On February 11, Iran commemorated the 45th anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution, with many Iranians marching through major streets with flags and banners. The celebrations were not just a display of nationalism but also an expression of support for Palestine. Al Jazeera reported that during the festivities, a paratrooper jumped from a plane while displaying the Palestinian flag.
According to ABC News, thousands of people, including President Ebrahim Raisi and other high-ranking Iranian officials, were present. In an address broadcast by state TV, Raisi declared that "the bombing of Gaza has to be stopped as soon as possible."
The previous day, February 10, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian released a video marking the revolution’s 45th anniversary, in which he said, among other things:
"Today, Iran is considered among the top 5 and main countries in the world in some fields of science and technology."
That is false
A number of news outlets publish rankings of countries in the areas of technology and science, and while they vary, none of them has placed Iran in the top five for science or technology.
According to Datapandas, Japan, the United States, South Korea, Germany and Singapore are the world’s five most technologically advanced countries, while Iran is not among the top nineteen.
Educations.com ranked Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and France as the top five places in the world to study abroad. Iran did not make the website’s top 10 countries for study abroad.
In October 2023, the World Economic Forum ranked Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore as the world's top five science and technology hotspots. Iran was not among the top 15.
Last November, Insider Monkey ranked the United States, Switzerland, South Korea, Sweden and the Netherlands as the five most technologically advanced countries heading into 2024. Iran did not make Inside Monkey's list of the 30 most technologically advanced countries heading into 2024.
Last December, the Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA, Iran’s official news agency, reported that, as of December 10, 2023, Iran was in fifteenth place globally in terms of “science production.”
IRNA also quoted Younes Panahi, Iran’s deputy health minister for research and technology, as saying that when it came to technological research, Iran had moved from 67th place in the world in 2020 to 53rd place in 2023.
The QS World University Rankings, compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm, ranked the Iran University of Science and Technology, located in Tehran, in 451st place for 2024.
