Iran: oil, religion and nuclear program in a strategic state in the Middle East

With vast reserves of gas and oil, the Persian country is led by an authoritarian clerical power. It is the second largest in the Middle East, controls the Strait of Hormuz, and maintains a uranium enrichment program that could make it a nuclear power, because “determination cannot be bombed”.

With an area 18 times larger than that of Portugal, Iran, which was defeated this Saturday by Israel and the USA, is a strategic state in the Middle East, holding vast reserves of natural gas and oil.

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which ended more than two millennia of monarchy, the country has been led by a poder clerical authoritarian.

With about 90 million inhabitantsof which 3/4 live in urban areas and around 10 million in the capital, Tehran, Iran is culturally diverse.

Although the Persians are in the majoritythe country has significant communities of Azeris, Luros, Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis and Turkmens, notes AFP. Persian is the official language, coexisting with several regional dialects.

Iran is the largest Shia majority country in the world: more than 90% of the population adhered to this branch of Islam. The Sunni minority is mainly concentrated in provinces bordering Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Constitution officially recognizes Christian minorities, Jewish and Zoroastrian (doctrine of the Persian prophet Zoroaster, or Zarathustra, from the 7th century BC), which even have representation in parliament, but the Baha’i confession is prohibited and persecuted since the Revolution.

The Islamic republic, which exercises great influence in the region, is accused of destabilize with “proxy wars”through support for terrorist organizations such as the Hamasin Palestine, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollahos Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Oil, gas, strategic location

The country holds around 10% of world reserves certified oil and 15% of natural gas. Despite the wealth of hydrocarbons and a diversified industrial sector, especially in the petrochemical, steel and automobile sectors, due to international sanctionshyperinflation and .

Located at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, it is the second largest country in the Middle East in area, surpassed only by Saudi Arabia. Controls the north bank of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passage for global oil transit.

It borders seven countriesincluding Turkey, Iraq and Pakistan, and shares the Caspian Sea to the north with nations such as Russia.

The Iranian political system combines republican institutions with clerical power. The Supreme Guide, ‘ayatollah’ Ali Khameneiin office since 1989, is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and has the last word on strategic decisions. The President, currently Masoud Pezeshkianis elected every four years, but candidacies depend on the approval of the Guardian Council.

The ayatollahs’ regime is defended by Revolutionary Guardan ideological structure that also controls vast sectors of the economy, and which in January the EU .

How is the nuclear program?

According to , the situation of the Iranian nuclear program is not clear, after the country saw its nuclear installations between Israel and Iran, which occurred in June last year.

Os US intervened in the conflictattacking three facilities: Iran’s largest nuclear research complex in Isfahan, as well as centers in Natanz and Fordo used to enrich uranium for use as nuclear fuel. Donald Trump stated at the time that the facilities had been “destroyed”.

A week later, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossistated however that the attacks had caused serious damage, even though “not total”suggesting that some form of enrichment could be resumed in a few months.

The agency estimates that when Israel launched airstrikes on June 13, Iran had about 440 kilograms of enriched uraniumo up to 60% purity — a small technical step towards achieving the 90% required for nuclear weaponry.

Grossi said in October Associated Press that this amount, if enriched further, would be enough to produce ten nuclear bombs.

In November, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchitold the magazine that uranium enrichment had been interrupted.

Last month, Araghchi sparked controversy in an interview with , in which he stated that “yes, they destroyed the facilitiesmachines, but technology cannot be bombed, and determination cannot be bombed either“.

Grossi told Reuters in January that he had managed to inspect 13 installations nuclear weapons in Iran they had not been bombedbut not the three main ones that were, and stated that seven months had passed since the last check on Iran’s enriched uranium stocks.

Persist uncertainties about fundamental issuesnamely the location and condition of stock, as well as the conditions of the facilities of enrichment.