As Iran defies the world by restarting its nuclear programme, Paul Kenyon travels to the Islamic Republic with UN nuclear inspectors, and gains exclusive behind-the-scene access to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iranian negotiators talk candidly about why they deceived the world over their nuclear programme for 18 years. The diplomatic to-ing and fro-ing covered in the programme was filmed in the first six months of 2005.
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Iran - Nuclear Secrets. Video hosted on Google. The clock is ticking on Iran's race to go nuclear and diplomatic efforts to stop it are on their last legs. For nearly two decades, key nuclear facilities in Iran have been kept secret. The Islamic state says it has been developing nuclear energy for purely peaceful purposes. But the US believes Iran has been developing weapons of mass destruction and wants to send it to the UN Security Council. Does Iran have a secret nuclear bomb programme? Even if it has, what can the world do about it? The This World team gain exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the UN's nuclear watchdog in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as they scrutinise Iran's nuclear capability. We travel to Iran with the agency's weapons inspectors and meet the Iranian negotiators who remain adamant they have nothing to hide. We also speak exclusively to Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the IAEA, the man caught in the diplomatic crossfire between states eager to join the nuclear club, and those already in who do not trust the outsiders to play safe. Will Iran be able to convince the weapons inspectors it can be trusted? "I keep saying to the Iranians," Mr ElBaradei tells us, "the more transparent you are, the better for you because we will never be able to establish confidence... unless we see full openness." If Iran refuse to suspend their nuclear energy programme, the diplomats may have to make way for military strategists. Is the club about to gain a new member? Or will the US lose patience with the flagging diplomatic effort?
From: BBC.
Iran is officially the Islamic Republic of Iran formerly known internationally as Persia until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Iran is a cognate of Aryan, and means "Land of the Aryans". The 18th largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km², Iran has a population of over seventy million. It is a country of special geostrategic significance due to its central location in Eurasia. Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a littoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea and condominium, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Iran's direct neighbors to the north. Iran is bordered on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and on the west by Turkey and Iraq. Tehran is the capital, the country's largest city and the political, cultural, commercial, and industrial center of the nation. Iran is a regional power, and occupies an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of its large reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BC. The Medes unified Iran into a kingdom in 625 BC.[2] They were succeeded by three Iranian dynasties, the Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids, which governed Iran for more than 1000 years. After centuries of foreign occupation and short-lived native dynasties, Iran was once again reunified as an independent state in 1501 by the Safavid dynasty — who promoted Shia Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning points in the history of Islam.[15] Iran had been a monarchy ruled by a Shah, or emperor, almost without interruption from 1501 until the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when Iran officially became an Islamic republic on 1 April 1979. Iran is a founding member of the UN, NAM, OIC and OPEC. The political system of Iran, based on the 1979 Constitution, comprises several intricately connected governing bodies. The highest state authority is the Supreme Leader. Shia Islam is the official religion and Persian is the official language.
 Map Persepolis In the 6th century bc the territory of present-day Iran was the center of the Persian Empire, the world's preeminent power at that time. For more than 2,000 years, the region's inhabitants have referred to it by the name Iran, derived from the Aryan tribes who settled the area long ago. However, until 1935, when the Iranian ruler demanded that the name Iran be used, the English-speaking world knew the country as Persia, a legacy of the Greeks who named the region after its most important province, Pars (present-day Fars). Iran was a monarchy ruled by a shah, or king, almost without interruption from 1501 until 1979, when a yearlong popular revolution led by the Shia clergy culminated in the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of an Islamic republic. See Islamic Revolution of Iran.
 Woman in Tehran Iran's population is made up of numerous ethnic groups. Persians migrated to the region from Central Asia beginning in the 7th century bc and established the first Persian empire in 550 bc. They are the largest ethnic group, and include such groups as the Gilaki, who live in Gilan Province, and the Mazandarani, who live in Mazandaran Province. Accounting for about 60 percent of the total population, Persians live in cities throughout the country, as well as in the villages of central and eastern Iran. Two groups closely related to the Persians both ethnically and linguistically are the Kurds and the Lurs. The Kurds, who make up about 7 percent of the population, reside primarily in the Zagros Mountains near the borders with Iraq and Turkey. The Lurs account for 2 percent of the population; they inhabit the central Zagros region. Turkic tribes began migrating into northwestern Iran in the 11th century, gradually changing the ethnic composition of the region so that by the late 20th century East Azerbaijan Province was more than 90 percent Turkish. Since the early 1900s, Azeris (a Turkic group) have been migrating to most large cities in Iran, especially Tehran. Azeris and other Turkic peoples together account for about 25 percent of Iran's inhabitants. The remainder of the population comprises small communities of Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Baluchis, Georgians, Pashtuns, and others.
Jafari Shia Islam has been the official religion of Iran since the 16th century. Followers of Shia Islam disagree with Sunni Muslims (see Sunni Islam), who form the majority of Muslims in the Middle East and the Islamic world, over the rightful succession to the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. Iran's 1979 constitution assigns to the Shia clergy important political leadership roles in the government. An estimated 93 percent of all Iranians follow Shia Islam, and nearly all are members of the Jafari group. Because Jafaris believe there are 12 legitimate successors, or imams, to Muhammad, they are often called Twelvers. Most of the remaining population belongs to other Islamic denominations, primarily Sunni Islam. In towns where there are mixed Muslim communities, religious tensions have surfaced frequently, especially during major religious observances. Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, is popular among Shia and Sunni Muslims seeking spiritual interpretations of religion. Iran also has small communities of Armenian and Assyrian Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. The Baha'i faith, which originated in Iran during the 19th century, has several thousand secret followers, even though it has been a target of official persecution since the Islamic republic came to power in 1979.
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