Turkish Forum

Category: Iran

  • Ban Ki-Moon calls on Turkish youth to take role in world politics

    Ban Ki-Moon calls on Turkish youth to take role in world politics

    United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called for young people to take an active role in the world of politics in a remarking speech at Boğaziçi University on Friday.

    “As young people living in Turkey you should aim beyond here for broader security and prosperity in the world,” said Ban.

    Referring to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Greece last week and Turkey’ efforts to come to an agreement with Iran on the exchange of enriched uranium, Ban said Turkey has a dynamic diplomacy and a solid economy in times of crisis.

    He said Turkey’s credibility is increasing more and added that Turkey has three ways to go further in the international arena. First is by increasing its active contribution to the issues in its region and the world. “Turkey has learned the right to speak up, let your voice be heard and clear on the issues of security and peace. You have to become a force of progress in the region,” said Ban.

    Secondly, Turkey should do more efforts to give power to women. Thirdly, the alliance of civilizations, an initiative supported by Turkey and many other states, should be an ongoing project. “I feel proud to be part of this process and the United States will join as the hundredth member. Turkey has been second to none in supporting this initiative and as students of this university you have the power to contribute,” said Ban.

    As a former diplomat from South Korea, Ban made an emotional speech on Turkey’s deployment of troops to Korea back in the early 1950s. “We are all grateful to your sacrifice; you were one of the first to answer the call from the U.N. back then. Turkish soldiers went to fight for liberty and peace in a place where they didn’t know following their government’s orders. Out of 5,000 Turks who fought, nearly 500 of them died, but in the end they were there celebrating the victory with us,” said Ban, adding that Turks and South Koreans have been friends and brothers since then.

    Meanwhile, Ban said the Cyprus issue would definitely be on his agenda on his meeting with Erdoğan on Saturday.

    Hürriyet Daily News

  • Brazil, Turkey to discuss Iran

    Brazil, Turkey to discuss Iran

    The leaders of UN Security Council members Brazil and Turkey, who recently signed a nuclear fuel swap declaration with Iran, are to meet next week.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during his three-visit to the Latin American country starting on Wednesday, AFP quoted diplomats from both countries as saying on Thursday.

    Following trilateral talks, Iran, Brazil and Turkey issued a joint declaration on Monday under which Iran agreed to send its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for the nuclear fuel it needs for medical purposes.

    Only one day after the declaration, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington had reached an agreement with other veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council for imposing a fourth round of sanctions against Iran.

    The diplomats said the two leaders would meet on Thursday over a working lunch in Brasilia.

    Both Brazil and Turkey, which are non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, opposed the new resolution, reaffirming their commitment to a diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear issue.

    The UNSC comprises of five permanent — Britain, China, France, Russia and the US — and 10 temporary members. In order to be approved, the resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by permanent members.

    Press TV

  • US ambassador hails Turkey’s role in Iran talks

    US ambassador hails Turkey’s role in Iran talks

    U.S. Ambassador to Ankara James Jeffrey said Wednesday that Turkey has played crucial role as a mediator regarding Iran’s nuclear problem for some time.

    Answering questions of journalists at an industrial zone in Ankara, Jeffrey said another mediator Brazil was in close cooperation with Turkey. U.S. President Barack Obama met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Washington, D.C. and they discussed the issue of being a mediator for Iran’s nuclear problem, Jeffrey said.

    Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu expressed hope on Wednesday that diplomatic efforts Turkey jointly exerted with Brazil yielded a positive result over Iran’s nuclear program. “We are continuing our vigorous consultations in full coordination with Brazil. We will have fresh initiatives in the coming days and I hope our joint efforts will bring about positive results,” Davutoglu told reporters in a press meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Kostyantyn Hryshchenko in capital Kiev.

    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has agreed “in principle” to a Brazilian role in breaking the deadlock over a U.N.-backed nuclear fuel swap with the West.

    Under the U.N. plan first put forward in 2009, Western powers would send nuclear fuel rods to a Tehran reactor in exchange for Iran’s stock of lower-level enriched uranium. The U.S. and its allies fear Iran’s disputed nuclear program aims to build nuclear weapons, and view the swap as a way to curb Tehran’s capacity to do so.

    Brazil denies nuclear swap plan

    Iran, which insists its nuclear program only aims to generate electricity, rejected the original exchange proposal. At the same time, the country’s leaders have worked to keep the offer on the table, proposing variations, though without accepting the terms set in the U.N. proposal.

    A statement posted on Ahmadinejad’s website late Tuesday said during a telephone conversation with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the Iranian president “announced his agreement in principle” to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s mediation proposal.

    However, a spokesman for Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday Brasilia had not made an official offer to mediate yet, but that Brazil was ready to help with talks any way it can.

    A Brazilian foreign ministry spokesman told AFP that no such plan had been proposed during a visit to Tehran last month by Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.

    “We were informed that an official Iranian government website mentioned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supported a Brazilian ‘program.’ But there was no presentation of a formal program during the foreign minister’s visit,” the spokesman said.

