasus (January 12, 2012)

Tensions over Iran's nuclear program continue to grow and remain at the center of today's world press. "Iran Says Scientist's Murder Reveals Global Terror Campaign" is an article published today by the San Francisco Chronicle. The paper reports that the Iranian government said in a letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that a civilian nuclear scientist who was killed by a bomb yesterday was the latest victim of a foreign terror campaign against Iranian nuclear scientists. Iranian officials have accused the U.S. and Israel of targeting Iranian nuclear scientists in an effort to halt Iran's nuclear program, which Western nations say may be aimed at producing atomic weapons. The nuclear scientist, Mostafa Ahamdi Rosham,  killed yesterday in a bomb blast was the fourth victim to be targeted in similar attacks, the newspaper quotes the words of Mohammad Khazaee, Iran's ambassador to the UN.

"Iranian paper urges retaliation against Israel in bombing" is an article published by USA Today. An Iranian newspaper called to revenge the death of the nuclear scientist who died in a bomb blast yesterday. A column in the Kayhan newspaper by chief editor Hossein Shariatmadari asked why Iran did not avenge Roshan, a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, by striking Israel, the newspaper reports.


The Washington Post reported that China did not show a particular interesting in reducing its oil imports from Iran during talks with Obama administration, but Chinese officials appeared more open to US attempts to block Iranian access to international finance through Chinese banks. If China, one of the most important customers for Iranian crude oil, purchasing roughly 22 percent of Iran's oil last year, imposed economic sanctions on Iran, it would seriously target its economic well-being.

The Hurriyet Daily reported that a Russian-owned arms-laden ship docked today in Syria after having been released from Cyprus. A Russian ship that made an unscheduled stop in Greek Cyprus while carrying tons of arms has arrived at the Syrian port of Tartus, Turkish foreign ministry official Selçuk Ünal told journalists, the newspaper reports. The Chariot was reportedly carrying between 35 and 60 tons of munitions and explosives bound for the port of Latakia in Syria. The cargo ship has technically violated the EU embargo on any shipments to Syria. The newspaper states that since Russia and Turkey are not members of the European Union, the route of the ship would not have violated the embargo imposed to protest Syria’s crackdown on the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.