Ethnic Tensions In Iran

[Rasputin]

Once again a bomb has exploded in the beautiful city of Ahw(v)az and has taken the lives of many hardworking innocent Iranians. The group which calls it self the Khuzestan liberation army has claimed responsibility and is so proud to kill unarmed Iranians. They want a separate Khuzestan. But there are many other groups and ethnicities who want their separate state. If you go to the eastern region of Iran which is ruled by drug lords who are involved in various criminal activities such as kidnapping, rape, prostitution, drug trafficking and money laundering. They also are demanding for a separate state called Baluchistan.

Now try to travel to the west of Iran in the beautiful province of Kurdistan you will notice the hatred of the Kurdish people towards Iran and its current system. For decades they have fought the ruling governments for independence. And more recently the Azeri population in Iran is demanding a separate Azerbaijan. The beautiful province of Azerbaijan claims that they are been constantly discriminated and mistreated by the ruling governments and their province has never benefited from the vast oil revenues. Thus they demand an independent Azerbaijan.

All these parties have their offices outside of Iran. For example; the Ahvaz liberation party its headquarter is located in England and operates within that country. They are funded by various Arab countries such as UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The latter countries also provided financial support to Iraq during the eight year war. For one year Iraq had invaded major cities in Khuzestan province. The Iraqi army had burnt every building, raped and killed innocent civilians.

The Baluchi separatist operate within Pakistan and get most of their support from the government of Pakistan and CIA. The Azeri separatists are operating within the country of Azerbaijan and are funded through CIA as well as the state of Israel. The Kurds are funded by various groups and countries. The thing is each of these groups are been used as a political tool and are foreign puppets that are used whenever they would like to cause disturbance or a sense of insecurity and most of the time innocent Iranians fall victims in their heinous acts. Let us argue each of these groups' positions and why they demand for separation.

First the Khuzestan Liberation army claims that they have never been part of Iran and all of the oil revenues belong to them. They also argue that after the war Khuzestan has never recovered and they are still places that need construction and development. They even argue on their web site that they deserve the same lifestyle as their neighbors in Kuwait with greater freedom. Second group the Baluchi separatist, it was hard to get information on their cause. I can assume what they want. They also want more political and cultural freedom as well as more independence. Third the Azeri separatist, they demand more political and cultural freedom as well as more independence. The final freedom fighter group the Kurds, they also demand more political and cultural freedom as well as more independence.

It is true that the current government has ignored the rebuilding and construction of these provinces. It is true that many of my Baluchis, Khuzestanis, Kurdish, and Azeris country men and women are treated unfairly by the current government. It is true and a fact that all these provinces are under developed and the people are malnourished and poor. It is true and a fact that the government uses the oil revenue money for their own cause. It has just been recently published that Iran has over $50 billion US dollar deposited across Europe and has mutual funds and assets estimated over $100 billion dollars and none of these money has been allocated towards construction and development. I as an Iranian agree with all of you 100% that no government in Iran has recognized these provinces and has always treated the unfairly.

But my brothers and sisters I as an Iranian have been treated unfairly. At the age of eleven I had to live as a refugee in German refugee camps (famous Schwalbach) and wait in line to get food along side Eritrean and Ethiopians. My family has been treated unfairly. My mother has been treated unfairly. She worked as a teacher for 16 years and had fought for the kids' rights and against abuses that were taking place in south of Tehran schools. When she complained about a boy's rape in the restroom by older boys she was immediately fired by the school system.

Millions of Iranians are being treated unfairly. Don't the above points sound familiar to your ears? Aren't millions of Iranians demanding for more political and cultural freedom as well as more independence? Should every Iranian go kidnap, kill, rape, smuggle drugs, and place a bomb in a mall or busy street, so our demands for more freedom get heard? Should all of us demand our political freedom by taking guns to the street and fight like the Yugoslavians? Do you know what a civil war is like?

I suggest to all those groups to read books and memoirs written by those who have survived a civil war. Books that talk about horrible events on civil war that bring chills to your bone and tears to your eyes. Books that talk about best friends and neighbors slit each other throats and rape each others wives and daughters. Books that are written on very recent civil wars, ethnic cleanse and mass graves from former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, to Sierra Leone and many more.

