Iran Today

Snow In Tehran

2012-01-14T01:20:00.000-08:00

Some photos of Snow in Tehran

Iran : Photos (2nd ed.)

2012-01-05T01:38:00.000-08:00

Some more photos of Iran

Metro Station , Tehran

Bushehr Nuclear Reactor

Manjeel

Tabriz

Maqbaratoshoara , Tabriz

Namakabrood

Persepolis

Esfehan : Naghshe Jahan Square

Mount Damavand

Tehran

Zahedan : City Profile

2011-12-22T03:42:00.000-08:00

Zahedan is a city at the far east of Iran in the Sistan and Baluchistan province with a population of half a million . Being the province centre and being just 42 km far from the tripont of the boarders of Iran , Afghanistan and Pakistan it has quite an importance. It is connected to the Pakistani boarder by road and the distance being just an hours drive . Trade between Iran and Pakistan occurs from here by road and also by train .

I managed to visit this city in September of 2011 for a day during which I tried to understand the culture of the city and the Baloch people and also took quite a few pictures which I will be sharing .
Zahedan is connected to the rest of Iran by train . It took me round about 24 hours to reach Zahedan from Tehran ,the train being very comfortable and very cheap , the ticket no more than a mere 20 dollars.

View of Baluchistan from the train

Zahedan Railway Station

The majority of people in Zahedan are Balochis . Though Iran has some Baloch people (around a million) , the majority of Balochi people reside across the neighboring Pakistan . What most fascintated me about the Baloch people in Zahedan were that they had many similarities with the Pakistani culture . You could frequently see people walking around in shalwar qamees , the national dress of Pakistan .

An old man offering prayers in a park

As I wandered around the city I felt that Zahedan was very different from other Iranian cities , while other Iranian cities like Tabriz and Karaj have a very lively nightlife , people are out in the parks and in the big shopping malls round about the whole nights , here the air seemed quite different , though it is very lively in the evenings ,the city would literally shut off at about nine at night , which to be frank wasn't in accord to my taste . I guess this they have also acquired from across the border .
Rest the city was quite OK , the people surprisingly friendly and ready to help .

I stayed in Gilan Hotel for the night.

Gilan Hotel. Zahedan , Iran.

The city has some big mosques and has a condsiderable population of Sunnis as well as Shias.

A mosque in Zahedan.

The city was quite clean and had some very modern buldings and places .

Esteghlal hotel is the best hotel in Zahedan and most Iranian tourists , officials and international tourists stay here.

Esteghlal Grand Hotel , Zahedan

I had my lunch at Vali-Asr restaurant which was quite good in quality and and the prices were quite cheap for the place.

Other photos that I took in Zahedan

There are massive residential and commercial projects going around just outside the city .

Iranian malt , in the background is Samand (Iranian car) in Zahedan

By :Muhammad Saeed

Iran Unviels the Captured US drone : Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel

2011-12-08T11:50:00.000-08:00

Iran has shown footage of the most advanced US reconnaissance drone which was downed by the Iranian armys electronic wing in the eastern part of the Islamic Republic earlier this week.The US has violated International law by entering Iranian airspace. In a letter to Swiss ambassador to Tehran Iran denounced the growing US provocative and secret moves against the Islamic Republic.
"The move is in violation of all international rules and regulations and runs counter to regional and international peace and security. Surely the responsibility for the illegal move lies with the US authorities," it added.
Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Forces Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh Thursday evening appeared in a TV report to explain how Iranian forces downed the United States' highly advanced radar-evading spy drone last week
"Recently, our collected intelligence and precise electronic monitoring revealed that this aircraft intended to infiltrate our country's airspace for spying missions," the General said, and added, "After it entered the Eastern parts of the country, this aircraft fell into the trap of our armed forces and was downed in Iran with minimum damage."

PressTV has shown footage of the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone that Iranian electronic warfare troops brought down intact.

Press TVs footage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd4vGszQhJw

BBC

The RQ 170 Sentinel is United States most advanced stealth UAV and is among the highly sensitive surveillance platform in the CIA's fleet that was shaped and designed to evade enemy defenses.
The RQ-170 has been used by the CIA for highly sensitive missions into other nations' airspace, including months of surveillance of the compound in Pakistan in which Osama bin Laden was hiding before he was killed in a May raid by Special Operations forces.
Current and former US defense officials said even the US military cannot use such a highly sophisticated stealth aircraft as it is in relatively short supply and is only flown by the CIA.
Iran announced on Sunday that its defense forces downed the aircraft through a sophisticated cyberattack.
The RQ-170 has special coatings and a batwing shape designed to help it penetrate other nations' air defenses undetected. The existence of the aircraft, which is made by Lockheed Martin, has been known since 2009, when a model was photographed at the main US airfield in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Latest Updates:
IRGC Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh provided these details
“After the aircraft's entry into the country's eastern [air]space, it fell in the electronic ambush of the Iranian Armed Forces and was brought to the ground with minimum damage [caused to it],”

“The recently-collected intelligence and precision electronic surveillance have made it clear that the drone aimed to infiltrate our country's airspace and conduct espionage [activities],”

Meanwhile, Iran has announced that it intended to carry out reverse engineering on the stealth aircraft, which is also known as the Beast of Kandahar and is similar in design to a US Air Force B-2 stealth bomber.

