Iran competed at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai, China between July 16 and 31, 2011.
Iran competed at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai, China between July 16 and 31, 2011.
Iran qualified 3 swimmers. [1]
| Athlete | Event | Heats | Semifinals | Final | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | ||
| Mohammad Bidarian | Men's 50m Freestyle | 24.33 | 51 | Did not advance | |||
| Men's 100m Freestyle | 52.42 | 56 | Did not advance | ||||
| Mohammad Alirezaei | Men's 50m Breaststroke | 28.18 | 22 | Did not advance | |||
| Men's 100m Breaststroke | DNS | Did not advance | |||||
| Saeed Ashtiani | Men's 100m Butterfly | 56.83 | 50 | Did not advance | |||
| Men's 200m IM | 2:09.81 | 41 | Did not advance | ||||
Iran, also called Persia, and officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a country in Western Asia. With 82 million inhabitants, Iran is the world's 18th most populous country. Its territory spans 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), making it the second largest country in the Middle East and the 17th largest in the world. Iran is bordered to the northwest by Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan, to the north by the Caspian Sea, to the northeast by Turkmenistan, to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and to the west by Turkey and Iraq. Its central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, give it geostrategic importance. Tehran is the political and economic center of Iran, and the largest and most populous city in Western Asia with more than 8.8 million residents in the city and 15 million in the larger metropolitan area.
Iran's population increased dramatically during the later half of the 20th century, reaching about 80 million by 2016. In recent years, however, Iran's birth rate has dropped significantly. Studies project that Iran's rate of population growth will continue to slow until it stabilizes above 100 million by 2050. More than half of Iran's population is under 35 years old (2012).
Iran is a republic in which the president, parliament (Majles) and judicial system share powers reserved to the national government, according to its Constitution. The politics of Iran take place in a framework that officially combines elements of theocracy and presidential democracy. The December 1979 constitution, and its 1989 amendment, define the political, economic, and social order of the Islamic Republic of Iran, declaring that Shia Islam is Iran's official religion were around 90–95% of Iranians associate themselves with the Shia branch of Islam.
The economy of Iran is a mixed and transition economy with a large public sector. It is the world's eighteenth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). Some 60% of Iran's economy is centrally planned. It is dominated by oil and gas production, although over 40 industries are directly involved in the Tehran Stock Exchange, one of the best performing exchanges in the world over the past decade. With 10% of the world's proven oil reserves and 15% of its gas reserves, Iran is considered an "energy superpower."
Foreign relations of Iran refers to inter-governmental relationships between the Islamic Republic of Iran and other countries. Geography is a very significant factor in informing Iran's foreign policy. Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the newly born Islamic Republic, under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, dramatically reversed the pro-American foreign policy of the last Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Since then the country's policies have oscillated between the two opposing tendencies of revolutionary ardour, which would eliminate Western and non-Muslim influences while promoting the Islamic revolution abroad, and pragmatism, which would advance economic development and normalization of relations. Iran's bilateral dealings are accordingly sometimes confused and contradictory.
The Iran national football team, also known as Team Melli, represents Iran in international football and is controlled by the Iran Football Federation. From December 2014 until May 2018, the men's national football team of Iran remained the highest-ranked team in Asia, representing the longest continuous period of time a team has been top of the continent in the rankings.
Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei is a Twelver Shia Marja' and the second and current supreme leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei is the longest serving head of state in the Middle East, as well as the second-longest serving Iranian leader of the last century, after Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, founded after the Iranian Revolution on 22 April 1979 by order of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Whereas the Iranian Army defends Iranian borders and maintains internal order, according to the Iranian constitution, the Revolutionary Guard (pasdaran) is intended to protect the country's Islamic republic political system. The Revolutionary Guards state that their role in protecting the Islamic system is preventing foreign interference as well as coups by the military or "deviant movements".
Iran is not known to currently possess weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and has signed treaties repudiating the possession of WMDs including the Biological Weapons Convention, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Iran has first-hand knowledge of WMD effects—over 100,000 Iranian troops and civilians were victims of chemical weapons during the 1980s Iran–Iraq War.
The Quds Force is a unit in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) specializing in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. U.S. Army's Iraq War General Stanley McChrystal describes the Quds Force as an organization roughly analogous to a combination of the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the United States. Responsible for extraterritorial operations, the Quds Force supports non-state actors in many countries, including Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Yemeni Houthis, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
The Fateh-110 is an Iranian road-mobile single-stage solid-fueled surface-to-surface missile produced by Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization. The first generation of the Fateh-110 was flight tested in September 2002 and began mass production shortly thereafter. The initial range of the missile was 200 km and in September 2004 the second generation of the Fateh-110 increased the range to 250 km. The third generation of the missile, unveiled in 2010, increased the range to 300 km, and the fourth generation (2012) improved the accuracy.
Arab League–Iran relations refer to political, economic and cultural relations between the mostly Shia Persian country of Iran and the mostly Sunni and Arab organization Arab League.
The Iranian Space Agency is Iran's governmental space agency. Iran became an orbital-launch-capable nation in 2009. Iran is one of the 24 founding members of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which was set up in 1958.
Iranians abroad or Iranian diaspora are Iranian people living outside Iran and their children born abroad.
The Iranian Armed Forces comprise the Army (Artesh), the Revolutionary Guard Corps (Sepāh) and the Law Enforcement Force (Police) of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Iran–PJAK conflict is an armed conflict between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kurdish guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), which began in 2004 and largely ended in 2011. The group was carrying out attacks in the Kurdistan Province of Iran and other Kurdish-inhabited areas. PJAK is closely affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the primary opponent of the Republic of Turkey in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict.
Protests against the highly controversial 2009 Iranian presidential election results, in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, occurred in major cities nationwide from 2009 into early 2010. The protests were titled Iranian Green Movement by its proponents, reflecting Mousavi's campaign theme, and Persian Awakening, Persian Spring or Green Revolution, reflecting the "Persian identity" of Iranians and the so-called "colour revolution" theme.
There have been a number of sanctions against Iran imposed by a number of countries, especially the United States, and international entities. The first sanctions were those imposed by the United States in November 1979 after a group of radical students seized the American Embassy in Tehran and took the people inside hostage. The sanctions by Executive Order 12170 included freezing about $12 billion in Iranian assets, including bank deposits, gold and other properties, and a trade embargo. These sanctions were lifted in January 1981 as part of the Algiers Accords, which was a negotiated settlement of the hostages’ release.
The Iran–Israel proxy conflict, or Iran–Israel proxy war and Iran–Israel Cold War, is a proxy war between Iran and Israel in the 21st century. The conflict is bound in the political struggle of Iranian leadership against Israel and its declared aim to dissolve the Jewish state, with the counter aim of Israel to prevent nuclear weapons being acquired by the Iranian government and downgrading its allies and proxies such as the Lebanese Hezbollah party.