Here I argue why the separation can not happen. As far as I know form the history books that I have read which proves them all wrong that they always were independent states. Khuzestan, Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Baluchistan have always been part of Iran and greater Persia. It was not even 200 years ago due to foolish mistake by ignorant king of Iran we lost territorial rights to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. In addition we gave away the island of Bahrain to the British. It is very wrong to argue by these factions that they all had their independent flag, state and currency at some point in time, because it was never the case.

The other thing is these provinces are integral part of Iran and are strategically and geopolitically very important to Iran's existence. Finally, we as a nation are so integrated and mixed that a separation is impossible; you have family members that are Turk, Arab or Kurd or Baluch. Because we have lived for so many centuries together that we can not say that we are 100% Fars or Arab or Azeri or Kurd or Baluchi. But we all can say that we are all 100% Iranian.

Therefore; based on historical, geopolitical and strategic reason as well as cultural factors separation of these provinces from Iran will never ever happen. Please bear in mind Iran is not former Soviet Union or Iraq or Yugoslavia where they all had been formed in the past century or so. Yugoslavia was created after Second World War. Iraq was created no more than 50 years ago. Same goes for Soviet Union where it was created after wars carried out by the czars on their neighboring countries. Iran has been together as a nation for more than 1000 years.

How can you say that you are an Ahvazi, a Baluchi, a Kurd or an Azeri when you kill, murder, and rape your own kind? How can you kill innocent Iranians when we have endured so much together for the past 1000 years? How can you even claim an independent state when we all fought together along side each other for the territorial rights of our motherland? Each one of us at some point had lost a family member or a friend to a war.

However I can suggest instead of killing my people let us all work together for the better cause and that is, freedom for all Iranians.

[Cop]

ye pesare hast inja ahvazie dooste doostame oonam tarafdare in hezbe hasto mige ma joda hastim az irano az in harfa o national anthem makhsoose khodeshon darano in harfa

[Rasputin]

ye pesare hast inja ahvazie dooste doostame oonam tarafdare in hezbe hasto mige ma joda hastim az irano az in harfa o national anthem makhsoose khodeshon darano in harfa

england va canada hastan keh az unha hemayat mikonan ! inha zamaneh shah ham boodan,montaha shah ba unha kenar umad,khareshoon kard, davateshoon kard tehran,hamashoon ro gereft, tir baran kard, digeh azashoon khabari nashod ta 4 saleh pish ! beh har hal hich shansi nadaran ! man kheili tahghigh mikonam dar moredesh ! hata USA ham moafegh nist chon ageh joda beshan,system mantagheh beham mikhoreh va ino USA nemikhad !

inha ziad ham nistan ! group aslieh inha aval tooyeh dubai bood,badesh saudia arabia va kuwait,vali alan amir jadide kuwait kheili beh dolateh iran cheragh sabz neshoon mideh va man fekr konam keh ina nemitunan ziad davam biaran !

[Cop]

are rast migi markazeshon dubai boode..

are amir jadid kuwait shekh sobah, ba iran kheili kooke az ghadim alan ham ke amir shode kheili bishtar dige

[Rasputin]

are rast migi markazeshon dubai boode..

are amir jadid kuwait shekh sobah, ba iran kheili kooke az ghadim alan ham ke amir shode kheili bishtar dige

Ino midoonam keh zan-e dovomesh irani hast keh azash 2 ta bacheh dareh (2 girls) ! montaha mesleh inkeh tooyeh kuwait vaghti ye khareji aroosi mikoneh ba ye kuwaiti,tooyeh passport un taraf neminevisan keh masalan tehroon ya shiraz beh donya umadeh ( same thing in europe !) beh har hal in aghayeh amire jadid,march 06 mireh Iran ! tooyeh Shiraz khooneh dareh va chizayeh digeh ! injoor adama alaki tarafeh iran ro nemigiran,hatman bayad ye chizi beheshoon berese !

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Invading Khuzestan

In a recent article by Zolton Grossman, “Khuzestan; the First Front in the War on Iran?”, Grossman cites the Beirut Daily Star which predicts that the “"first step taken by an invading force would be to occupy Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan Province, securing the sensitive Straits of Hormuz and cutting off the Iranian military's oil supply, forcing it to depend on its limited stocks."

