World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (March 21, 2012)

The Washington Post reported that President Obama delivered his annual message to the Iranian people on Tuesday, using a far more confrontational tone than usual to say that he will seek ways to break through the “electronic curtain” that Tehran has thrown over the Internet and other forms of communication. “I want the Iranian people to know that America seeks a dialogue to hear your views and understand your aspirations,” Obama said in his message to mark Nowruz, the Persian new year. “The United States will continue to draw attention to the electronic curtain that is cutting the Iranian people off from the world,” he said. “And we hope that others will join us in advancing a basic freedom for the Iranian people: the freedom to connect with one another and with their fellow human beings.” Since taking office, Obama has used his Nowruz message to speak directly to Iranians in an attempt to stake out common ground between the United States and the Islamic republic.

The same agency reported that oil prices rose to near $107 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showed U.S. crude supplies fell unexpectedly, a sign demand may be improving. Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 61 cents to $106.68 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.49 to settle at $106.07 per barrel in New York on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia said it could pump more oil to cover any shortages. Brent crude for May delivery was up 32 cents at $124.44 a barrel in London. The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude inventories fell 1.4 million barrels last week, breaking a two-month trend of growing supplies. Analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had predicted an increase of 2.1 million barrels.

The Guardian reported that two large suburbs of Damascus came under heavy tank bombardment on Wednesday following renewed Free Syrian Army attacks on forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, opposition activists said. Artillery and anti-aircraft gun barrages hit the suburbs of Harasta and Irbin, retaken from rebels by Assad's forces two months ago, and army helicopters were heard flying over the area, on the eastern edge of the capital, the activists said. Assad's forces reasserted their control of Damascus suburbs in January after days of tank and artillery shelling that beat back rebels and lessened street protests against the 42-year rule of Assad and his father, the late President Hafez al-Assad. As Assad made advances on the ground, he appeared to suffer a setback on the diplomatic front, with key ally Moscow adopting a sharper tone after months of publicly standing by his government. "We believe the Syrian leadership reacted wrongly to the first appearance of peaceful protests and ... is making very many mistakes," foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian radio station Kommersant-FM. "This, unfortunately, has in many ways led the conflict to reach such a severe stage." Lavrov spoke of a "future transition" period for Syria but continued to reject calls from most western and Arab states for Assad to resign, saying this was "unrealistic".

The Turkish information agency Hurriyet reported that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has announced that it will not accept any case from Turkey in connection to long detention periods until September because Ankara is currently drafting formulas to address the issue. The ECHR has called on Turkey to establish a special commission to handle cases on the excessive length of judicial proceedings and long detention periods before they are taken to Strasbourg as a means to address the backlog of cases. “The court held, with regard to the applications pending before it and those lodged between now and Sept. 22, 2012, that Turkey had to put in place … an effective remedy affording adequate and sufficient redress in cases where judicial proceedings exceeded a reasonable time,” the court said. Turkey, which ranks after Russia in the number of cases taken to the ECHR, has been trying to reduce the number of cases at the court after they climbed up to nearly 3,000 complaints – many of which were lodged in relation to long detention periods.