IRANIAN PRESIDENT DIES IN AIR CRASH

 

Facts about Iran:

Pahlavi dynasty

 

• 1921 February - Military commander Reza Khan seizes power.
• 1926 April - Reza Khan crowned Reza Shah Pahlavi.
• 1935 - Iran is adopted as the country's official name.
• 1941 - The Shah's pro-Axis allegiance in World War II leads to the Anglo-Russian occupation of Iran and the deposition of the Shah in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
• 1953 August - Prime Minister Mossadeq is overthrown in a coup engineered by the British and US intelligence services. General Fazlollah Zahedi is proclaimed prime minister, and the Shah returns from temporary exile.

 

Campaign to modernize:

 

• 1963 January - The Shah launches the 'White Revolution' programme of land reform and social and economic modernisation. During the late 1960s he becomes increasingly dependent on the SAVAK secret police in controlling opposition movements.
• 1978 September - The Shah's policies alienate the clergy and his authoritarian rule leads to riots, strikes and mass demonstrations. Martial law is imposed.

 

Shah exiled, Khomeini returns

 

• 1979 January - As the political situation deteriorates, the Shah and his family are forced into exile.
• 1979 February - Islamic clerical opposition leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns from 14 years of exile in Iraq and France.
• 1979 April - The Islamic Republic of Iran is proclaimed following a referendum.
• 1980 July - The exiled Shah dies of cancer in Egypt.

 

Iran-Iraq war

 

• 1980 22 September - Start of Iran-Iraq war, which lasts for eight years.

 

Ceasefire

1988 July - Iran accepts a ceasefire agreement with Iraq following negotiations in Geneva under the aegis of the UN.

 

1989 February - Ayatollah Khomeini issues a religious edict (fatwa) ordering Muslims to kill British author, Salman Rushdie, for his novel, 'The Satanic Verses', considered blasphemous to Islam.

1989 3 June - Ayatollah Khomeini dies. On 4 June, President Khamene'i is appointed as new supreme leader.

 

Iranian pursuit of Nuclear weapons - US imposes sanctions

1995 - US imposes oil and trade sanctions over Iran's alleged sponsorship of terrorism, quest for nuclear arms, and hostility to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

 

1999 July - Pro-democracy students at Tehran University demonstrate following the closure of the reformist newspaper Salam. Clashes with security forces lead to six days of rioting and the arrest of more than 1,000 students.

 

Conservative resurgence

2004 February - Conservatives regain control of parliament in elections. Thousands of reformist candidates were disqualified by the hardline Council of Guardians before the polls.

 

Election protests

2009 June - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is declared to have won a resounding victory in the 12 June presidential election. The rival candidates challenge the result, alleging vote-rigging. Their supporters take to the streets, and at least 30 people are killed and more than 1,000 arrested in the wave of protests that follow.

 

Rouhani becomes president

2013 June - Reformist-backed cleric Hassan Rouhani wins presidential election.

 

Nuclear deal

2015 July - After years of negotiations, world powers reach deal with Iran on limiting Iranian nuclear activity in return for lifting of international economic sanctions. The deal gives UN nuclear inspectors extensive but not automatic access to Iranian sites.

 

US withdraws from nuclear deal

2018 May-June - President Trump announces the US withdrawal from the 2015 international deal on Iran's nuclear programme. Iran in turn warns that it will begin increasing its uranium enrichment capacity if the deal collapses as a result of the US move.