World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (March 20, 2012)

The Washington Post reported that Iran’s supreme leader said Tuesday that more support for domestic industrial production can counter Western sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program. The statement by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei marking the Iranian new year is the latest in a series of displays of defiance by the country’s senior leadership against the pressures — ranging from sanctions to the option of future military strikes — placed on Iran by the U.S. and the West. IRNA agency quoted Khamenei as saying that Iran can withstand the economic pressures, which include blocking many Iranian banks from the network that handles most international banking transfers. The Iranian leader said government should support industry and agriculture. Investors and workers should boost production and consumers should choose domestic products rather than imported ones.

The same agency reported that the Russian military must prepare to counter U.S. missile defense plans in Europe even as talks between Moscow and Washington are ongoing, President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday. Medvedev told a meeting of Russia’s top military brass that the country “isn’t shutting the door to dialogue,” but nevertheless must get ready to take military countermeasures. “By 2017-2018 we must be fully prepared, fully armed,” Medvedev said in televised comments, referring to his earlier threat to aim missiles at the U.S.-led NATO missile shield if no agreement is reached. NATO has said it wants to cooperate with Russia on the missile shield, but the alliance has rejected Russia’s proposal to run it jointly.

The New York Times published the article headlined “Strained by Sanctions, Iran Eases Money Policy.” It says that Few Iranian money changers had been willing to sell dollars at the official rate, 12,260 rials to the dollar, because it was unprofitable for them.  The glaring absence had caused a surge in illicit money changing in Iran, in which buyers who needed dollars were willing to pay ever-increasing numbers of rials for them, pushing the unofficial market rate to about 19,000 rials to the dollar.  Economists said the eased exchange rate restriction, which was announced on Sunday, appeared to be a bow to reality. Dollars and precious metals like gold are coveted in Iran because they have proved to be an effective hedge against the rial’s weakness from worsening inflation, estimated to be more than 20 percent a year.

The Turkish information agency Hurriyet reported that Turkey said Tuesday it was bringing forward by a day to April 1 a "Friends of Syria" conference in Istanbul, designed to pressure the Damascus regime into halting its crackdown on opponents. "We have decided to bring the meeting forward for technical reasons," a Turkish diplomat said of the gathering originally set for April 2. The Istanbul meeting comes after a first "Friends of Syria" conference in Tunis on February 24 which was attended by leading officials from Western and Arab countries.