Tehran : Iranian students attack the UK embassy

2011-11-29T10:39:00.000-08:00

November 29th , 2011

    Iranian students have attacked the UK embassy in Tehran in protest of what they call Britain's "forever" hostile approach towards the Iranian nation and Londons latest move with sanctions against the country's banking system and energy sector in coordination with the US over Tehran's peaceful nuclear program.

    Following the approval of a bill aimed at downgrading ties with the UK by the Iran's Majlis parliament, in response to Britain's hostilities , students from different universities entered the compound of the British embassy in Tehran and demanded the government to hasten the implications of the bill which includes that to UK ambassador in Tehran to leave the country within two weeks .

    Police has said that they are protecting the embassy building and the documents inside, and the large crowds gathered outside the embassy compound is being dispersed.

    In northern Tehran, police entered a second British diplomatic compound to bring the situation under control where protesters had gathered at mass and chanting against the UK government .

Some videos of the students

The students also brought down the Union Jack flag and replaced it with the Iranian flag.

Police trying to stop protesters as they storm into the British Embassy.

Aljazeera's report

Iran : Photos

2011-07-13T01:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some random photos of Iran from my vast collection . Hope every1 likes them.

Kermanshah : Taghbostan Boulevard . My favourite place in Kermanshah

Tabriz : Shah Goli Park

Shiraz

Esfehan : Sio se Pol

Esfehan : Naghshe Jahan Square

Mashhad

Lahijan

Perspolis

Masouleh

Kish

Chaloos

Tehran : View from Milad Tower

Iran : National Internet and national search engine 'Ya Haq'

2011-07-05T01:31:00.000-07:00

Iran is set to launch its national Internet in August in an effort to provide Iranians with faster and safer and more reliable internet that is also more compatible with Farsi language .
                       According to Irans minister of communication the project's Phases Zero and One would be completed and operational in August. According to him the state-run national Iranian internet will initially provide with home users 8mbps speed broadband internet and they will have 20mbps speed once the next phase of the national internet comes into stream .
                       Also called clean or halal internet the national internet will be more based to provide Iranians more access to Farsi content as most of Iranians aren't good enough at English and to give protection against the loose commitment to ethics and morality across the World Wide Web. According to information minister quote “The national internet will not limit access for users. It will instead empower Iran and protect its society from cultural invasion and threats.” According to Iran other muslim countries will also be invited to join the internet .

Tehran has also undertaken a project to develop a national search engine dubbed "Ya Haq" by early 2012 . According to Iranian sources the new search engine will be much faster and efficient than Google and Yahoo search in searching Farsi content and the results displayed will be more accurate.
The domain for the search engine might be    یا حق.ir     .

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PHOTOS : Iranian made Linux based supercomputer at the Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran with processing power of 89 teraflops . (Not been registered with top500 )

Great Prophet 6 : Iranian defence maneuvers

2011-07-02T01:07:00.000-07:00

The great prophet 6 ( پيامبر اعظم ص) military drills kicked off on monday the 27th of June , near the holy city of Qom .
These drills were to show the military capabilities of Iran which are all 100 % domestically made .Iran has many times repeated that the Great prophet drills are for the defense of the country against any kind of foreign hostility and harbors a message of peace and friendship to neighboring and regional countries .

On the first day of the drills Iran unveiled locally built underground missile silos (Subterranean silos) which cannot be destroyed by aerial attacks and are much harder to track compared to surface installations. Missile silo technology is a very limited technology which very few countries in the world have . They use advanced remote control systems . An Iranian military commander said that the silos function as a swift-reaction unit and that the missiles were permanently in the vertical position and “ready to hit the predetermined targets.” Also on the first day Iran test fired Fateh 110 missiles

On the second day of the drills (Tuesday , 28th May 2011) Iran test fired many of its ingeniously made missiles . Many surface to surface missiles were tested the Zelzal missiles , Shahab 1 , Shahab 2 and an upgraded Shahab 3 missile . According to Iranian commander quote "The range of our missiles has been designed based on American bases in the region as well as the Zionist regime." Also according to Tehran , it has the technical capability to build missiles which could reach Europe , however, right now there is no intention of pursuing it .

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Great prophet 6 overview :

Press TV

RT

Update :

On the third day Iran’s Armed Forces were equipped with the newly developed Ghadir radar system, which can monitor a radius of 1,100 and a height of 300 kilometers and can detect stealth aircrafts . According to the Commander of the Aerospace Division of IRGC “The Ghadir radar has been designed and manufactured to discover air targets, radar-evading planes, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and satellites at low orbits.”

