Iran

Iran is a Middle Eastern country slightly larger in land mass than Alaska, located between Iraq and Pakistan, opening onto the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in the south and the Caspian Sea in the north. Climate is arid or semiarid mountains and deserts, with the Caspian coast having subtropical climate. It's capital city is Tehran. Iran, dating back to 550 B.C., was the center of the Persian Empire, and is home to the world's most ancient human settlements. Known as Persia until 1935, Iran became an Islamic republic in 1979 after the ruling monarchy was overthrown and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was forced into exile.

Shi'iah Islam is Iran's national religion, practiced by 89 percent of the population. Sunni Muslims make up another 9 percent. The major languages spoken in Iran include Farsi (Persian) and Persian dialects, Kurdish, and Turkic and its dialects. Oil is Iran's largest crude export.

Comprehensive information on Iran can be found through technorati search for Iran, Nuclear Iran, Iran Contra Affair, terrorism Iran, Persian Empire, and the Iranian Revolution, to name a few. There is also some quick information to be found at BBC, profile Iran. Frontline searches for Iran will bring you to several programs offering. The CIA world factbook gives a briefing.

If you are traveling to Iran from the United States you should check the current travel warnings set out by the U.S. Department of State.

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Original Technorati articles tagged “Iran”

• in Politics
  Students Continue Protesting Iran Elections
  University Students protest in Iran against their government's intolerance for constructive criticism.
  by fcgorman / on Dec 7, 2009
• in Politics
  Iran Responds To Condemnation By Building More Nuclear Plants
  After overwhelming opposition to Iran's nuclear program by the world's main super powers, Iran takes a different tact.
  by jaideepkhanduja / on Nov 30, 2009

Latest blogosphere posts tagged “Iran”

• Iran may face new U.N. sanctions (Reuters)

  
  enUws — Authority: 467
  Reuters – The United States, Britain and France warned Iran on Thursday that it would face further sanctions if it continued to… Read more from the original source: (Reuters)"> (Reuters)">Iran may face new U.N. sanctions (Reuters)
  2 hours ago

• Dry Bones: A Question

  
  Solomonia — Authority: 581
  See full-size at Dry Bones....
  5 hours ago

• If attacked, Iran wants Syria to hit back at Israel. Damascus hedges

  
  NOAH DAVID SIMON : — Authority: 147
  The Iranian visitor indicated that Tehran expects an Israeli attack within a month. According to Iranian intelligence, Jerusalem will take its green light from President Barack Obamas forced admission after Christmas that his policy of dialogue and stiffer sanctions have failed in the face of Tehrans rejection of the ...
  5 hours ago

• Harry Reid to Retire!

  
  DPGI - the aftermath — Authority: 136
  Yeah, that got me excited too…Nevadans need to think long and hard about whether we wish to endure another six years of Harry Reid. And worse, his son, Rory, for four in Carson City?shudder.via Hot Air: Ramirez on the slavery analogy.Our founders wrote the Constitution to limit the power of Congress to avoid ...
  5 hours ago

• seaofgreen:Happy Human Rights Day

  
  Earthman, Come Home — Authority: 433
  seaofgreen : Happy Human Rights Day
  5 hours ago

• Iran: Time To Leave The NPT?

  
  Muslim Media Network — Authority: 136
  By Nader Bagherzadeh & Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich Article IV of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) acknowledges the “inalienable right” of non-nuclear weapons states (NNWS) to research, develop, and use nuclear energy for non-weapons purposes. The NPT also supports the “fullest possible exchange” of such ...
  6 hours ago

• Iran may face new UN sanctions-US, UK, France

  
  AlertNet Newsdesk — Authority: 713
  Source: Reuters (Recasts, adds U.S. and British comments) UNITED NATIONS, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The United States, Britain and France warned Iran on Thursday that it would face further sanctions if it continued to ...
  6 hours ago

• Surprising Results of CFR Survey

  
  Muslim Media Network — Authority: 136
  What the U.S. Elite Really Thinks About Israel By Jeffrey Blankfort, Counterpunch The Council on Foreign Relations is always near the top of the Left’s list of bogeymen that stand accused of pulling the strings of US foreign policy. It is right up there with the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission, ...
  7 hours ago