This strategy has been called the “Khuzestan Gambit”, and we can expect that some variant of this plan will be executed following the aerial bombardment of Iranian military installations and weapons sites. If Iran retaliates, then there is every reason to believe that either the United States or Israel will respond with low-yield, bunker-busting nuclear weapons. In fact, the Pentagon may want to demonstrate its eagerness to use nuclear weapons do deter future adversaries and to maintain current levels of troop deployments without a draft.

Tonkin Bay Redux

On January 28, 2006, Iranian officials announced that they would “hand over evidence that proved British involvement in bombings in the southern city of Ahvaz earlier in the week” that killed eight civilians and wounded 46 others. This was just one of the many bombings, incitements, and demonstrations that have taken place in Khuzestan in the last year that suggest foreign intervention. The action is strikingly similar to the 2 British commandoes who were apprehended in Basra a few months ago dressed as Arabs with a truckload of explosives during the week of religious festival.

Coincidence?

Perhaps.

But, step by step, Iran is being set up for war. What difference does the provocation make? The determination to consolidate the oil reserves in the Caspian Basin was made more than a decade ago and is clearly articulated in the policy papers produced by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) The Bush administration is one small province away from realizing the its dream of controlling the world’s most valued resource. They won’t let that opportunity pass them by.

[ProudPersian]

WOW! ****ed up world

Man, see, whoever wants to believe that any side is better...

It never is, it is always the same old story of politics.

[Rasputin]

But what do you think Proud Persian ? can you imagin the war between Iran and U.S.A ?!

[ProudPersian]

no I cant it would suck. But if the US is desperate enough it wouldn't mind stepping over any country to try and ensure its position as supreme. Can u imagine if the dollar went into free-fall how many powerful ppl would lose their place

[Rasputin]

Ethnic tensions In Iran (Kordestan Problem)

During the last week of May, thousands of Iranians demonstrated in the northwestern city of Tabriz, and the previous week there were protests at universities in five cities. The protests were triggered by the official government newspaper - the Islamic Republic News Agency's Iran - publishing a cartoon which depicts a boy repeating "cockroach" in Persian before a giant bug in front of him asks "What?" in Azeri.
Azeri-Iranians - who make up approximately one-quarter of the country's population - were particularly offended by the cartoon. These disturbances come at a bad time for the Iranian government, which is stressing national unity in the face of international concern over its nuclear program.

Ethnic Persians make up a little more than half the total population of 69 million, but there are sizable minorities - in addition to the Azeris there are ethnic Arabs, Baluchis, and Kurds, for example. Some of these groups, furthermore, practice Sunni Islam instead of the Shiite branch of Islam, the state religion. The Iranian Constitution guarantees the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, but in reality the central government emphasizes the Persian and Shiite nature of the state.

The recent incidents of ethnic tensions are only the latest examples of what has been escalating for more than a year. In mid-March in the southeast, which is home to many of Iran's 1.4 million Baluchis, a Baluchi group called Jundallah took responsibility for an attack on a government motorcade in which 20 people were killed. Jundallah seized a number of hostages and claimed that it executed one of them, a member of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. At least 12 people were killed in a similar attack in the second week of May. Nobody has taken credit for explosions May 8 in Kermanshah, which is home to Iran's 4.8 million Kurds, but the July 2005 shooting of a young Kurd by security forces led to demonstrations in several northwestern cities and the deaths of civilians and police officers. Since April of last year, there have been a number of violent incidents - including bombings that have targeted government facilities and which also have killed innocent bystanders - in the southwest, where many of Iran's 2 million Arabs live.

The central government typically reacts to ethnic unrest with a combination of repression and scapegoating. For example, two men were executed in early March for their roles in fatal October bombings in the southwest. They "confessed" on state television the night before their executions that Iranians in Canada and Britain instructed them to create insecurity.

The government commonly blames foreign agitators. Violence in the southwest is usually attributed to the Britain for historical reasons and because British forces are stationed near that part of the Iraqi border with Iran. In the May 19 Friday Prayers sermon in Tehran, which was broadcast across the country by state radio, Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani pinned southeastern violence on the United States and Israel. He added that the most recent killings are meant to create tensions between Shiites and Sunnis. This would, he continued, undermine the country's security.

