Elon Musk says he is studying Iran’s ancient history
Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency in Donald Trump’s administration, has shared on X that he is reading about Iran's ancient history.
Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency in Donald Trump’s administration, has shared on X that he is reading about Iran's ancient history.
Anabasis, a book by the ancient Greek historian and philosopher Xenophon, recounts the story of Cyrus the Younger, a Persian prince who attempted to overthrow his brother, Artaxerxes II, to seize the throne of Iran’s Achaemenid Empire in 401 BCE.
Cyrus assembled an army, including 10,000 Greek mercenaries, but was killed at the Battle of Cunaxa before achieving his goal. The book, written by Xenophon, primarily describes the Greeks’ perilous journey back home after his death.
Musk did not elaborate on why he chose the book, but his post has drawn attention to one of the most well-documented military expeditions involving ancient Iran.
Iran is a key focus in the US administration's foreign policy, with Trump saying that the Islamic Republic cannot be allowed to gain nuclear weapons.
However, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has banned talks with Washington.
A total of 108,138 people claimed asylum, marking an 18% increase from the previous year and surpassing a record set in 2002.
Iranian nationals ranked third in asylum claims in the UK in 2024 with 8,099 claims. Pakistan had the highest number of claims with 10,542, followed by Afghanistan with 8,508.
A further analysis of the data suggests a notable increase in asylum applications from Iranians, particularly in 2022, with the highest surge occurring in Q4 of that year, with 3,686 applications.
The spike likely may reflect growing migration pressures driven by the nationwide protests and state repression on demonstrations following the death in morality police custody of Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
The nationwide protest movement dubbed the Woman Life Freedom movement was met with increasingly violent government crackdowns, prompting many Iranians to seek asylum abroad.
During the protests, security forces killed at least 550 protesters, including children, and imprisoned over 20,000 people.
From Q1 2023 onwards, while there was some fluctuation but asylum applications remained relatively high at consistently above 1,500 per quarter for non-unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) and over 100 for UASC.
The continued upward trend through Q3 and Q4 of 2024 shows sustained asylum-seeking activity, though the surge in Q4 2022 remains the most significant increase in recent years.
However, despite the rise in applications, the number of decisions granting protection has not kept pace. Of 3,686 applications made by Iranians in Q2 2024, only 1,324 were granted protection.
The highest number of grants occurred in Q3 of 2023, when 4,647 Iranians were granted protection.
This disparity between grants of protection compared to applications suggests the lengthy immigration processing times are contributing to a backlog.
