1.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
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Persian language
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Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
3.
Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran
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The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran include the Army, the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Law Enforcement Force. These forces total about 523,000 active personnel, all branches of armed forces fall under the command of General Staff of Armed Forces. The Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics is responsible for planning logistics, with the Iranian revolution in 1979, deteriorating relations with the United States of America resulted in international sanctions led by the USA, including an arms embargo being imposed on Iran. Revolutionary Iran was taken by surprise, by the Iraqi invasion that began the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–1988, during this conflict, there were several confrontations with the United States. From 1987, the United States Central Command sought to stop Iranian mine-laying vessels from blocking the sea lanes through the Persian Gulf in Operation Prime Chance. On April 18,1988, the U. S. retaliated for the Iranian mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts in Operation Praying Mantis. Simultaneously, the Iranian armed forces had to learn to maintain and keep operational, their stocks of U. S. -built equipment and weaponry without outside help. However, Iran was able to obtain limited amounts of American-made armaments, at first, deliveries came via Israel and later, from the USA. The Iranian government established a five-year rearmament program in 1989 to replace worn-out weaponry from the Iran-Iraq war, Iran spent $10 billion between 1989 and 1992 on arms. Iran ordered weapons designed to prevent other states naval vessels from accessing the sea, including marines, a former military-associated police force, the Iranian Gendarmerie, was merged with the National Police and Revolutionary Committees in 1990. From 2003, there have been repeated U. S. in 2004, Iranian armed forces took Royal Navy personnel prisoner, on the Shatt al-Arab river, between Iran and Iraq. They were released three days following diplomatic discussions between the UK and Iran. In 2007, Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces also took prisoner Royal Navy personnel when a party from HMS Cornwall was seized in the waters between Iran and Iraq, in the Persian Gulf. They were released thirteen days later, according to Juan Cole, Iran has never launched an aggressive war in modern history, and its leadership adheres to a doctrine of no first strike. The countrys military budget is the lowest per capita in the Persian Gulf region besides the UAE, since 1979, there have been no foreign military bases present in Iran. According to Article 146 of the Iranian Constitution, the establishment of any military base in the country is forbidden, even for peaceful purposes. On 4 December 2011, an American RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle was captured by Iranian forces near the city of Kashmar in northeastern Iran. In 2012, it was announced that Irans Quds Force is operating inside Syria providing the government of Bashar al-Assad with intelligence, there is an emphasis on the monitoring of protesters use of the internet and mobile phone networks, including text messaging
4.
Shahab-3
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The Shahab-3 is a medium-range ballistic missile developed by Iran and based on the North Korean Nodong-1. The Shahab-3 has a range of 1,280 kilometres, a MRBM variant can now reach 1,930 kilometres and it was tested from 1998 to 2003 and added to the military arsenal on July 7,2003, with an official unveiling by Khamenei on July 20. The forerunners to this include the Shahab-1 and Shahab-2. The then-Iranian Defense Minister Admiral Shamkhani has denied that Iran plans to develop a Shahab-4, some successors to the Shahab have longer range and are also more maneuverable. Operating under the Sanam Industrial Group, which is part of the Defense Industries Organization of Iran, the Shahab-3B differs from the basic production variant. The new re-entry vehicle uses a triconic aeroshell geometry which improves the lift to drag ratio for the re-entry vehicle. This allows greater range maneuverability which can result in better precision, the triconic design also reduces the overall size of the warhead from an estimated 1 metric ton to 700 kg. As a high-speed ballistic missile and pre-mission fueling capability, the Shahab-3 has an extremely short launch/impact time ratio and this means that the INS/gyroscope guidance would also remain relatively accurate until impact. The CEP is estimated to be at 30–50 metres or less, however, the accuracy of the missile is largely speculative and cannot be confidently predicted for wartime situations. Shahab 3 image gallery Little is known about Shahab-3C and Shahab-3D, from what can be gathered, the missiles have an improved precision, navigation system, and a longer range. The missiles were developed, and are being mass-produced. Iran has a capacity of 70 units per year. The Shahab-3 was first seen in public on September 25,1998, in Azadi Square, Tehran, Iran has conducted at least six test flights of the Shahab-3. A second, successful test took place in July 2000, in September 2000, Iran conducted a third test, in which the missile reportedly exploded shortly after launch. In May 2002, Iran conducted another successful test, leading then-Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani to say the test improved the Shahab-3s power, another successful test reportedly occurred in July 2002. On November 9,2004, Shamkhani said Iran could mass-produce the missile, on November 2,2006, Iran fired unarmed missiles to begin 10 days of military war games. Iranian state television reported dozens of missiles were fired including Shahab-2, the missiles had ranges from 300 km to up to 2,000 km. Iranian experts have made some changes to Shahab-3 missiles installing cluster warheads in them with the capacity to carry 1,400 bombs. These launches come after some United States-led military exercises in the Persian Gulf on October 30,2006, other missiles fired include the surface-to-surface Fateh-110 and Zelzal missiles
5.