Official reactions to the unrest caused by the cartoon of an Azeri-speaking cockroach followed the familiar pattern. Although the cartoonist was arrested and the newspaper suspended, foreigners received the blame nevertheless. According to Reporters Without Borders, furthermore, two Azeri journalists were detained without charges.

Tehran's method of dealing with the ethnic issue will ultimately backfire. It can successfully employ overwhelming force against geographically isolated groups, but it would be much more difficult to handle angry Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, and other minorities if they act against the state simultaneously. If such an occurrence coincides with other forms of disorder, such as the violent student demonstrations that took place in Tehran May 23 and 24, then the regime could find that it has more than it can handle.

However, Iranian minorities are not pursuing separatism or special privileges. They identify with the Iranian nation - many defended the country in the Iran-Iraq War, and others serve in the government and legislature. When minorities protest they are not making unreasonable demands, they are just insisting on their constitutionally guaranteed rights. Such rights include use of their languages in local media, as well as the absence of discrimination. They also object to levels of unemployment and underdevelopment that affect their regions more severely than other parts of the country. The Iranian regime ignores minority rights and dismisses their concerns at its peril.

[Rasputin]

Tabriz Anti-cahuvinism protests .

Tabriz Anti-Chauvinism Protests

[Rasputin]

So, the Mohammad cartoon was not the only cartoon offending Muslim masses. Now there is also a cartoon offending Azeris. To complete the menu we need more cartoons, about a range of other sensitive issues that might upset Middle-Eastern peoples. Of course, this is just a joke! God forbid, anything that might cause violence is unwelcome.

Look at the US where nowadays African-Americans have "discriminatory" treatment, which is called positive discrimination! In universities and many many other places, in the US and some other civilised countries previously discriminated ethnic or religious groups have privilege toward the Christian white. This is a sign of public maturity and national integrity. Because those ethnic and religious groups that have been discriminated before have, not equal, but even greater rights than the previously privileged groups. I salute this courageous act and I believe that any nation must do the same to right the previous wrongs.

In Iran for example all minority ethnic and religious groups have been subject to systematic discrimination ever since the Pahlavis and through the Islamic Republic until now. And it is almost certain to continue for a long time. Because Iranians, and their leaders, do not seem to have got the maturity yet to face the realities and accept the past and do some righting of the past wrongs.

Iranian Kurds, Baluchis, Turkmans, Arabs and Jews have probably been among the most discriminated. Then it comes to more integrated groups such as Azeris, Loris, Gilakis and Mazandaranis. These groups have been less discriminated because of their closeness to the central government and Tehran and also because of their sheer numbers, especially with regards to the Azeris.

Iran needs to address the issue of past mistakes and give much greater rights to all religious and ethnic minority groups within Iran. Being different is not a threat, nor is it anything bad. Diversity must be celebrated and not marginalised. Iranian languages and various traditions must be valued, kept alive and even promoted as much as possible. If the current trend of Persian-isation of Iran continues there will not only be any future uniform religious or ethnic Iran but there will be more discontent and outrage.

Iran is not a newly discovered land where there may be a need of nation-building. Iranians are old proud different peoples that have come together to form a country based on some common traditions, such as the Nowrooz and many others and also the common religion, Shia Islam. But let's not forget that Iranians are not by any means Persian and not all Iranians celebrate Nowrooz and not all Iranians are Shia Muslims.

Iranians need to heal the wounds of past religious and ethnic discrimination and offer to the discriminated groups greater rights even than the preferred ethnic or religious groups now.

Diversity is beautiful and Iranians must be proud of having a country with tens of languages and dialects. They must be kept alive and different peoples must have some rights that would give them some sense of belonging and make them more patriotic to the greater Iran.

[Rasputin]

Washington DC - A consortium of political ethnic opposition leaders from Iran appealed for active US support against the Iranian government in Washington today. “The international world has to help us topple the regime in a peaceful way,” stated Dr. Roya Toloui, an opposition speaker and founder of the Kurdish Women's Human Rights Organization in Iran. Each panelist reported on human rights abuses within the Islamic Republic and expressed support for regime change and a federalized Iran, although they stopped short of calling for a violent revolution.

