Mick Hartley

How big is Iran? Well, how big do you want it to be?

Iran's total area is larger than previously thought by some 14 percent, Defence Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi was quoted by the website of state television as saying Monday.

"The actual area of Iran is 1,873,959 square kilometres (723,539 square miles)," Vahidi said, adding: "The area given so far for Iran was lower, and now this new figure should be used."

Most international documents and atlases, especially the geography text books used in Iranian schools, give 1,648,195 square kilometres (636,371 square miles) as the area of Iran.

Vahidi, speaking at the unveiling of new mapping software designed by the Iranian military, did not explain how this sudden gain of 225,764 square kilometres (87,167 square miles) in Iranian territory was calculated.

All in the finest traditions of the Iranian military. Are the same lot in charge of the software for the nuclear weaponry?

The new figure would take Iran from 18th to 17th in the ranking of countries by area, leapfrogging Libya. That extra 225,764 square kilometres is just under the area of the UK and, closer to home, over ten times the area of that wretched Zionist Entity which is causing all the problems in the Middle East nowadays – a slightly harder nut to crack for those military software experts.