International Institute for Strategic Studies
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The International Institute for Strategic Studies is a British research institute in the area of international affairs. Since 1997 its headquarters have been Arundel House, in London, the 2013 Global Go To Think Tank Index ranked IISS as the ninth-best think tank worldwide. Founded in 1958, with its original focus nuclear deterrence and arms control, the institute claims that it was hugely influential in setting the intellectual structures for managing the Cold War. Raymond L. Garthoff wrote in 2004, In 1959 the ISS issued a pamphlet on the balance between the Soviet Union and NATO. It was unfortunately replete with errors, having put together from published sources of widely varying quality. I called this to the attention of Alastair Buchan, the director of the institute, a new version was issued in November 1960, much more correct and accurate, though still not up to the latest intelligence. Again, I called this to Buchans attention, and he undertook to check out with British authorities what became annual issuances, the second issue appeared under the title The Communist Bloc and the Free World, The Military Balance 1960. The current Director-General and Chief Executive is Dr John Chipman CMG, the Chairman of the Council is Francois Heisbourg, a former Director. Sir Michael Howard, the British military historian, is President Emeritus, sir Michael founded the institute together with the British Labour M. P. Denis Healey and journalist Alastair Buchan. The Institute owes no allegiance to any government, or to any political or other organisation, the Institute claims 2,500 Individual Members and 450 Corporate and Institutional Members from more than 100 countries. Based in London, the IISS is both a company limited by guarantee in UK law and a registered charity. It has branches in Washington, D. C. and in Singapore, with charitable status in each jurisdiction, the Middle East Eye subsequently reported that IISS may have received nearly half of its total income from Bahraini sources in some years. Alastair Buchan François Duchêne Christoph Bertram Robert J
6.
Defense industry of Iran
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Irans military industry manufactures various types of arms and military equipment. According to Iranian officials, the country sold $100 million worth of equipment in 2003. Irans military industry was born under the last Shah of Iran, in 1973, the Iran Electronics Industries was founded to organize efforts to assemble and repair foreign-delivered weapons. Most of Irans weapons before the Islamic revolution were imported from the United States, between 1971 and 1975, the Shah went on a buying spree, ordering $8 billion in weapons from the United States alone. This alarmed the United States Congress, which strengthened a 1968 law on arms exports in 1976, still, the United States continued to sell large amounts of weapons to Iran until the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In 1979, the country took the first step into manufacturing by reverse engineering Soviet RPG-7, BM21, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was put in charge of re-organising the domestic military industry. Under their command Irans military industry was expanded, and with the Ministry of Defence pouring capital into the missile industry. Since 1992, it also has produced its own tanks, armored carriers, missiles, a submarine. In 2007, following events in Irans Nuclear Program, the United Nations Security Council placed sanctions on Iran forbidding it from exporting any form of weapons, despite these sanctions, Iran sold some military equipment to countries such as Sudan, Syria, and North Korea. Iran was also unable to import military equipment such as S-300 from Russia, as of 2016, the Defense Ministry is collaborating with more than 3150 national firms as well as 92 universities
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Armed forces of Iran