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Iran and its neighbours

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Placed on East-West crossroad, Iran has for long, remained a melting pot of two great civilizations. The saying that Iranians are the “Frenchmen of the East” is not misplaced.

To her west are the lands of the Semitic people – Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Jordan – and to her north and east lie the lands of Indo-Iranian branch of Aryans – Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Thus Iran is a buffer of sorts between two major races on the earth.

Not only that, Iran itself is a mosaic of ethnicities, a factor that adds colour and brightness to her rich heritage. She has ethnic Baluch and Arabs in the south, Azeris and Kurds in the north, Aryan-Semitic mixed race to the west bordering on Iraq, and Farsi-Turkmen speaking groups to her northwest. Nevertheless, these ethnic, racial or linguistic diversities are no hindrance to the national identity of her people as Iranians.

To her west, Iran has a long common border with Iraq, an Arab state with a majority of Shia Muslims. The populace on the border area is culturally, and to some extent linguistically, mixed so as to give the land the name of Iraq-e-Ajam meaning Iraq-Iran.

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India-Iran: Better Understanding Needed

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By K.N. Pandita

Ambassador Nabizadeh says India’s testing of spy satellite TECSAR on 21 January in Andhra Pradesh has caused embarrassment to Teheran.

TECSAR is Israel’s spy satellite meant to keep an eye on nuclear activities of Iran. It is powerful enough to detect objects even when passing through clouds.

Teheran has never made a secret of her bellicosity towards Israel. At the peak of his power, Ayatollah Khumeini publicly declared that the road to Qods (Jerusalem) lay through Israel. He never rejected force as means of achieving that goal.

Khumeini’s successors in the hierarchy of hardliners, including the supreme religious leader Khamenei, have been towing his line. Holding out threats of attack and destruction or intimidating a sovereign state on political, economic or religious grounds is violation of the UN Charter. Iran is a signatory to the Charter.

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