Iran occupies a most prominent politico-economic position in the Middle East. With a surface area of 1,648,000 square kilometers, and such an strategic position, the country is truly unique, and enjoys many advantages.
After the collapse of the ex-USSR in 1991, Iran gained a more prominent position in the region, acting as a "bridge" that links the Middle Asian states in the north to the wealthy people south of the Persian Gulf who are both producers and consumers. It also provides for Middle Asia, a sea route, via the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Omen, to India, China and African countries. Iran is cosily nestled in the middle of a market with 380 million consumers. It has direct land or sea routes to: Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, the Republic of Armenia, Independent Republic of Nakhichevan, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Pakistan. It can provide transit routes linking the northern states - the ex-Soviet Republics - to the other states by sea and land, without the necessity of passage through a third country. It also joins the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean by road and railway. In 1994 the population of Iran was about 60 millions of whom 35 millions lived in towns and 25 millions in rural areas. About 48% of the population were female and the rest were male. In the 1980s the rate of population growth had risen alarmingly but the nation managed to control the population growth and lower the growth rate from 3.9% in the 80s down to 2.5% in the 90s.
Population distribution in Iran is very uneven because of the enormous variations in natural and climatic conditions, economic potentials, and concentration of industries and services across the country. For example, the eastern regions, the provinces of Kerman, Khorassan, and Sistan-and -Bal uchestan,  which cover about 42% of the country's surface area, home only 16.7% of the population But the province of Tehran, which covers 1.7% of the country's area, is inhabited by 20% of the population. Of the 60 million Iranians, 17 millions are able to work, of which 15 millions are active.
Special efforts are being made to eradicate illiteracy and the population has welcomed the idea, and has fervently participated in the literacy program, such that today 78%, of the population of 6 years and over can read and write; and 92.6% of the Iranians aged 6-29 are literate.
In the north and west there are two large ranges of high mountains. Also a few smaller ranges of mountains run in the south, not very far from the coasts of the rersian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. These mountains bar the central regions from the humid winds coming from the Caspian Sea in the north, the Mediterranean in the west, and the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman in the south. Thus the external slopes of these mountains are green and the internal faces dry.
Iran consists of a high interior plateau surrounded by a series of massive, heavily eroded mountain ranges. Most of the country is over 509m above sea level. The capital, Tehran, lies at the foot of Alborz mountains and extends from an altitude of 1,300m to that of 1,600m . However, the coastal regions which lie beyond the mountains in the north and the south are quite low. In the north there is a narrow littoral, over 600 kilometers long, running along the Caspian sea, about 100 kilometers across where it is widest, and as narrow as 15 kilometers in many parts. The land falls from about 3,000 meters above the sea, down to 30m below sea level. Along the southern coast the land falls from about 700m to about sea level where it meets the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.
The Zagros range of mountains runs from the northwest downwards in a south-easterly direction, then it turns east-wards and extends to Baluchestan but the west-east section is not called Zagros: different names are given to different parts of it. As Zagros mountains move from the northwest, south-wards slightly to the east, they broaden into almost parallel alternating ridges which separate central Iran from the plains of Mesopotamia.
The Alborz range, as forbidding as Zagros mountains, runs in the northern parts of the country close and parallel to the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. The highest summit is a volcanic peak more than 5,600m high, the snow-clad Mount Damavand.
At the eastern side, nlajestic mountains turn into low hills and sand dunes.
In the interior ylateau, most of which is desert-land or simply dry and barren, two other small ranges of mountains cut their way through. Parts of the central deserts are covered by sand and rocks. Small eases can be found here and there where some water can be had, and these usually mark the caravansaries, (or as the correct original Iranian word is caravansarays); stations on caravan routes for night rest and for trade. The plateau contains within It a salt waste, over 300 km long and about 10m wide: the "kavir." The central plateau, a high depression within these mountains, was at the one time the bed of a sea, which dried up tens uf thousands of years ago.
Iran has numerous large and small rivers but still not enough water for irrigation. the water for some streams pours into the dry central plateau and goes to waste, and great efforts are being made nowadays to control and gather this water behind large and small dams. Iran's major rivers are the Atrak, the Sefid, and the only river that can be navigated - at least over parts of it- the Karoon. Iran's other rivers include the Zayandeh which passes through Isfahan; Karkheh and Jarrahi (south-west); and Zarrineh which flows into the Lake Urumiyeh (northwest).
There are many lakes in Iran, large and small, with the largest lake in the world, the Caspian Sea, lying to its north. The lakes include Urumiyeh (4,368 sq km), the largest inland water reservoir of the country with very high salinity; Bakhtagan in Fars (south central) and Howz Soltan near Qom, Iran' s main islan d s are: Qeshm (1,491 sq km), Kish (89.7 sq km), Lavan (99 sq km); and Khark, Larak, Hormuz, Hangam, Abu Musa, the Greatgr Tonb and the Lesser Tonb, all in the Persian Gulf. It also has other smaller islands both in the south and in the Caspian Sea.