World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (February 28, 2012)

The Washington Post reported that Iran’s foreign minister has called for other countries to chose engagement over confrontation in resolving their differences over his nation’s nuclear program. Ali Akbar Salehi told the U.N.-hosted Conference on Disarmament that “nuclear energy is not equated with nuclear weapons” and Iran has no intention to develop weapons of mass destruction. Iran claims its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. But the International Atomic Energy Agency has raised alarms that its uranium enrichment program might be a precursor to building nuclear weapons. Salehi told reporters after the meeting Tuesday that he is optimistic upcoming meeting with IAEA officials will resolve a recent impasse over the agency’s monitoring program.

The same agency reported that Iran put to death more than twice as many people in 2011 as it did the year before, Amnesty International said Monday in a new report. The rights group said that the rate of executions in public increased even more dramatically, in an apparent bid to suppress political dissent and promote a climate of fear among those who might defy harsh Iranian law. “Casting a shadow over all those who fall foul of Iran’s unjust justice system is the mounting toll of people sentenced to death and executed,” said the 70-page report, released in the run-up to Iran’s parliamentary elections on March 2. The report said the heightened pace of executions “may be a strategy to spread fear among the population and to deter protests. As the repression of dissenters widens, the risk of further death sentences and executions cannot be excluded.”

The same theme was touched on by The New York Times in the article headlined “Report Details Repression in Iran Ahead of Vote.” It says that one of the most prominent dissidents discussed in the report is Jafar Panahi, the celebrated filmmaker whose case was discussed on The Lede earlier today. The Iranian government appeared to have begun a quiet campaign to short-circuit protests and dissent ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for March 2. Even after the crackdown in 2009, Ms. Auerbach said, people still felt that they could communicate with the outside world. But with more recent sentences of journalists and bloggers, she said, there is a new climate of uncertainty and fear. “All bets are off,” she said. She pointed to the case of Saeed Malekpour, who, according to CNN, lives in Toronto but was arrested while visiting family in Iran in 2008. He had created a program to upload photographs and was sentenced to death on charges related to spreading pornography. “That would not have happened a few years ago,” she said. A year after Iran first created a security force dedicated to hunting down political opponents and punishing dissent and countering the spread of information on social networks, the country’s cyber-crimes police force has become fully operational in recent weeks throughout Iran, according to the report.

The Turkish information agency Hurriyet reported that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem has dismissed the possibility of a military intervention led by Turkey while also promising that the Arab republic would “resist” any invasion. In an interview yesterday with a group of reporters in Damascus, al-Muallem said Turkey was “suspicious” toward the Syrian government and that he blamed Ankara for being “a part of the plan” against Damascus.  The Syrian government will “resist a military intervention,” al-Muallem said following Feb. 26’s constitutional referendum, adding that he did not believe such military action would come from Turkey. “Frankly speaking, I do not see this [military intervention from Turkey] happening. I believe there is some wisdom left in Turkey,” he said, while also noting Turkey’s stance. The minister also said, “As long as this policy continues against Syria I do not see a future for relations [with Turkey].”