Thursday, 14 January 2010
The International Strategic Research Organization (USAK) organized a conference entitled "Confronting Iran's Nuclear Program, Turkey's Role and Israel's Response" on 13th January. In the first session of the meeting, the research departments and activities of USAK were introduced by Kaitlin MacKenzie. Following the introductory session, Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, the lecturer of the conference, who is an expert on Middle East politics and affairs specializing in peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab states, shed light on the current progress in respect to Iran's Nuclear Program and discussed various solution alternatives to the nuclear crisis arisen among the US, Israel and Iran. At the same time, the mediating role of Turkey in Middle Eastern politics, particularly on the issues of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, Israel-Syria relations were also discussed.
Dr. Ben-Meir directed criticism to the previous US administration due to its policies in regards to Iran, and stressed that a solid solution to Iran's nuclear crisis should be found as soon as possible. Before taking an analytical approach to the possible resolution of Iran's nuclear crisis, he addressed the question of "What motivates Iran to resume its nuclear program?" In this context, much importance was attached on the rich Iranian history and the psychology of the Iranian community.
Furthermore, Dr. Meir contended that the Bush administration did not adopt efficient policies towards Iran due to its misunderstanding of Iran's mentality, and the US could not open progressive negotiations with Iran and those negotiations were conducted through third parties. For that reason, bilateral, secret and trilateral negotiations were regarded as urgent resolutions to the current disagreements that arose between the US and Iran. At this point, Dr. Meir approved the policies of Obama prioritizing direct negotiations between those countries and attached much emphasis on Turkey's role in the trilateral negotiations. In the last part of the lecture, he touched upon other significant issues, including Israel-Syria relations and the Israel-Palestine conflict in which Turkey has great potential to mediate as a regional power.
By Seda Abamor (JTW)
