Iran disgruntled with Turkey over NATO deal

On Tuesday 4th October, Iran criticised Turkey for agreeing to allow NATO to station an early warning radar in the southeast of the country that will serve as part of the alliance's missile defence system. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the defence system was meant to protect Israel against Iranian missile attacks in the event of war.

Ahmadinejad said: "The missile defence shield is aimed at defending the Zionist regime. They don't want to let our missiles land in the occupied territories (Israel) if one day they take action against us. That's why they put it there."

In September, Turkey and NATO agreed that the former would host the radar as part of NATO's missile defence system aimed at deflecting attacks from Iran. In order to appease its neighbour Turkey said the shield does not target a specific country and added that it would block the deal if Iran was singled-out as a threat.

According to Turkish officials, a military installation in Kurecik in the Malatya province some 700km west of the Iranian border has been designated as the radar site. Ahmadinejad said that Iran has been in talks with the Turkish government and has made its position clear. He said: "We told our Turkish friends that it was not a correct job (decision) they did and that it's to their detriment…Such shields can't prevent the collapse of the Zionist regime."

The radar's positioning in Turkey indicates that its ties with the US are improving since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Turkey also works closely with the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan and Libya, albeit it is not directly involved in warfare.

Although Turkey is on good terms with the US, it has in the past taken exception to Washington's stance on the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme, urging a diplomatic solution instead of sanctions.

Sources: Time, Press TV, WSJ, AP

For more news and expert analysis about Iran, please see Iran Strategic Focus.

UN in Nigeria to investigate Iranian arms seizure

Nigeria's Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia has said that a group of UN experts arrived in Nigeria to inspect an illegal shipment of arms seized in Apapa seaport in Lagos on 27th October 2010. The shipment, sent from an Iranian port, of 13 containers labeled as building materials included rockets, grenades and ammunition.

Ajumogobia told AFP the group was in Nigeria to, "meet with relevant government officials as part of a neutral fact-finding mission following up on the report that we filed with the sanctions committee in November last year".

Nigeria alerted the UN Security Council, in November 2010, after seizing the shipment sent from Iran in an apparent breach of sanctions. It is thought that the shipment would have been reloaded and sent to Gambia. Tehran has since said the cargo was being shipped by a private company to a "West African country" and was the subject of a "misunderstanding" that has now been cleared up.

Ajumogobia met with the six UN members along with intelligence service chiefs, national security personnel and immigration representative, "to clarify several issues that arose from the report we filed".

Last month a Nigerian high court charged an Iranian, identified as a member of the Iran Revolutionary Guard, over the illegal arms cargo. Azim Aghajani was granted a $130,000 bail and ordered to return to court on 31st January. He was charged along with three Nigerians.

Sources: BBC News, AFP, Vanguard, Reuters

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

UPDATE: Iran and the UN agree on more nuclear talks in January

Iran and the UN have concluded two-day talks about Tehran's nuclear programme. Iranian state-television said that another round of talks has been agreed for January in Istanbul.

The meeting ended on a positive note, with several of the participants describing it as “constructive” and having been conducted in a “good atmosphere”. However, it seems that no clear outcome has been reached as Iran's president has once again called on the UN to lift its sanctions.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was cited on Iranian state TV as saying that “cancelling the mistakes” of imposing sanctions would make the impending meeting in January more “fruitful”.

Speaking about the meeting a senior Iranian official said, "The negotiations will resume in end-January in Istanbul to discuss cooperation and find common points."

The international community fear that Tehran may be in the process of constructing nuclear arms, however Iran maintains that its nuclear programme is designed for peaceful civil use.

Source: BBC News

For more news and expert analysis about Iran, please see Iran Strategic Focus.

Iran and the UN Security Council resume talks

Iran and the UN Security Council have begun a second day of discussions over Tehran's nuclear programme. The first day of talks, which lasted almost 10 hours, was described by an Iranian official as “constructive” and “forward moving”.

On Sunday, ahead of the talks, Iran said it has delivered its first home produced raw uranium and added that it would go in to the discussions with “strength and power”. The international community fears that Tehran's nuclear programme may be geared for production of nuclear weapons, but Iran insists that its nuclear activities are purely peaceful.

Reuter's quoted an unnamed source as saying that Tuesday's talks between Iran and the UN would, “fix the framework for future discussions during which we could talk about nuclear disarmament and about co-operation in the civil nuclear domain. The [nuclear] right of Iran will not be discussed. If we agree on a framework, we could have several sessions of negotiations".

The UN Security Council has said that until Iran's nuclear activities are clearly established as peaceful, the Islamic republic should suspend its enrichment activities. Experts say that the best outcome of the discussions would result in the two sides agreeing to hold further meetings.

Source: BBC News

For more news and expert analysis about Iran, please see Iran Strategic Focus.

Iran deliberates policies to counter UN sanctions

The head of Iranian Parliament's Economic Committee, Arsalan Fathipour, has said that Iranian parliament has outlined a number of policies aimed at countering the UN sanctions over the country's nuclear programme.

Fathipour said the changes related to a number of areas including trade, transport and foreign exchange, but gave no details of the measures outlined, saying the policies will be conveyed to the speaker of the parliament, Ali Larijani, in due course.

Earlier in June, the UN passed a fourth round of sanctions against Iran restricting the country's financial transactions, and later additional sanctions in July targeting Iran's business trade with international companies.

Talking about the sanctions, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that UN-backed sanctions are “biting” Iran's economy, and added that, “The Iranian regime is quite worried about the impact”.

The Iranian government, however, has adamantly denied the sanctions' effectiveness on the country's economy and has said that they hace not impacted Iran's nuclear program.

Source: Bloomberg

For more news and expert analysis about Iran, please see Iran Strategic Focus.

UN Inspectors denied entry in to Iran, again

The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) it will not permit two of its inspectors on Iranian soil because the IAEA had prematurely published a report he deemed "untruthful" and containing "false information" on Iran's nuclear work.

Salehi said the inspectors will not be allowed into the country or granted permission to visit its nuclear facilities due to a report filed by the IAEA before the official examination.

"These two inspectors do not have the right to come to Iran because they leaked information before it was to be officially announced and they also filed a false report," Salehi told ISNA news agency.

Salehi also stated that the UN inspectors would not be allowed in to the country for disclosing, “classified information,” and said that Iran has asked the IAEA to replace the two inspectors with new officials, who would be allowed to visit the Islamic republic to carry out checks on its nuclear facilities.

The decision comes two weeks after the UN Security Council voted to impose a fourth set of sanctions on Iran on the grounds of its suspect nuclear programme. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council issued a report on Friday calling the new UN sanctions “illegal”. The US and the European Union have also expanded sanctions against Iran, to include a ban on new investment, technical assistance and transfers of technologies to Iran's key oil and natural gas sector, despite strong criticism from Russia's Foreign Ministry.

Sources: BBC News, AFP

To read the IAEA report on Iran please visit the International Atomic Energy Agency web site.

For more news and expert analysis on Iran please see Iran Strategic Focus.