ary age annually:
males : 650,804 (1997 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: according to official Iranian
data, Iran budgeted 8,283.9 billion rials for defense in 1997; note -
conversion of defense expenditures into US dollars using current
exchange rates could produce misleading results

Transnational Issues

Disputes - international: Iran and Iraq restored diplomatic relations
in 1990 but are still trying to work out written agreements settling
outstanding disputes from their eight-year war concerning border
demarcation, prisoners-of-war, and freedom of navigation and
sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab waterway; Iran occupies two islands
in the Persian Gulf claimed by the UAE: Lesser Tunb (called Tunb as
Sughra in Arabic by UAE and Jazireh-ye Tonb-e Kuchek in Persian by
Iran) and Greater Tunb (called Tunb al Kubra in Arabic by UAE and
Jazireh-ye Tonb-e Bozorg in Persian by Iran); it jointly administers
with the UAE an island in the Persian Gulf claimed by the UAE (called
Abu Musa in Arabic by UAE and Jazireh-ye Abu Musa in Persian by Iran)
- over which Iran has taken steps to exert unilateral control since
1992, including access restrictions and a military build-up on the
island; the UAE has garnered significant diplomatic support in the
region in protesting these Iranian actions; Caspian Sea boundaries are
not yet determined among Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakstan, Russia, and
Turkmenistan

Illicit drugs: illicit producer of opium poppy for the domestic and
international drug trade; net opiate importer but also a key
transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin to Europe
______________________________________________________________________

IRAQ

@Iraq:Geography

Location: Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iran and
Kuwait

Geographic coordinates: 33 00 N, 44 00 E

Map references: Middle East

Area:
total: 437,072 sq km
land: 432,162 sq km
water : 4,910 sq km

Area - comparative: slightly more than twice the size of Idaho

Land boundaries:
total: 3,631 km
border countries : Iran 1,458 km, Jordan 181 km, Kuwait 242 km, Saudi
Arabia 814 km, Syria 605 km, Turkey 331 km

Coastline: 58 km

Maritime claims:
continental shelf: not specified
territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate: mostly desert; mild to cool winters with dry, hot, cloudless
summers; northern mountainous regions along Iranian and Turkish
borders experience cold winters with occasionally heavy snows which
melt in early