Delivering remarks to Congressional staffers, the panel comprised of spokespersons for exiled Kurdish, Azeri, and Arab groups, who all advocated for external and internal support to end what one panelist described as 80 years of “systematic cultural genocide” by Iran's Persian majority.

Mustafa Hejri, General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, argued that the Iranian public is now a hostage to the current regime. Hejri stated that the Iranian regime ignored basic civil liberties for Kurds.

Kurds were first to stand against the regime after the Revolution in 1979, explained Mr. Abdullah Mohtadi, leader of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, and have subsequently suffered grave injustices at the hands of Khomeni. Mohtadi suggested that “there is no cohesive opposition to the Iranian regime,” and proposed his vision of a united minority opposition coalition.

Others focused more on their own grievances. Dr. Alireza Nazmi Afshar, chairman of the Diplomatic Commission of South Azerbaijan, accused the Iranian government of banning Azeri names and the Azeri language.

Dr. Morteza Esfandiari of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan summed up the message of the panel arguing that regime change in Iran is necessary.

Popular Support for federalism?

Public opinion in the US and Iran was on their side, according to the speakers. They maintained that their version of a federal system was supported by the majority of Iranians. No evidence to back this assertion, however, was presented at the briefing beyond the existence of demonstrations in certain Iranian minority provinces.

“We are all out of power,” said Dr. Karim Abdian of the Ahwaz Human Rights Organization. Abdian invited Iran's Persian opposition leaders to engage in a dialogue with his group to find common ground.

When asked about the prevalence of armed insurrection groups in Iran and allegations of US support for those activities, each panelist disassociated themselves with militant separatist groups in Iran and rejected any notion of having received US government finances for their political activities.

Each panelist declared support for peaceful democratic change in Iran as the preferred course of action. A peaceful grassroots democratic movement was within reach, according to Toloui, who also stressed that Iran had cultivated the most potent intellectual reform movement in the region. Mohtadi affirmed this point suggesting that “the best way to change the government of Iran was from within.”

Opposition Objectives

Sponsored by the Kurdish Human Rights Watch, and Congressional Human Rights Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Tom Lantos (D-CA), the event was one of a number of outreach efforts on Capitol Hill by the Congress of Iranian Nationalities for Federal Iran (CIFNI). Several closed-door meetings featuring the CIFNI delegation are also planned with Congressional offices, according to Kurdish Human Rights Watch staff.

Coveting what the panelists termed as “moral” support from the US and “pressure” from all corners, no concrete policy proposals were floated at the briefing.

On the other hand, according to Abdian, the group had formulated several demands: (1) the drafting of US Congress resolution condemning the abuse of minority groups within Iran; (2) a House International Relations Committee hearing to discuss persecution of women and minorities; and (3) an official request from Kofi Annan to investigate violations in certain minority-dominated regions in Iran.

Rep. Tom Lantos, the House International Relations Committee's ranking Democrat, is an outspoken critic of the regime and co-sponsor of HR 282. This legislation, which cleared the House in March by an overwhelming 397 to 21 vote, imposes stronger sanctions on Iran and makes regime-change official US policy, according to Iran analysts.

For more information on the Congressional Human Rights Caucus visit the CHRC website at: http://lantos.house.gov/HoR/CA12/Human+Rights+Caucus/ to learn more about the Congress of Iranian Nationalities for Federal Iran visit: http://www****anfederal.org/ .

[Rasputin]

Recently there have been a lot of talk about Iran's diverse ethnic mixture. As long as provocative issues are discussed in civilised and peaceful manners there can never be any bad outcome. Nothing is sacred, nothing ought to be a taboo. Everything is open to debate.

There are many great Iranian historians that can do much better than me, so I'll try to keep it simple and concise in order not to make any big mistakes in my view and judgment.

The new post-Islam Iran was built by Ismail Shah, who was from Ardabil, a city that belonged and belongs to Azerbaijan. There are many historical proofs that the Safavid were Azerbaijani Turkish speaking people, but Ismail and his descendants never thought of their leadership as Azerbaijanis ruling the rest. There was actually no notion of nation states at that time in the Middle East. Even in Europe the notion of nation-state was not a popular one, let alone predominant. It was an age of empires and what a better way of building empires than through religion, which was much easier to teach rather than a language that is almost impossible to impose on someone else.

