A New Conflict in the Middle East?: Where Would Iran's Nuclear Maneuvers Lead Us?

On February 21, 2006, the Economic Policy Research Institute (Tepav|Epri) organized a meeting entitled "A New Conflict in the Middle East?: Where would Iran's Nuclear Maneuver's Lead Us?". In this meeting which was moderated by the former Turkish Ambassador to the U.S., H.E. Faruk Logoglu, the speakers consisted of the Iran analyst of the International Crisis Group, Mr. Karim Sadjadpour, Adjunct Professor at the Johns Hopkins University Mr. Omer Taspinar, Professor of International Relations at the Middle East Technical University, Mrs. Meliha Altunisik and Senior Columnist and Political Analyst Mr. Cengiz Candar.

In this meeting, developments in the region in line with the recent Iranian nuclear maneuvers were evaluated.  The speakers have discussed the issue from Iranian, American, European and Turkish perspectives and elaborated on the scenarios in which Turkey can be more actively involved in the issue. Turkey's options in case of such a more active involvement were discussed. In order to get more information about this meeting and to read the policy paper prepared by Neslihan Kaptanoglu, a Research Associate at the Economic Policy Research Institute and Ozge Genc, a PhD student at Istanbul Bilgi University, please click on the following links.

Speakers:Karim Sadjadpour, Iran Analyst, International Crisis Group 
Ömer Taşpınar, Research Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies- The Brookings Institution
Cengiz Çandar, Senior Columnist and Political Analyst
Meliha Altunisik, Professor of International Relations, Middle East Technical University

Open Discussion

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Güven SAK, Managing Director- Economic Policy Research Institute (TEPAV|EPRI)

Discussion Points:

-          What will be the consequences of Iran's referral to the U.N. Security Council? In what ways  the international actors would be affected from this process?

-          Right after President Bush's State of the Union Speech saying that "nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons", what will be the next U.S policy towards Iran? Is the U.S. aiming to gain greater regional role by creating coalition of the willing against Iran?

-          What will be the new state of the Turkish-Iranian relations?Is there a slow change in Turkish foreign policy towards Iran towards one of harmonization with the European and American policies in the region?

What will be the consequences of Iran's nuclear endeavors on the regional dynamics? Can Iran's influence in the region increase in line with Hamas victory in Palestine? Can Russia solidify its role in the region as a result of recent political developments?