of your questions.
4. Iran has been to War with one country, and that country was Iraq. Saddam Hussein attacked Iran after their rebellion, but the Iranians united against Iraq. They have a doctrine of no first strike.
As far as Iran and a potential war with only Israel, Israel has never went to War with a country the size of Iran. Iran has a population of nearly 80 million people and if you exclude non Jews in Israel, there are 6 million Jews in Israel.
Israel have to mobilize an enormous number of their citizens, including women. Iran has an enormous supply of man power. Iran lost 1 million soldiers in the 8 year war with Iraq. Saddam had to use WMD against Iran's military, which made Iran vow to not ever use chemical warfare because of what their citizens suffered in that War.
Israel will have to rely on superior technolgy in a War with Iran, but the Iranian's have become more self sufficient with their military industry since denouncing the United States.
There is one skirmish during the Iran\Iraq War when the U.S. naval forces clashed with Iran's navy. The U.S. overwhelming won that skirmish, but the Iranian navy did inflict some damage. Both sides de-escalated, before it got more serious but according to some foreign analysts, Iran was gaining new deployment capabilities, allegedly to strike U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, in case of an armed conflict. Iran has been amassing an arsenal of anti-ship missiles while expanding its fleet of fast attack boats and submarines.
What is already known about Iran's navy is the purchase of 3 kilo sized submarines purchased from the Russian navy. This submarine is still active in the Russian navy and came active during the 1980s. It is a long range submarine which can launch surface to air missiles, has a crew of 52, and one of the quietest diesel submarines in the World.
What is not known about, is an Iranian built submarine, that is reportedly long range, and also Diesel. It is reported Iran began building this submarine in 2008, and one is active so far. They had planned to build 18 by 2017. So the number is not known, how many they may have by now.
They have aklso reportedly made significant gains in their airforce and army with technology. While the focus is on WMD, the problem might be progress in conventional forces and Technology. They also had a number of F14s, that they might have been able to keep in service, through their defense industry.
3. Iran might have gotten nuclear technology from Russia, China and North Korea. It was reported not long ago, that Iranian scientists and North Korean scientests collaborated on missile technology. It was even reported, that Iranian scientests were allowed to watch the last nuclear test conducted by North Korea. It is probably one of the reasons for the distrust of Iran.
6. We know Pakistan, India, China and of course Israel have nuclear weapons. We know the United States shares nuclear weapons with Turkey.
Finally, if people believe an Iranian War with the United States would be devastating for the United States, just how do they think the Israelis will do? Iran is not Iraq, Syria or Jordan. They are more on the level with Egypt or Turkey. They are becoming a power in that region which countries are going to deal with in the future. That is why the Gulf States are afraid of them.
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