Iran, (
Persian
:
ايران
,
ʔiˈɾɒn
(
help
·
info
)
ĭrănˈ), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI,
Persian
:
جمهوری اسلامی ايران
,
pronounced
dʒomhuɾije ʔeslɒmije ʔiɾɒn
), formerly known internationally as
Persia
until , is a country in
Central Eurasia
. Iran is bounded by the
Gulf of Oman
and the
Persian Gulf
to the south and the
Caspian Sea
to its north.
Shi'a Islam
is the official religion, and
Persian
is the official language.
The th largest country in the world in terms of area at ,, km², Iran has a population of over seventy million. Iran borders
Armenia
,
Azerbaijan
,
Turkmenistan
to the north,
Afghanistan
and
Pakistan
to the east, and
Turkey
and
Iraq
to the west. Being a
littoral
state of the Caspian sea (an internal sea and
condominium
), also
Kazakhstan
and
Russia
are Iran's direct neighbours.
Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to BC.
Throughout history, Iran has been of
geostrategic
importance because of its central location in
Eurasia
and is a
regional power
.
Iran is a founding member of the
UN
,
NAM
,
OIC
, and
OPEC
. The
political system of Iran
, based on the
Constitution
, comprises several intricately connected governing bodies. The highest state authority is
the Supreme Leader
, currently
Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei
.
Iran occupies an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of of its large reserves of
petroleum
and
natural gas
. The name Iran is a
cognate
of Aryan, and means "Land of the
Aryans
".
"Land of Kindness" (سرزمين مهر) is used as an alternative name for Iran in
Persian literature
and
Iranian media
.
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