[katana]

The Iranians (Persians) are NOT descendents of Ishmael. Their language is Indo-European (like English, German, and Hindi) NOT Semitic like Arabic and Hebrew. The Arabs and Israelis not only speak languages that are as closely related as Italian and Portuguese, but DNA studies publicized a few months ago show that the Jews and Palestianians in Israel are virtually genetically identical.

[Lent]

If you look at the Table of Nations you will see that Elam was a son of Shem from which come the Persians. Hence, strictly speaking, they are Semites althougn not through Arphaxad (from which come the Arabs and Israelites/Jews).

http://home.cio.net/timo/man/