• OBAMA ACCEPTS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE AS HE DEFENDS THE NEED FOR WAR

  
  San Francisco Sentinel — Authority: 151
  President Obama displays the diploma and gold medal he received during the Nobel ceremony at the City Hall in Oslo. BY CHRISTI PARSONS The Los Angeles Times OSLO - President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize here today, acknowledging the irony of winning it as a wartime president and calling his own ...
  7 hours ago

• Iran: hunanrights

  
  empirical-what-you-see-you-get — Authority: 128
  Today, December 10th is the Day of Universal Declaration of Human Rights Amnesty International has said in a new report that human rights violations in Iran are now as bad as at any time in the past 20 years. The report "Iran: Election contested, repression compounded" describes patterns of abuse ...
  7 hours ago

• Obama bears witness to democratic reformers

  
  Democracy Digest — Authority: 431
  “We will bear witness…to the hundreds of thousands who have marched silently through the streets of Iran,” said President Obama in his acceptance speech at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony today.Referring also to “the quiet dignity of reformers like Aung Sang Suu Kyi” and “the bravery of Zimbabweans who cast ...
  7 hours ago

• Protestors now demand an ‘Iranian Republic, not Islamic Republic.’

  
  Thoughts Of A Conservative Christian — Authority: 445
  Iran’s Democratic Moment Protestors now demand an ‘Iranian Republic, not Islamic Republic.’ By AMIR TAHERI A month ago, Gen. Muhammad-Ali Aziz Jaafari, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, vowed to stop further antiregime demonstrations in Iran and break what he termed “this chain of ...
  7 hours ago

• Quick Thoughts On Obamas Speech

  
  The New Republic - The Plank Feed — Authority: 136
  I’m not a big fan of political speeches in general, but I thought President Obama’s Nobel acceptance speech today was unusually good. (If I were a speech-y kind of writer, like Rick Hertzberg, I’d have used a better adjective in the last sentence than “good.”) After again acknowledging that he doesn’t ...
  8 hours ago

• Yemens proxy war that isnt | Ranj Alaaldin

  
  Comment is free | guardian.co.uk — Authority: 163
  It is in the interests of both Saudi Arabia and Yemen to prolong the conflict with Houthi rebels – Iran has little to do with it The conflict in Yemen initially started off as a local affair between the countrys Sunni-dominated central government and Shia rebels in the north, known as the Houthis. It now has a ...
  8 hours ago

• NOBEL-OBAMA/TEXT =4

  
  AlertNet Newsdesk — Authority: 713
  Source: Reuters Agreements among nations. Strong institutions. Support for human rights. Investments in development. All of these are vital ingredients in bringing about the evolution that President Kennedy spoke ...
  9 hours ago

• The losing game for US influence in Turkmenistan

  
  The Daily Clarity — Authority: 128
  The Obama Administration has invested heavily in the Afghanistan conflict. There is also the specter of Iran in the same general conflict area. Having failed to play any significant role to date in the oil contract windfalls in a post-Hussein Iraq, one would have hoped that the US regional presence would have brought ...
  10 hours ago

• Yeswecanistan

  
  NOVAKEO.COM — Authority: 134
  All the crying from the left about how Obama “the peace candidate” has now become “a war president” … Whatever are they talking about? Here’s what I wrote in this report in August 2008, during the election campaign: We find Obama threatening, several times, to attack Iran if they don’t do what the ...
  10 hours ago

• AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SLAMS IRAN HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD

  
  San Francisco Sentinel — Authority: 151
  Iranian authorities deployed the Basij militia and Revolutionary Guards to suppress poll protests. Al Jazeera Human rights violations in Iran are as bad as at any point in the last 20 years, Amnesty International , the human rights group, has said. Amnesty’s report, released on Thursday, examines ...
  10 hours ago

• Amnesty International details abuse of Iranian protesters

  
  Progressive News Daily — Authority: 162
  By Scott Peterson The Christian Science Monitor A new Amnesty International report offers the most detailed account of Iranian abuse – and official cover-ups – during post-election protests. Istanbul, Turkey - Iran’s security forces have enjoyed a “climate of impunity” during six months of ...
  11 hours ago

• The Great Satan Myth

  
  Idea of the Day — Authority: 600
  Thursday | Todays idea: "Everything you know about U.S. involvement in Iran is wrong," an article says. Historically the United States -- far from being a puppet-master of repression -- pushed hard for Iran to democratize, it says. It would be a mistake for Washington to forget that now. [ New Republic
  11 hours ago

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