For the past few months we had the “honour” to read many articles and news reports in which the above countries have been described as mayor threats and terrorism/terrorist supported states without any sustainable evidence. It is not a secret that these states are facing much political and economical turbulence, but that does not necessarily means they are a threat to the world.

Headlines like “Pakistan Terrorism Heaven”, “Iran the Most Active Terror Sponsor”, ”Pakistan Supports Terrorism” and “Iran Worst Terror Proliferator”, among others are very insulting and unfair because they present sovereign countries and their citizens as terrorists. 

Are the attacks and accusations on these and other states work of bad journalism or maybe corrupted journalism, or both, or maybe government propaganda or failed intelligence?

Let’s take a look on some interesting facts concerning these states which are not propaganda, accusations or attacks, rather information’s available to all interested in so called “another side of the story”.

THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

Iran, a founding member of the United Nation, has a population of over 74 million and is a home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations.

Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Iran has been accused by a number of states, including the United States, Israel and some European countries, of funding, providing equipment, weapons, training and giving sanctuary to terrorists.

Particularly, the United States broke diplomatic ties with Iran in 1981, after the Iranian students seized the American Embassy in Tehran, where they held 53 Americans hostage for 444 days. According to the US officials, the US Government objects to Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism, its nuclear weapons ambitions, and its violations of human rights. The US Department of State lists Iran as the most active state sponsor of terrorism.

In addition, Iran has been accused of using the Ministry of Intelligence and Security to gather intelligence to plan terrorist attacks, of giving weapons and support to the Iraqi insurgency, of giving weapons and support to the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, for murder and kidnapping of the US Colonel William Higgins in Lebanon, among other things.

We are more or less aware of accusations against Iran and current public opinion concerning Iran, but there are many things about Iran which are less known to the public.

We can sum the reasons of Iran’s isolation from the rest of the world, and Iran’s classification as a terrorist state trough Iran’s defying “policy” and Iran’s ties to Hezbollah.  Other reasons are its relationship to the Islamic Jihad (Palestinian Islamic Jihad), which are more or less speculations, rather than the real deal. Concerning links with Hamas, the Hamas is not politically tied to Iran and it is mostly financed from Saudi Arabia. Hamas and Iran’s connections are subjected to deeper debate.

Iran’s Policy of Defiance

Iran's post revolution challenges have included the imposition of embargo and suspension of diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States because of the Iran hostage crisis and other acts of terrorism that the US government and some others have accused Iran of sponsoring. To overcome foreign embargo, Iran has developed its own military industry, produced its own tanks, armoured personnel carriers, guided missiles, submarines, military vessels, radar systems, helicopters and fighter planes.

Iran's foreign policy is based on two strategic principles: to eliminate outside influences in the region and to pursue extensive diplomatic contacts with developing and non-aligned countries. The Islamic Republic of Iran accords priority to its relations with the other states in the region and with the rest of the Islamic world. Presidents of Venezuela and Iran have both described themselves on the world stage as opposed to the US imperialism. Two states regard each other as closest allies.

Iran has been accused by the United States of giving weapons and support to the Iraqi insurgency. Despite these claims, no supportive evidence has ever been made viewable to the public, and while in the past US officials made the claim that the evidence was held in Iraq's possession and it would be up to them to decide whether to reveal it or not, Iraqi officials have claimed on various occasions that no such evidence exists. Nouri Maliki, Iraqi’s Prime Minister has praised Iran for its positive and constructive stance on Iraq, including providing security and fighting terrorism.

Iran's nuclear program has become the subject of debate with the Western world due to suspicions that Iran could divert the civilian nuclear technology to a weapons program. This has led the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against Iran on select companies linked to this program.

The controversy over Iran's nuclear programs centers in particular on Iran's failure to declare sensitive enrichment and reprocessing activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Iran asserts that there is no legal basis for Iran's referral to the United Nations Security Council since the IAEA has not proven that previously undeclared activities had a relationship to a weapons program, and that all nuclear material in Iran (including material that may not have been declared) had been accounted for and had not been diverted to military purposes. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful, and has enriched uranium to less than 5 percent, consistent with fuel for a civilian nuclear power plant.

There are nearly 8,000 active nuclear warheads and about 23,300 total nuclear warheads in the world. Since 1945, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for testing purposes and demonstration purposes. Countries known to have detonated nuclear weapons are: the United States, the Soviet Union (Russia), the United Kingdom, France, the People's Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, though it has refused to confirm or deny this. South Africa produced six nuclear weapons in the 80s, but disassembled them in the early 90s. Iran has no nuclear warheads.

The US and British officials have accused Iran of giving weapons and support to the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. The US Time Magazine described Iran as "implacably hostile to the Taliban over that movement's extremist theology and over its killing of Afghan Shiite Muslims. In 1999, Iran almost went to war against the Taliban after its militia killed eight Iranian diplomats and a journalist after capturing a predominantly Shiite town, and has worked together with Russia to support anti-Taliban opposition forces". The Islamic government of Iran has a hard-line policy against drugs. This has often brought the government of Iran into direct conflict with the Taliban, which controls the drug trade in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Iran's new foreign policy has had a dramatic effect on its global standing. Relations with the European Union have dramatically improved to the point where Iran is a major oil exporter and trading partner for countries such as Italy, France and Germany. China, India, Sudan, Senegal, Morocco have also emerged as friends of Iran. Next to the well known relations with Venezuela, Iran has close relations with Brazil, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua.

There has also been some low-level cooperation between the US and Iran on antidrug policies, counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan in the aftermath of September 11 attack, and anti-oil-smuggling efforts in Iraq. It was said on that Iran was willing, under the right conditions, to improve its chilly relations with the US. Number of US experts, who include academics and former US ambassadors, warned against a military attack on Iran and called for unconditional negotiations with Iranian Government. Even President Barack Obama spoke directly to the Iranian people in a video saying "The United States wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations. You have that right - but it comes with real responsibilities."