Conference of "Iran & the WWII"

During the national conference of Iran and the WWII, director of the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI) said:" Unfortunately Iranian historians hold a neutral point of view and many o0f them fail to have an analytical approach thus they can't create a process.

IBNA: The national conference of Iran and the WWII was held on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of Iran's occupation by the Allies in WWII. The conference was held on Wednesday, February 22, 2012, with the participation of director of the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI) Ishagh Salahi, Iranian researchers Mahmoud Kashani and Firooz Mojtahed Zadeh as well as a group of history researchers.

Talking about the articles which were submitted to the conference, Salahi said:" The summaries of 107 articles were sent to the conference's secretariat of which 87 were approved and as the article's names were released, 75 writers sent the complete works to the secretariat."

He added:" The works were judged in three phases and from the final 75 articles, 12 works were chosen for the conference and 50 will be printed as a book."

He underlined that history requires an analytical approach and added: We have constantly talked about WWII effects; while we should seek its reasons which was followed by Iran's occupation.

He added:" Inspired by Mackinder's Heartland Theory, Hitler fired the World War Two. "The Geographical Pivot of History" was an article submitted by Halford John Mackinder in 1904 to the Royal Geographical Society that advanced his Heartland Theory. In this article, Mackinder extended the scope of geopolitical analysis to encompass the entire globe. According to the theory who rules the Heartland would lead the world.

Salahi added:" Geopolitical thoughts changed in different periods and the Soviet Union, considering the theory, believed that through the seas they could rule the world, thus they entered the Persian Gulf."

He then talked about his own article which was penned some 8 years ago about the Persian Gulf's geopolitical and geostrategic stance saying I had named the Persian Gulf as Mackinder's Heartland's Heartland. But nowadays considering the stance of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the revolution's achievements and the Islamic Awakening wave in the region and world I can say that Iran is the heart of the world.

Thus the presidential candidates of the United States' hold different stances about Iran. On the other hand, Iran is Israel's biggest concern, he added.

The one-day conference will wrap up at 5pm.