World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (March 13, 2012)

The Washington Post reported that Iran is rejecting allegations that it attempted to clean up radioactive traces possibly left by tests of a nuclear-weapon trigger at a military site. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says the allegations are misleading because such traces are “not cleanable, at all.” Satellite images of Iran’s Parchin military facility that circulated last week appear to show trucks and earth-moving vehicles at Parchin. This set off assertions by diplomats, all nuclear experts accredited to the U.N. nuclear agency, about a cleanup. The assertions followed Iran’s reversal of a previous ban for U.N. inspectors to visit Parchin. They could add to the growing international pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes.

The same agency reported that Tehran says a U.N. human rights expert tasked with investigating the situation in Iran has produced a report based on statements by “terrorists.” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was reacting Tuesday to a report from Ahmed Shaheed claiming “a striking pattern of violations” in the Islamic Republic. Shaheed cited the arrest of journalists, harsh sentences for human rights lawyers, and cruel forms of punishment in the report presented Monday to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. The term “terrorist” is an apparent reference to the Mujahedin-e Khalq, a small exile group listed by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. The MEK says it has renounced violence, and also represents a very small fraction of the opposition to the government in Tehran.

The New York Times reported that Britain will add its voice to President Obama’s in discouraging an Israeli military strike on Iran when Prime Minister David Cameron begins a three-day visit here this week, a senior British diplomat said Monday. “The prime minister is pretty clear that he does not think military action against Iran would be helpful,” the diplomat, Peter Westmacott, Britain’s recently appointed ambassador to the United States, told reporters. “We do not regard that as the right way forward in the months to come.” Mr. Cameron, he said, supports Mr. Obama’s vow that Iran will not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. And, like the president, the prime minister believes military force must be preserved as an option. But an Israeli strike, Mr. Westmacott said, could “unleash a whole variety of different consequences” and might backfire by strengthening the Iranian regime and the resolve of the Iranian people to acquire nuclear status. Mr. Cameron said he believed that Mr. Obama’s warnings during Mr. Netanyahu’s visit about the consequences of an Israeli strike on Iran had “changed the situation,” in terms of its likelihood. As for Britain, he said, “We’ve been very clear: If there was an Israeli strike, we wouldn’t support them.”

The Turkish information agency Hurriyet published the article headlined “Turkish Navy adopts new high-sea strategy.” It says that Turkey’s Naval Forces aim to protect lanes of communication on the high seas to assure global maritime security and protect national interests under an austere defense budget as part of its new strategy, a top Turkish Navy commander has said. “Our force planners use strategic decision-making, focusing on sophisticated, modular designs that allow us to move toward economy in our operations with fewer crew and lower fuel costs. The objective is to maintain and develop a credible naval force despite budget constraints,” Admiral E. Murat Bilgel, commander of the Turkish Naval Forces, said in an interview in the March issue of Proceedings, a monthly magazine published by the United States Naval Institute. For these purposes, the Navy must be a versatile, well-trained, and well-equipped force that can be deployed at strategic distances, Bilgel said, adding that the force must be “fully interoperable with its military and nonmilitary counterparts while protecting sea lanes of communication and being prepared to support joint and combined land activities from the sea.”