In 1988 Iraq had a good telecommunications network of radio communication
stations, radio relay links, and coaxial cables. Iraqi radio and
television stations came under the government's Iraqi Broadcasting
and Television Establishment, which was responsible to the Ministry
of Culture and Information. The domestic service had one FM and
nine AM stations with two program networks. The domestic service
broadcast mainly in Arabic, but also in Kurdish, Turkoman, and
Assyrian from Kirkuk. The short wave foreign service broadcast
in Arabic, Azeri Turkish, English, French, German, Hebrew, Kurdish,
Persian, Russian, Spanish, and Urdu. Television stations were
located in the major cities, and they carried two program networks.
In 1988 Iraq had approximately 972,000 television sets; the system
was connected to both the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean systems
of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization
(INTELSAT) as well as to one Soviet Intersputnik satellite station.
It also had coaxial cable and radio relays linking it to Jordan,
Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey. Iraq had an estimated 632,000 telephones
in 1988.
Country
name Iraq conventional long form Republic of Iraq conventional
short form Iraq local long form Al Jumhuriyah al Iraqiyah local short form Al Iraq
Area
- total: 437,072 sq km land: 432,162 sq km water: 4,910 sq km
Geographic
Location - Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iran and Kuwait
Terrain
- Mostly broad plains; reedy marshes along Iranian border in south with large
flooded areas; mountains along borders with Iran and Turkey
Climate- Mostly desert; mild to cool winters with dry, hot, cloudless summers; northern
mountainous regions along Iranian and Turkish borders experience cold winters
with occasionally heavy snows that melt in early spring, sometimes causing extensive
flooding in central and southern Iraq
Geography
- Strategic location on Shatt al Arab waterway and at the head of the Persian
Gulf
Waterways
- 1,015 km note: Shatt al Arab is usually navigable by maritime traffic
for about 130 km; channel has been dredged to 3 m and is in use; Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers have navigable sections for shallow-draft boats; Shatt al Basrah canal
was navigable by shallow-draft craft before closing in 1991 because of the Gulf
war
Information
Courtesy: The Library of Congress - Country Studies
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