So the Safavid, and other ambitious rulers at those times, would have been fools to try to found an empire based on ethnicity because their followers, and eventually the fighters, would have been a lot fewer in numbers. The best way to create a vast empire with a large base to choose potential fighters from was by using a much more practical tool than ethnicity, thus religion. Converting to Islam, whether Shia or Sunni, is just a phrase away. And if you don't really accept Islam with your heart you are considered to be a Muslim as long as you don't go around denouncing it and endangering your life.

So, Ismail Shah, the founder of the Safavid empire, was a smart man who thought big and built a new version of the lost Iran based on Shia Islam. This was an opposition to the Ottoman Turks who were Sunni Muslims.

Afghans are very close relatives of the Iranians. This is a very clear truth and no-one can deny it. Any Iranian who understand Farsi can understand any Afghan speaking plain Pushtu or Tajik. But as we have all seen in our textbooks, and almost any Iranian history manual, after the Safavid when Iran was occupied by the Afghans they were considered outsiders. It is called Iran's occupation by the Afghans.

But the Safavid time has never been called Iran's occupation by Azerbaijanis. Why is that? Because the Afghans were and still are Sunni Muslims and even if they are much closer to the Persians, they have always been viewed as outsiders. Karim Khan was a Shia Persian and the treatment he has received from Iranian historians has been similar to the rest of the Iranian rulers prior to the Pahlavi, who were all Azerbaijani Turks except for Karim Khan Zand.

The Qajar who were also Azerbaijani Turks, and Shia Muslims, and terribly incompetent rulers, actually used to raise and educate their kids in Tabriz. They spoke Farsi and Azerbaijani Turkish and they actually didn't care much. Iran's history books pay almost no attention to the loss of Iran's eastern territories during the Qajar, present Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and some parts of the other republics that have sprung up the Soviet ashes. Why? Because they were Sunni. While we know about the long and bloody fights over northern Azerbaijan. Why? Because it was about losing Shia Muslim land to Christian Russia.

This changed when Ataturk came to power in Turkey and Reza Shah came to power in Iran. They introduced new European ideas of ethnicity and nationality that were quite unknown in the Middle East as basics for building countries. And the whole tragedy that would actually divide Iran from within started there.

Until Reza Shah Iranians had been living in a country of unity based on Shia religion, which was acceptable given the fact that almost 95% were Shia. Different territories had their own sets of rules and customs, such as Fars, Arabestan (today's Khuzestan), Khorasan, Azerbaijan, Tabarestan (Gilan and Mazandaran) and so on. Reza Shah decided to impose Farsi for the whole of Iran and create a centralised government that would dictate absolutely everything. The idea of an Aryan nation, borrowed from the Europeans, was also another flawed idea that was introduced.

This mistake of Persian assimilation did no good for Iran and it created division rather than unity. Even if Reza Shah thought that a new language would be learned in time in state-sponsored schools and there was no need for a religion to unite Iranians, it has proved that both imposed religion and imposed language never create long-lasting unity.

But let's not forget that imposed religion seems to work much better than imposed language. Imposed language is not only hard to come by, but even when it comes by, it does not lead to what it is meant for. Look at Ireland! Imposed English did not create patriotic English speaking people there. Even the Scottish do not like the English that much though they speak the same language. Imposed language only makes angry people angrier. And it destroys beautiful languages that might have been pleasant and enjoyable if preserved.

What to do now? My intention was to introduce probably a different way of looking at historical facts. In order to move on and do something for now and for the future any person or nation must come in to grips with the past and accept the goods and bads done for or on his or her behalf.

Nevertheless I see one thing clearly. We do not live any longer in the times of vast empires where a strong leader needed to use religion to get as large a mass of followers as possible, nor we live the time when most Christian countries were starting their nationalistic struggle for sovereign countries for every ethnicity. Nowadays big has come back in fashion, like in the old days of vast empires. But this time it's all about commerce. It's all about big trading blocks, huge markets. The EU does not go for expansion to make one ambitious ruler just a bit happier. It is just catching up with the US, and other potential new types of empires of commerce, such as China and India.

So the only way for Iran is to forget about Persian-ism, Aryan-ism, Islam-ism or Ahmadinejad's populism, and go for globalism. Probably wishful thinking tough!