    Brazil and Turkey, which are currently non-permanent members of the Security Council, oppose a new round of sanctions, insisting that only talks will resolve the impasse.

    —–

    Compiled from AA, AFP and AP reports by the Daily News staff.

    www.Hurriyetdailynews.com
  • China, Turkey want diplomacy on Iran

    China, Turkey want diplomacy on Iran

    UN Security Council member states China and Turkey have reiterated commitment to finding a diplomatic solution to the impasse over Iran’s civilian nuclear program.

    “We will do everything possible to build trust between Iran and the United States and Iran and the West to avoid a military confrontation and possible sanctions,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted as saying by London-based Al-Hayat newspaper.

    Davutoglu went on to call for “more diplomatic efforts to engage with Iran in order to build trust between (all) sides.”

    The remarks come one day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in an address before the 2010 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) at the UN headquarters in New York, confronted the United States for refusing to exclude Iran from the list of countries that could become the target of US nukes.

    Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters on Tuesday that the permanent UNSC member state was in favor of “relevant measures” to help resolve the issue through talks.

    “Dialogue and negotiations are the best way out to resolve this issue and relevant discussions are still under way,” she added.

    Washington and its allies are rallying support for tougher UNSC sanctions against Iran. However, the imposition of sanctions requires nine affirmative votes including those of the five veto-wielding members of the Security Council.

    Permanent UNSC member China and temporary members Turkey and Brazil are among the countries that support Iran’s right to a peaceful nuclear program.

    While the West accuses Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program, Tehran has repeatedly rejected the allegation and argues that as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it is entitled to the peaceful use of the technology for electricity generation and medical research.

    President Ahmadinejad offered an itemized proposal to the NPT review conference, calling for measures to limit the power held by nuclear armed states in the UNSC.

    Press TV
    ZHD/HGH

  • Iran working to avoid tougher sanctions

    Iran working to avoid tougher sanctions

    iran

    Iran seeks to persuade Security Council not to back tough nuclear sanctions

    By Thomas Erdbrink

    Washington Post Foreign Service
    Wednesday, April 21, 2010

    TEHRAN — Facing increasing momentum behind a U.S.-backed bid for new sanctions against it, Iran is launching a broad diplomatic offensive aimed at persuading as many U.N. Security Council members as possible to oppose tougher punishment for its nuclear program.

    Iran wants to focus on reviving stalled talks about a nuclear fuel swap to build trust on all sides, according to politicians and diplomats in Tehran. But leaders of Western nations say that unless Iran alters its conditions for the deal, they will refuse to discuss it again. Under the arrangement, aimed at breaking an impasse over Iran’s uranium-enrichment efforts, Tehran would exchange the bulk of its low-enriched uranium for more highly enriched fuel for a research reactor that produces medical isotopes.

    As Iranian diplomats fly around the world to discuss the swap, they are lobbying some of the Security Council’s rotating members to vote against a fourth round of sanctions proposed by the United States, officials said.

    The Obama administration is seeking unanimous support for further Security Council sanctions against Iran. Three previous rounds of sanctions were accepted by all members, except in 2008, when Indonesia abstained. This time, Iran is actively working to get more Security Council members to oppose the U.S. initiative.

    “In the coming 10 days, the Islamic republic’s delegations will travel to the capitals of Russia, China, Lebanon and Uganda to pursue talks,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said. “Other countries will be visited in the near future.” He said that “nuclear issues” will be on the agenda.

    Iran also plans to try to rally support during an international conference to review the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In Tehran’s view, the gathering, scheduled for May in New York, is shaping up as a confrontation between nuclear powers and developing nations.

    Iran’s official stance is that the U.N. sanctions are not effective. But unofficially, any vote against a new sanctions resolution would be welcomed as a great diplomatic victory.

    “The groups we are sending out will be focusing on the correct implementation of the NPT, the disarmament trend and fuel-swap issues,” said Kazem Jalali, a member of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee. “Naturally, our explanations during the trips will have a positive effect against the efforts by the United States in trying to impose new sanctions.”

    To start its diplomatic offensive, Iran held a nuclear disarmament conference last weekend that several Security Council members attended. The meeting, with its motto of “nuclear energy for all, nuclear weapons for none,” focused on what Iran and other developing nations call “double standards” and “discriminatory elements” in the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

    Participants in the Tehran conference shared complaints that world powers are using proliferation fears as a reason to prevent developing nations from establishing independent nuclear energy programs.

    Iran’s diplomatic effort seems especially aimed at developing nations such as Brazil, Nigeria and Turkey, which hold rotating seats on the 15-member Security Council. Iran is also betting that council members Lebanon — which has a government that includes members of Iran-backed Hezbollah — and Uganda might vote against new sanctions or abstain.

    As a part of the campaign, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will begin a two-day state visit Friday to Uganda, where he is expected to promise help in building an oil refinery.

