Iran

Iran, formerly known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), is a country in southwestern Eurasia. It is bordered to the northwest by Armenia, the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, and Azerbaijan; with Kazakhstan and Russia across the Caspian Sea; to the northeast by Turkmenistan; to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan; to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; and to the west by Turkey and Iraq. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), it is the second-largest nation in the Middle East and the 18th-largest in the world; with 78.4 million inhabitants, Iran is the world's 17th most populous nation. It is the only country that has both a Caspian Sea and Indian Ocean coastline. Iran has long been of geostrategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz.

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The Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906 established the nation's first parliament, which operated within a constitutional monarchy. Following a coup d'état by the U.K. and the U.S. in 1953, Iran gradually became autocratic. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression culminated in the Iranian Revolution, which led to the end of the Imperial State of Iran and the establishment of an Islamic republic on 1 April 1979. Tehran is the capital and largest city, serving as the cultural, commercial, and industrial center of the nation. Its current head of state is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and its current head of government is President Ebrahim Raisi.

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Deep is the primitive belief that it is the Anglo-Saxons who are the puppet masters of everything that happens in Iran. ~ Christopher Hitchens

I found that many Americans did not even know that a country named Iran existed, let alone what it was like. ~Ashraf Pahlavi

A

• The Islamic Republic of Iran is the manifestation of true democracy in the region. The discourse of the Iranian nation is focused on respect for the rights of human beings and a quest for tranquility, peace, justice and development for all through monotheism.
  • Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Address to the United Nations General Assembly (17 September 2005)

• If all of you gather – and also invite your ancestors from hell – you will not be able to stop the Iranian nation.
  • Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, quoted in "Big Six Spank Iran", New York Post (16 March 2007)

E

• The American people have the greatest respect and admiration for the Iranian people. Your Kings from Cyrus and Darius are known among those famous monarchs who have advanced the cause of humanity. Your scientists have contributed to the foundations on which we have built our industrial society. Your philosophers and poets have enriched the culture of the west.
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower, toast at a luncheon given in his honor by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (December 14, 1959), as quoted in Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project, Online

F

• Where are your valiant warriors and your priests? Where are your hunting parties and your feasts? Where is that warlike mien, and where are those? Great armies that destroyed our country's foes? . . . Count Iran as a ruin, as the lair of lions and leopards! Look now and despair!
  • Ferdowsi, as quoted by Reza Aslan in "The Epic of Iran", The New York Times (30 April 2006)

• Kaiumers first sat upon the throne of Persia, and was master of the world.
  • Ferdowsi, as quoted in "Persia's crowning glory", BBC (4 June 2000)

G

• Everything I learned about Iranians, I learned working in the pool room. I met a lot of liars, and I know Iranians are liars.
  • Lindsey Graham, as quoted in "Republican conference: Day two - Bush 'proud' of family" by Anthony Zurcher, BBC News (22 May 2015)

H

• بده ساقی می باقی که در جنت نخواهی یافت
  کنار آب رکن‌آباد و گلگشت مصلا را
• Boy, let yon liquid ruby flow,
  And bid thy pensive heart be glad,
  Whate’er the frowning zealots say:
  Tell them their Eden cannot show
  A stream so clear as Rocnabad,
  A bow’r so sweet as Moselláy.
  • Hafez, from Shirazi Turk, as translated by Sir William Jones in A Grammar of the Persian Language (1771) and Poems, consisting chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages (1772)

• One of the signs of Iran's underdevelopment is the culture of rumor and paranoia that attributes all ills to the manipulation of various demons and satans. And, of course, the long and rich history of British imperial intervention in Persia does provide some support for the notion. But you have no idea how deep is the primitive belief that it is the Anglo-Saxons—more than the CIA, more even than the Jews—who are the puppet masters of everything that happens in Iran.
  • Christopher Hitchens, "Persian Paranoia", Slate (June 22, 2009)

• Persicos odi, puer, apparatus.
  • My lad, I hate Persian pomp.
  • Horace, Odes, i, 38, as translated by Owen Lee, Word, Sound, and Image in the Odes of Horace (1969), Ch. 5

K

• The country’s air defense headquarters informs the honorable people of Iran that, despite previous warnings from the officials of the Islamic Republic to the criminal and illegal Israeli regime to refrain from any provocative actions, this illegitimate regime launched an attack early this morning on military sites in the provinces of Tehran, w:Khuzestan, and Ilam.

The unified air defense system successfully intercepted and countered this aggressive action, though limited damage was incurred at some points, which is currently under investigation

• • Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Command according to Iran Air Defense Forces: Israel Attacks Caused Limited Damage (October 26, 2024)

P

• Foreign travellers in Iran, not only recently but in previous generations, have observed that some of our citizens habitually lie … In our culture, steeped in history as we are, some liars actually try to explain and justify their behaviour by referring back to past national catastrophes. For example, they will tell you, when Mongol hordes overran the country, lying was the price to pay for personal survival; and that gave us the habit of mendacity. Whatever its merits as an historical explanation, this point of view certainly offers a pitifully weak justification for today's liars.
  • Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, Mission for my Country (1961), p. 246

• I found that many Americans did not even know that a country named Iran existed, let alone what it was like. Even among the diplomatic corps and among well-educated people, there was a vagueness about who the Iranians were or what the culture was, a tendency to confuse Iran with Iraq or to mistakenly assume that Iran is an Arab country simply because it is an Islamic nation. This fuzziness about the world outside is unique to America; among the intelligensia of European countries, for example, there is generally a higher level of awareness and information regarding cultures other than their own.
  • Ashraf Pahlavi, Faces in a Mirror (Prentice Hall, 1980), p. 100

• [The US will send an advanced anti-missile system — and US troops to operate it — to Israel] to help bolster Israel’s air defenses following Iran’s unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1
  • Pentagon according to US to deploy about 100 troops to operate advanced anti-missile system in Israel amid heightened tensions (October 13, 2024)

S

• In Iran, the walls of homes are transparent and the halls of justice are opaque.
  • Joe Stork, on the ‘morality’ campaign, as quoted in "Iran: End Arrests on Immorality Charges", Human Rights News (17 May 2007)

• The Persians ruled for a thousand years and did not need us Arabs even for a day. We have been ruling them for one or two centuries and cannot do without them for an hour.
  • Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik (717), in Bertold Spuler, The Muslim World, Vol. I: The Age of the Caliphs (Leiden: Brill, 1960), p. 29

See also

• Imperial State of Iran