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Originally posted by skot_e I gotta plead ignorant to this aswell, I though Iran was an arabic nation. Are you saying pre ayatolla that Iran was not Muslim? Why did the US get involved if the country was heading toward a more western dynamic?

Remember the Persian Empire? That's Iran, so yeh, definetly not Arabic. The name Iran means "land of the Aryans".

This section from another wikipedia material will make pretty good sense of which direction Iran was led after Ayatollah came into power:

Under Khomeini's rule, Sharia (Islamic law) was imposed, with the Islamic dress code strictly enforced for both men and women. Some Iranians welcomed these policies, since during previous regimes Iranian women had not been permitted to wear veils. However, many opponents fled the country because of their dislike of the political situation after the Revolution and its changes. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press were ostensibly protected, at least as long as it did not contradict Islamic law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhollah_Khomeini

Note how it says "Freedom of speech and freedom of the press were ostensibly protected, at least as long as it did not contradict Islamic law."

Now thats where the problem came into play. Many Iranians are far too scared to say anything when it comes to News or any other forms of media to bad mouth the Islamic or President side of Iran. If they do, they will get killed, and that is why you only hear a one sided story all the time.

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Last edited by Psygnosis on Feb-14-2006 at 15:00

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Originally posted by Trancer-X Iran nationalized their oil industry.

What about Venezuela?

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I don't know much about present day Iran. If someone could please bring me up to date, as I ask a few questions.

1. Is it still a country run by strict Islamic law?
2. What sect of Islam? Wahhabism?
3. I've heard Ahmadinejad mention the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty a few times. But does he actually recognize this treaty? It was signed in the 1970's, by a totally different government. I am assuming that he does not recognize it, but we all know assuming is bad.

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"You won a new refrigerator, great! Where you gonna put it?" - Tony Danza

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Originally posted by ogvh5150 What about Venezuela?

I believe this will answer your question. Venezuela still sells a lot of oil to the US and their company is Citgo. Believe it or not individuals can profit from Citgo so the US gov doesn't mind.

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Originally posted by Marc Summers 1. Is it still a country run by strict Islamic law?

Constitution: 2-3 December 1979; revised 1989 to expand powers of the presidency and eliminate the prime ministership
Legal system: the Constitution codifies Islamic principles of government

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2. What sect of Islam? Wahhabism?

Religions: Shi'a Muslim 89%, Sunni Muslim 9%, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, and Baha'i 2%

Data from CIA World Factbook

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3. I've heard Ahmadinejad mention the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty a few times. But does he actually recognize this treaty? It was signed in the 1970's, by a totally different government. I am assuming that he does not recognize it, but we all know assuming is bad.

In a harshly worded speech, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran has conducted its nuclear activities peacefully, in accordance with international nuclear treaties, and in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. But he warned that if Iran's rights are threatened, it would reconsider its policies.
Iran Warns It Could Quit Nuclear Treaty

BEIJING, Feb. 13 -- BEIJING, Feb. 13 -- The Iranian government affirmed Tehran's commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on Sunday and urged a peaceful solution to the dispute over its nuclear programme.
Iran abides by Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

It doesn't help Irans' cause to have made statements in the past which antagonizes it's neighbors.

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We have to do something about Irans leader. He is f*cking nuts.
I mean, what kind of leader says that he wants to exterminate Israel.
Guess diplmocay isn't one of his qualities, but... what are his qualities? (hmm. maybe, considering G.W Bush, stupidity is considered a quality)

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Originally posted by hyped_Lp We have to do something about Irans leader. He is f*cking nuts. I mean, what kind of leader says that he wants to exterminate Israel. Guess diplmocay isn't one of his qualities, but... what are his qualities?

I heard he pwns at beat matching

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"You won a new refrigerator, great! Where you gonna put it?" - Tony Danza

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Originally posted by Marc Summers I heard he pwns at beat matching

I hear he trainwrecks and gave up and banned Deep Dish' music.

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My SpaceMySpaceMUSIC
Anti-Purple Alliance.

Iran agrees to the Russian solution!

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"Let me guess, you picked out yet another colorful box with a crank that I'm expected to turn and turn until OOP! big shock, a jack pops out and you laugh and the kids laugh and the dog laughs and I die a little inside.".