Iranian war games is now entering naval phase and Iran plans to test-fire new “supersonic surface-to-sea missiles” as well as deploying cruise missiles in the Persian gulf

Nader and Simin: A Separation 2011

2011-06-27T07:41:00.000-07:00

       Nader and Simin: A Separation is the new masterpiece of Asghar Farhadi .It stares Leila Hatami (Simin) , Peiman Ma'adi (Nader) , Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat and Sarina Farhadi .
       The film is based on the story of an Iranian middle-class couple who are getting a divorce, while considering the future of their only child.The film is highly critically acclaimed and may be considered as probably the best film of the past year . IMDB has rated it as 8.6 and Hollywood Reporter , Screen daily , variety and rotten tomatoes all have given it hugely positive reviews.The Hollywood Reporter has predicted the film will be among next year's foreign language Oscars nominees.
      The film won the Golden Bear Award of the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival and the event's Silver Bears for the entire male and female cast ensemble.Its also won the Fajr Film Festival's Crystal Simorghs for Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematographer and Best Sound Recorder .It also has won the Sydney Film Prize for best movie at the 2011 Sydney Film Festival .Ahmad Miralaii, the director of Iran's Farabi Cinematic Foundation, said that "the Iranian cinema is proud of the awards", as he welcomed Farhadi at the airport upon the director's return from Berlin.

Iran's automotive Industry

2011-06-27T02:16:00.001-07:00

Iran's automotive industry is the 12th largest automotive industry in the world and the largest in the middle east . The growth rate of Iran's car production is much higher then the rest and going in the same rate very soon Iran's car production industry will become a major power .

Iran produces many types of vehicles from passenger cars to four wheel drives, vans,small trucks,heavy trucks. buses, minibuses and pickups and motorcycles .

There are many automotive companies in Iran of which the two major companies are;

Iran Khodro and Saipa ,

while other important companies are ;

Pars Khodro

Shahhab Khodro

Sherkat Martab

Bahman Group

Kerman Motors

Zagres Khodro

Modiran Khodro

Tractor Sazi

Runiran and many others like Kerman Khodro , Kish Khodro etc .

Iran Khodro diesel is the major producer of buses and trucks.

In the early days the Iranian car companies just assembled foreign cars in Iran but with the passage of time they have started making local cars which are now very famous all over Iran and are exported to many countries with the estimate of over 100,000 units export by the year of 2015.

Iranian car companies are now looking to reach higher safety and consumptions standards and most of the cars now come in both Gasoline and CNG option as the Government encourages CNG usage and also dues to very low price of CNG in Iran .

Iran Khodro and Saipa have built car manufacturing plants in many countries in Africa , Latin America , Syria , Azerbaijan and neighboring countries.

Some of the Iranian cars

IKCO Dena

IKCO Soren

IKCO Samand

IKCO Runna

Saipa Tiba

Peugeot 206SD

Peugeot 207i

Peugeot Pars

Some Iranian buses

Saipa Diesels Kaveh Truck

IKCO Dena Car profile

2011-06-23T02:07:00.000-07:00

Dena is the latest car offered by the Iranian automotive company Iran Khodro .It is built on a locally designed platform and is tagged as luxury car with high quality control . It will come with to models , the LX and ELX .

Dena LX will be priced starting from 14000 US dollars and is outfitted with EF7 (1.7 L (1648 cc) 113 hp)
gasoline engine and a CNG based engine.

Dena ELX will be priced starting from 18000 US dollars and has a turbo charged EF7 (1.7 L (1648 cc) 150 hp) engine. ELX model will also enjoy extra options like sport rings, electric power steering, electric folding mirrors, fog lights, passenger air bag etc .

Dena has been designed to meet frontal impact and pedestrian impact safety requirements and is said to meet EURO IV emission standards .

Other specifications are
VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
FUEL ECONOMY: EPA average: 34.4 mpg
TRANSMISSION: automatic/manual
The car will hit domestic market in early 2012 and will also be exported to global markets , the main targets of which are Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, East European and Persian Gulf region countries, Africa and East Asia.

Iran's second satellite Rasad 1

2011-06-22T23:38:00.000-07:00

Iran has recently launched a new satellite named Rasad 1 into orbit . According to the Iranian Space organization the Safir e Rasad which is Irans second Satellite carrier was responsible for placing the satellite into orbit.

Rasad loaded on Safir launcher

The satellite

According to information released by the missile after launch and operate properly in accordance with the schedule of the final stage rocket separated from the satellite in orbit of 260 km from the Earth's. The orbiting observatory will continue to move in for two months. Experts from the Malek e Ashtar university have announced that images are being received from the satellite and the satellite is in perfect condition orbiting the earth.

Iran launched its first home made satellite Omid in 2009. The telecommunication satellite put Iran's name in the list as the ninth country to develop satellite launch capability