World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (February 29, 2012)

The Washington Post reported that Iranian officials are giving journalists working for international media their first look inside a control center for the Islamic Republic’s ambitious space program. Wednesday’s tour of the Alborz Station appears to be part of efforts to show Iran’s willingness to allow access to some sensitive facilities as it faces pressure to open nuclear sites to wide-ranging U.N. inspections. The media trip also is seen as a way to showcase Iran’s space program. Iran says it launched its latest satellite into orbit earlier this month. Space agency officials say the site has no military links, and is only used to control satellites and conduct other scientific work. It’s located about 40 miles (70 kilometers) west of Tehran.

The same agency reported that the arrest in Los Angeles in December of Seyed Mojtaba Atarodi, a U.S.-educated electrical engineer who teaches at a leading Iranian university, comes as the U.S. uses export controls to try to restrict Iran’s acquisition of U.S. technology, including for its military and nuclear programs. But the Atarodi case bears another hallmark of the long-running U.S.-Iran conflict: It’s cloaked in secrecy. U.S. officials won’t discuss the case or confirm that Atarodi has been charged. He has appeared in federal district court in San Francisco at least twice, but both proceedings were closed. The indictment against the Iranian microchip expert, who holds a U.S. green card, remains sealed nearly three months after his arrest at Los Angeles International Airport as he arrived from Iran. Both governments have “a political stake in the outcome,” said Atarodi’s lawyer, Matthew David Kohn. He added that he was not at liberty to discuss the case further.

The Guardian reported that the United States has drafted an outline for a new UN security council resolution demanding access for humanitarian aid workers in besieged Syrian towns and an end to the violence there, Reuters reports. French foreign minister Alain Juppe said the council was working on a third resolution focusing on the escalating humanitarian crisis caused by Assad's military operations against protesters that the United Nations says have killed over 7,500 civilians. China, which has twice blocked earlier UN resolutions, said it backs international efforts to send humanitarian aid to Syria.Saudi Arabia is serious about arming the Free Syrian Army, writes Jonathan Schanzer in Foreign Policy magazine as reports emerge that claiming gun running from Riyadh is already under way.

The Turkish information agency Hurriyet published the article headlined “French court cancels ‘genocide’ denial bill.” It says that France’s Constitutional Council has struck down a government-backed law criminalizing denials of the 1915 events as genocide on the grounds that it contradicts the French constitution in a move that looks set to ward off a deepening crisis in Turkish-French ties.  Ankara expressed its satisfaction with the law and said this would remove hurdles standing in the way of the improvement of relations between the two countries. The council’s decision was posted on the official website late yesterday after a month-long examination of the much discussed law.

The same agency reported that Turkey is entertaining the possibility of working with the international community to establish a humanitarian corridor into Syria without a U.N. Security Council directive as it did in Kosovo in 1999. Establishing corridors needs a United Nations Security Council mandate, but Russia and China, who both have veto power, have said they would not allow the passage of any resolution they see as unbalanced. If Russia and China keep blocking attempts for U.N. Security Council measures against the Syrian regime, the international community could seek alternative legitimate ways to create a humanitarian corridor into Syria.