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Iran expanding uranium enrichment work - IAEA Iran is forging ahead with a nuclear fuel enrichment programme in defiance of world pressure and stonewalling U.N. probes spurred by fears it secretly wants atomic weapons, a U.N. watchdog report said on Monday. The report by International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei was circulated to IAEA board members before they meet on March 6 to discuss it. The report will be forwarded to the U.N. Security Council, which could consider sanctions. "It is regrettable and a matter of concern that the uncertainties related to the scope and nature of Iran's nuclear programme have not been clarified after three years of intensive agency verification," said the report, obtained by Reuters. "We are not yet at the point to be able to conclude that this is a (peaceful nuclear programme)," said a senior official familiar with IAEA investigations, who asked not to be named. The report said Iran had begun vacuum-testing a cascade of 20 centrifuges -- machines that purify uranium UF6 gas into fuel suitable for nuclear power plants or, if enriched to high levels, for bombs -- at its Natanz pilot enrichment plant. Iran had also begun substantial renovations of Natanz's system handling UF6. IAEA monitoring had been impaired by Iran's removal of agency safeguards seals from centrifuge-related raw materials and components, the report said. Tehran had further told the IAEA it would start installing the first 3,000 of a planned 50,000 centrifuges in the fourth quarter of 2006, the 11-page report went on. Some 1,500 centrifuges would be needed to produce the 20 kg (45 pounds) of highly enriched uranium (HEU) needed for one crude atomic warhead, nuclear analysts say. Iran's moves ended a 2 1/2-year enrichment moratorium agreed during since-collapsed talks with EU powers which had offered incentives if it curbed its nuclear ambitions, and spurred the IAEA board to report Tehran to the Security Council on February 4. "SIGNIFICANT ESCALATION" "ElBaradei has now reported Iran's intention to go beyond so-called R&D (research and development) and begin installing centrifuges in a full-scale enrichment facility. That's a significant escalation," said a senior Western diplomat. "Today's report reinforces the board's decision to report Iran to the Security Council since it validates ... international mistrust in the peaceful nature of its programme. "It shows how Iran in the face of growing international concern continues its calculated approach to produce material necessary for nuclear weapons," the diplomat added. Iran denies seeking nuclear arms, saying its atomic energy programme aims solely to generate electricity. But it hid nuclear fuel development from the IAEA for 18 years until 2003 and calls for Israel's destruction, stoking Western suspicions. ElBaradei's report emerged as the West reacted with deep scepticism to a tentative Russia-Iran deal on uranium enrichment meant to help resolve the nuclear crisis and avert Security Council steps towards sanctions, opposed by Moscow and Beijing. The Iran nuclear energy programme chief said on Sunday Tehran had reached a "basic" agreement with Moscow on a proposed joint venture in which Russia would provide enriched uranium to the Islamic Republic. But Russian officials were later quoted as saying Iran had so far made no commitment to renounce home-grown enrichment as demanded by Russia and major Western powers. ElBaradei's report said Iran had also produced 85 metric tonnes of UF6 gas at its uranium-conversion facility in Isfahan since September 2005, which would be enough for several atomic bombs once Iran masters industrial-scale enrichment technology. Probes had not uncovered any diversions of nuclear materials into bomb-making, it said, but the IAEA still could not verify there were no covert atomic activities in the Islamic Republic. Iran's cancellation of voluntary compliance with short-notice IAEA inspections in retaliation for the February 4 IAEA board decision would make it all that much harder to track down possible underground nuclear work, the report noted. It made clear Iran had done little to heed the February 4 board resolution except for giving slightly more but inadequate information about intelligence reports of military involvement in nuclear research and about equipment linked to a military-run installation razed by Iran before inspectors could reach it. The report said environmental samples taken at the Parchin military installation had found no traces of nuclear materials. The IAEA board demanded Tehran stop impeding agency inquiries. "To clarify these uncertainties, Iran's full transparency is still essential," ElBaradei's report said.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new...UCLEAR-IRAN.xml

Woot woot!

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Iran invites IAEA envoys to nuke sites January 17, 2007 - 3:30PM Iran has invited envoys from developing nations accredited to the UN nuclear watchdog to visit its nuclear sites in a show of openness about its atomic fuel program, diplomats said. The Islamic Republic has been slapped with limited UN sanctions over suspicions that its experimental efforts to enrich uranium are secretly geared to building atom bombs, rather than to generating electricity as it maintains. Iran has defiantly vowed to expand into industrial-scale fuel production, but has also pledged continued compliance with International Atomic Energy Agency inspections while trying to rally diplomatic support in its stand-off with Western powers. Tehran has invited envoys from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of developing nations attached to the IAEA, and heads of the larger Group of 77 states and of the Arab League office in Vienna, to visit from February 2 to 6, an Iranian diplomat said. "They have been invited to visit our nuclear installations from the 2nd through the 6th," the diplomat, who asked for anonymity, said on Tuesday. He did not elaborate. A NAM envoy to the IAEA said the invitation had been accepted. "It'll be a publicity exercise for Iran - to display transparency, saying 'We invited the ambassadors, we're showing them the facilities'," the envoy said. The NAM form a significant bloc on the IAEA's policymaking 35-nation governing board, which may vote on whether to cancel IAEA aid projects in Iran depending on findings of a review by agency experts due for completion in February. Among those in the visiting delegation will be the Egyptian, Cuban and Malaysian ambassadors to the IAEA - all prominent voices in NAM, to which Iran belongs, diplomats said. They said Iran's gesture reflected a desire to retain the solidarity of as many in the 115-nation NAM as possible in a brewing battle within the IAEA over the fate of its technical aid projects in Iran in the wake of UN sanctions. The reassessment was set in motion by a December 23 resolution of the UN Security Council banning transfers of sensitive nuclear materials to Iran, as well as IAEA technical aid if it has any possible application in producing nuclear fuel. Some Western powers on the IAEA board, believing Iran must be isolated to get it to stop enrichment work, interpret the resolution to mean a large number of the 65 aid items will probably have to be cut, Vienna-based diplomats say. But NAM nations feel most of the projects, many of which are devoted officially to nuclear energy for "humanitarian" ends such as medicine, could pass muster under the resolution. On Monday, Iran defiantly stuck by its ambition to massively crank up uranium enrichment capacity, with government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham saying Tehran wanted to install "even more" than 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium at a key nuclear plant. Elham confirmed that Iran would be making a major announcement on the "completion" of Iran's nuclear program during the 10-day anniversary celebrations for the Islamic revolution in February. He did not go into details.

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^^ Deja-vu...

Iraq invited UN envoys too to inspect its 'WMD!'

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