Source: MAPS IN MINUTES™ © RH Publications (1997)

A country of the Middle East in central-west Asia. Bordering on Turkey and Iraq on the west, Turkmenistan on the north, and Afghanistan and Pakistan on the east, it has a northern coast on the Caspian Sea and a southern coast on the Gulf and Arabian Sea.

Physical

Iran consists mostly of arid tableland surrounded by mountains (the Elburz in the north and the Zagros in the south-west) and containing extensive salt deserts: the Great Salt Desert or Dasht-e-Kavir in the north and the Dasht-e-Lut in the south-east.

Economy

Iran’s economy is dominated by an inefficient state-controlled sector, and potential growth is further limited by international sanctions. Crude-oil extraction is the main industry and provides over three-quarters of export earnings. Other industries include oil products, fertilizers, caustic soda, and textiles. Wheat, rice and other grains, and sugar are the principal agricultural crops. Substantial mineral deposits of coal, copper, and iron ore are relatively undeveloped.

History

Early Persian dynasties included the Achaemenids, whose rule ended with Alexander the Great’s defeat of Darius III, and the Sassanians who were overthrown by the Arabs. Since the fall of the Sassanian empire in 642, it has been under the rule of Islam. Persians were prominent in the empires of their Arab, Seljuk, and Mongol overlords for nine centuries, until Ismail I established a strong Persian state and converted the population to Shiite Islam. After Abbas I Safavid power declined until the Qajar dynasty, founded by Agha Mohammad Khan and ruling from Tehran, took power in 1796.

Trade between Muslim countries and European powers had developed throughout the 19th century and both Russia and Britain were anxious to increase their influence over the Qajar dynasty in Iran. In 1906 Muzaffar al-Din granted a constitution; his successor sought to suppress the Majlis (Parliament) which had been granted, but was himself deposed. In 1901 oil concessions were granted to foreign companies to exploit what is estimated as one-tenth of the world’s oil reserves. In 1909 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later BP) was founded and southern Iran came within Britain’s sphere of influence, while Russia dominated northern Iran. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 British troops invaded Russia from Iran; at the end of this ‘war of intervention’ an Iranian officer, Reza Khan, emerged and seized power (1921), backed by the British. In 1925 he deposed the Qajar dynasty and proclaimed himself as Reza Shah Pahlavi. In World War II Iran was occupied by British and Soviet forces and was used as a route for sending supplies to the Soviet Union. The Shah abdicated (1941) and was replaced by his son Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. It took him 20 years to establish political supremacy, during which time one of his Prime Ministers, Mussadegh, nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (1951). In 1961 the Shah initiated a land-reform scheme and a programme of modernization, the so-called ‘White Revolution’ (1963–71). The secularization of the state led Islamic leaders such as Khomeini into exile (1964), while popular discontent with secular Western, especially US, influence was masked by ever-rising oil revenues, which financed military repression, as well as industrialization. Riots in 1978 were followed by the imposition of martial law. Khomeini coordinated a rebellion from his exile in France. The fall and exile of the Shah in 1979 was followed by the return of Khomeini and the establishment of an Islamic Republic. This proved strong enough to sustain the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979–81 and to fight the long and costly Iran–Iraq War (1980–88). Following the death of Khomeini in 1989 and a confused power struggle, Hashemi Rafsanjani was elected President. A moderate pragmatist, he achieved the restoration of good relations with Western states without unduly alienating the Islamic fundamentalists. Rafsanjani’s programme of social and economic reforms, however, caused discontent in Iran and serious rioting occurred in several major cities in mid-1992. Rafsanjani nevertheless secured a majority for his supporters in the Majlis following the 1992 general election; in 1993 he was re-elected President. In the early 1990s Iran’s relations with the USA were strained by Iran’s hostility to American interference in the region following the Gulf War and to the Israeli–PLO peace accord, signed in September 1993. The question of Iran’s military expansion also caused friction. In 1995 the USA announced complete trade and investment sanctions against Iran in an attempt to halt the country’s alleged involvement in international terrorism and its rumoured nuclear weapons programme. The Iranian leadership condemned the sanctions, while the country’s economy continued to be beset with crises. In 1997 presidential elections were won by the moderate Mohammed Khatami, who was re-elected in 2001. US hostility increased from 2002, when President George W. Bush accused Iran of developing weapons of mass destruction and of assisting terrorism. Legislative elections in 2004 produced a conservative majority, with many reformist candidates being disqualified by the clerical authorities, and in 2005 the hard-line Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected President. He was re-elected in controversial elections in 2009: the opposition candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, claimed victory, but after an enquiry Ahmadinejad was declared the winner and demonstrations supporting Mousavi were suppressed. Doubts about the peaceful purpose of Iran’s nuclear research programme led to UN sanctions being imposed in 2006 and extended in 2009. Tensions began to ease with the election of the more moderate Hassan Rouhani as President in 2013. An international agreement was reached in 2015 with Iran accepting nuclear inspections and some limitations on its programme in return for the lifting of sanctions. However, tensions with the USA rose once more from 2017 when the incoming US President Donald Trump indicated that he wished to undo the nuclear agreement and limit travellers from Iran to the USA; he also imposed some sanctions in response to a ballistic missile test in January 2017. In the 2017 presidential elections, Rouhani was convincingly re-elected as President, defeating the fundamentalist Ebrahim Raisi.