World press on Iranian-Israeli tension, Caucasus militants, and Turkish efforts in Syria (August 18-22)

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that a senior Iranian commander says a possible Israeli airstrike against his country’s nuclear facilities is “welcome” because it would give Iran a reason to retaliate and “get rid of” the Jewish state “forever.” The remarks by Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guard’s air force, were reported Saturday by the official IRNA news agency. Hajizadeh says in the event of an Israeli strike, Iran’s response would be “swift, decisive and destructive.” But he also claims Israeli threats of a strike are just part of a psychological war against Iran. His comments are the latest in a war of words between the archenemies.

On Tuesday the same agency reported that Iran’s president unveiled an upgraded version of a short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile just weeks after it was test-fired, the country’s state-media reported. At the ceremony for Fateh-110, or Conqueror, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a group of defense officials that Iran wants to advance its defense technology “not in an aggressive context, but as a deterrence.” The official IRNA news agency reported Tuesday that the new version of Fateh-110 has a quicker launch capability, a longer life and can be used in adverse weather conditions, but gave no other details. The missile has been in service in Iran over the past decade. Iran claimed earlier in August that it successfully test-fired the missile, saying at the time that Fateh-110 has an improved accuracy to strike land and naval targets within a 300 kilometer (185 mile) range.

“Seeking to cool war fever over Iran” is an article published by The Washington Times on Wednesday. It says that the “P5+1” talks with Iran have been in recess during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but contact is expected to resume soon between the top negotiators. However, there is no any hint of a breakthrough that would ease the war fever, although some useful new ideas have been floated. By the end of August, Catherine Ashton, the European diplomat who is the chief negotiator for the P5+1, will likely talk by phone about next steps with Saeed Jalili, the representative of Iran’s supreme leader. The possibilities include another technical meeting of experts or deputy negotiators, or a full, top-level negotiating session. The P5+1 nations (the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany) are still discussing their bargaining position. Unofficially, Iranians have signaled that they would be ready to export their stockpile of 20 percent uranium and cap future enrichment at 5 percent. This comes closer to meeting U.S. concerns, but it still leaves Iran with a big stockpile of about 6,000 kilograms of low-enriched uranium that could fuel a breakout — to “dash” toward a bomb. It’s this ability that most worries Israel. The all-too-real possibility is that negotiations will remain deadlocked and Israel will decide to take unilateral military action. In the resulting fog of war, there will be a need for reliable communications in the Persian Gulf and a hotline with Tehran. Establishing these communications links is an urgent priority, as the rumors of war continue.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that a suicide bomber killed seven police officers who were attending the funeral of a slain colleague on Sunday morning in Ingushetia, a predominantly Muslim republic in the North Caucasus where Russia has long struggled to suppress a separatist insurgency. At least 15 other people were wounded, 4 of them critically, in the attack, which occurred in the Malgobek district, a little more than 1,000 miles south of Moscow. Officials said that some of the wounded would be flown to Moscow for treatment. The victims were paying their last respects to a fellow officer, Ilez Korigov, who was shot to death on Saturday night. A 14-year-old girl who was a bystander was also wounded in that shooting.

The Turkish information agency Hurriyet Daily News reported today that the first meeting of the working group of Turkish and U.S. delegations on the Syrian crisis will gather in Ankara on Thursday. Turkey and the United States agreed to a closer cooperation on Syria when Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Istanbul on Aug. 11. and decided to establish the mechanism. Diplomats, military officials and intelligence members will participate in the meeting, which will be held in the Foreign Ministry, diplomatic sources said. “The U.S. and Turkey will sit down together to share an operational picture, to talk about the effectiveness of what we’re doing now, and about what more we can do,” U.S. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said Aug. 20.  “This was not a bricks-and-mortar center. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. This is a bilateral conversation across the interagency,” Nuland said.

The same agency wrote that Iran’s Science and Higher Education Ministry has banned women from enrolling in 77 university departments on the grounds that there is no work for them once they graduate from post-secondary education, according to the Telegraph.  "Our experience in the past showed us that even if women graduate from these departments, they fail to work actively in these fields," a ministry official said. “Departments like agriculture and mining are unfit for the female nature,” the official also said. With the move, women will no longer be capable of becoming engineers, nuclear physicists, archaeologists, business graduates and computer scientists as these and other departments in over 35 Iranian universities will henceforth only admit male students. English literature, translation and hotel management are some of the other banned departments.