Military manpower - military age: 21 years of age
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49 : 15,700,662 (1997 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males: 9,332,944 (1997 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military 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