Thursday  21  January 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: Professor Brenda Shaffer, specialist on energy and foreign policy, energy security policies, Azerbaijan, the Caucasus, Caspian energy and Eastern Mediterranean energy issues; currently is Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES); in re: Iranian minority groups. The Iranian economy is very bad for normal people.  We speak of Persian music, food, et al. In fact, Iran is 50% not-Persian ethnic minorities; most are concentrated near national borders, with co-ethnic groups on the other side of the border. Ali Khamenei is openly very ill with cancer. . . . Whenever something bad happens, the regime claims "the hardliners did it." Hah!