    Brazil and Turkey already have said they are wary of imposing additional punishment on Tehran. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, visiting Iran on Tuesday, announced that his country is ready to mediate on the uranium swap proposal and other nuclear issues.

    The U.N.-backed arrangement, proposed in October, was the subject of promising initial negotiations. But it was soon shelved after Iran repeatedly changed its conditions, saying the exchange should take place on Iranian soil and demanding more Western security guarantees.

    With Western nations insisting that the swap occur outside Iran, Turkey offered last year to act as a neutral location for the exchange, but Tehran was not interested, diplomats said.

    Asked Tuesday about the proposal, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters, “The venue of any fuel swap will be in Iran.”

    Special correspondent Kay Armin Serjoie contributed to this report.

  • Looking beyond the Golan Heights: Baku as a possible mediator in the Middle East

    Looking beyond the Golan Heights: Baku as a possible mediator in the Middle East

    Gulnara Inandzh
    Director
    International Online Information Analytic Center Ethnoglobus,

    related info www.turkishnews.com

    mete62@inbox.ru

    Syrian President Bashar Asad’s visit to Baku, which took place immediately after Israeli President Shimon Peres visited Azerbaijan and which Asad said bore a strategic character, points to a possible mediating role for Azerbaijan in negotiations between Syria and Israel. [1] That is all the more the case because over the last several years, both Israel and the United States have pushed for the strengthening of the position of Azerbaijan in the Middle East in order to have another partner there alongside Turkey.

    Indeed, now a suitable time has arisen as a result of that effort, and consequently, Tel Aviv and Washington have offered Azerbaijan a mediating mission in the Middle East and the role of a gas transit route to Europe bypassing Russia.  For the first role, Azerbaijan is a key to American and Israeli efforts to reduce Russian influence in Iran and Syria and more precisely to cut the tie among the members of this triangle.  And consequently, Israel and the US have offered concessions and attractive proposals.

    In the dialogue between Damascus and Jerusalem, the primary focus is on the return to Syria of the Golan Heights which have been under Israeli occupation since the Six day way in 1967.  During his visit to Baku, President Peres said that “Syrian President Bashar Asad must understand that he cannot  receive on a silver platter the Golan Heights if he continues his ties with Iran and his support of Hezbollah. [2] At the same time, he sent a message to Tehran with whom a discussion on the Syrian question appears to be in the offing.

    If it is able to achieve its goals, Israel may return the Golan Heights, but having given up these territories, Tel Aviv must receive a security guarantee for Israel.  However, Damascus cannot completely break its ties with Teheran and its satellite Hezbollah and give a full guarantee that after the return of the strategically important Heights, Iran will not terrorize Israel.  Only Tehran can give a guarantee of non-aggression against Israel whether or not the Golan Heights are returned. [3]

    The Golan Heights are only the visible part of a game behind which stand the economic security of the Middle East and the West.  After Peres and Asad visited Baku, US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg arrived, along with Philip Gordon, the assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasia.  During the visit, they discussed with Azerbaijan’s leadership the issue of US support for the diversification of energy supplies.  Stressing that the US is not seeking to exclude Russia from this process, he pointed to a variety of energy plans that would involve Azerbaijan with Syria and Iran.  At the same time, with this set of talks, conversations about the Nabucco gas pipeline, which would reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, took off.

    And at the same time, US President Barak Obama decided to reopen the American embassy in Damascus which had been closed four years ago.

    All these statements and actions help explain why Damascus has now declared its readiness to be part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline and to purchase oil from Iraq.

    Of course, the US and Israel, by attracting Syria to their side, intend to isolate Iran, but since all the major Iranian gas fields remain beyond the control of the West, it is hardly possible to gain the complete isolation of Iran.  Therefore, for the US and Israel, it is important to involve Iran in a dialogue through one or another third country, including among them Azerbaijan.  But the most important link in this chain is the freeing of Iran from Russian manipulation.  For that, Iran must become involved in one of the Western gas projects, otherwise the Iranian-Armenian gas pipeline through Georgia will become tied to Russia and Iranian gas will be under the control of the Kremlin.

    In addition to this, the time has come for the development of new gas fields in the Caspian, part of which are in disputed areas.  And here too it is necessary to free Iran from Russian influence since official Iranian circles consider that not Tehran but rather Russia is preventing the resolution of the status of the Caspian.  Therefore, a mediating role for Azerbaijan among the US, Israel and Syria will require the intensification of negotiations between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Iran.

    Notes

    [1] “Azerbaijan will reconcile Syria with Israel” [in Russian], 11 July, available at: (accessed 3 August 2009).
    [2] RosBalt (2009) “Israel: Syria will not be able to both get the Golan Heights and continue its friendship with Iran” [in Russian], RosBalt, 6 July, available at: (accessed 3 August 2009).

    [3] IzRus (2009) “Azerbaijan is ready to mediate in reconciling Israel with Syria and Iran”, 19 July, available at: http://izrus.co.il/dvuhstoronka/article/2009-07-19/5372.html (accessed 3 August 2009).