July 21, 2013
Compiled by Holly Dagres
1905: Constitutional Revolution begins amid struggle
for independence from Russian and British control; the first parliament is
formed in 1906 under the new constitution, which limits power of the Qajar
monarchy.
1907: Anglo-Russian Entente divides Persia into
three spheres: British, Russian and neutral.
1908: British geologists discover oil in the neutral
sphere of Persia; Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later the Anglo-Iranian Oil
Company) is formed.
1926: Cossack Brigade officer Reza Khan (1878–1944)
overthrows the Qajar Dynasty and is crowned Shah of Persia.
1935: Reza Shah asks foreign delegations to refer
to the country as Iran, a name dating from ancient times, rather than Persia.
1941: Concerned about Iran’s pro-German leanings in
World War II, Britain and the Soviet Union occupy Iran and replace Reza Shah
with his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980).
1951: Mohammad Mossadegh (1882–1967) is elected
prime minister; he nationalizes the British-controlled Iranian oil industry and
curbs powers of shah.
1953: Mossadegh is overthrown in a coup d’état
backed by the Central Intelligence Agency and the British intelligence agency
MI6.
1957: Shah and President Dwight Eisenhower sign a
civil nuclear cooperation agreement under the U.S. Atoms for Peace program; the
Central Treaty Organization’s Institute of Nuclear Science moves headquarters
from Baghdad to Tehran.
1959: Tehran Nuclear Research Center (TNRC) is
established at Tehran University.
1963: Shah initiates the White Revolution, a
modernization program for economic, social, and political reform; riots follow
arrest of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989) for anti-shah speech.
1964: Khomeini begins fourteen years in exile in
Najaf and Paris.
1967: Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) begins
operation at TNRC.
1968: Iran signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) on the opening day for signatures; it is ratified by parliament in
1970.
1972: Iran signs the Biological Weapons Convention;
it is ratified by parliament in 1973.
1974: Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) is
established, and Esfahan Nuclear Technology Center is set up to develop nuclear
technology; Iran signs a $1.2 billion deal with the France-based Eurodif
consortium to enrich uranium on French soil and supply fuel to the TRR and
future nuclear power facilities; Iran signs agreements with West German and
French companies to build reactors in Bushehr and Bandar Abbas; Iran concludes
NPT Safeguards Agreement, enabling the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) to independently verify the accuracy of Iran’s declarations about its
nuclear material and activities.
1975: Shah states that Iran has “no intention of
acquiring nuclear weapons but if small states began building them, Iran might
have to reconsider its policy”; Secretary of State Henry Kissinger signs
U.S.-Iran Nuclear Cooperation memorandum endorsing $6.4 billion deal for six to
eight nuclear reactors.
1978: At a New Year’s Eve state dinner in Tehran,
President Jimmy Carter toasts shah as “island of stability in a turbulent
corner of the world”; in January, seminary students in holy city of Qom
demonstrate after an article in leading state newspaper Ettelaat
ridicules Khomeini; police kill several protestors; ranking cleric declares
shah’s regime “un-Islamic”; incident triggers year-long cycle of religious
demonstrations; in September, police kill hundreds of demonstrators in Jaleh
Square massacre in Tehran; in October, public sector strikes paralyze economy.
January 16, 1979: Shah flees Iran; mass
demonstrations demand resignation of government of Prime Minister Shapour
Bakhtiar (1914–1991).
February 1, 1979: Khomeini returns to
Iran as leader of Iran’s revolution.
February 11, 1979: Khomeini names Mehdi
Bazargan (1907–1995) of Iran Freedom Movement as prime minister; Bakhtiar
government collapses.
March 30, 1979: Iranians abolish
monarchy and approve Islamic republic in referendum.
November 4, 1979 Iranian protestors
seize the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and hold fifty-two Americans as hostages for
444 days.
November 12, 1979: U.S. Proclamation
4702 imposes an Iranian oil import ban.
November 14, 1979: U.S. Executive Order
12170 freezes $12 billion in Iranian assets held in the United States.
1980: U.S.
Executive Order 12205 prohibits U.S. commercial trade with Iran, with the
exception of clothing donations, food, and medical supplies; U.S. Executive
Order 12211 prohibits the import of Iranian goods or services and financial
transactions with Iran; Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, with support from Western
nations, launches an invasion of Iran, marking the beginning of the Iran-Iraq
War.
1981: U.S. and Iran sign the Algiers Accords, under
which U.S. unfreezes Iranian assets, revokes previous executive orders, and
commits not to intervene in Iran’s internal affairs, upon the release of U.S.
hostages; AEOI announces discovery of four uranium deposits in Iran.
1982: Iran establishes Hizbollah organization in
Lebanon amid Israel’s invasion of Lebanon; group leads resistance to the
ensuing eighteen-year Israeli occupation.
1983: Iran asks IAEA to provide technical
assistance with the production of uranium hexafluoride (UF6), a gas compound
used for uranium enrichment.
1984: Iraqi forces bomb the Bushehr site; China
assists Iran in establishing a nuclear research center in Esfahan; State
Department designates Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism; U.S. enforces
sanctions on Iran including: restrictions on U.S. foreign assistance, a ban on
defense exports and sales, limits on exports of dual-use items, and
miscellaneous financial restrictions.
1986: Revelations emerge in Iran-Contra Affair that
the President Ronald Reagan administration secretly provided weapons to Iran in
exchange for the release of Americans held hostage by pro-Iranian factions in
Lebanon.
1987: U.S. Executive Order 12613 prohibits the
import of Iranian products and oil into the United States; Iran signs a $5.5
million deal with Argentina to supply a new TRR core.
1988: Guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes shoots
down Iran Air Flight 655 in the Strait of Hormuz, killing 290 passengers and
crew; U.S. says that American forces mistakenly identified the civilian Airbus
A300 as a hostile military aircraft, and provides restitution to the families
of the victims; Iran accepts UN Resolution 598, calling for a cease-fire with
Iraq, effectively ending the war; estimates of Iranians killed, including
victims of Iraqi chemical weapon attacks, range from 180,000 to 300,000.
1989: Khomeini dies; former President Ali Khamenei
(1939–) becomes supreme leader; Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1934–) is elected
president.
1990: Iran signs a nuclear cooperation agreement
with China.
1992: Iran and Russia sign an agreement on the sale
of heavy-water reactors to Iran; U.S. Iran-Iraq Arms Nonproliferation Act
imposes sanctions on foreign entities that provide Iran technology that could
be used in the development of WMDs.
1993: Iran signs the Chemical Weapons Convention;
it is ratified by parliament in 1997.
1995: Iran signs $800 million deal with Russia to
complete the Bushehr nuclear power plant; U.S. Executive Order 12957 prohibits
transactions related to the development of Iran’s oil industry; U.S. Executive
Order 12959 prohibits re-exportation of goods or technology to, and investments
in, Iran.
1996: U.S. Iran and Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA)—later
known as Iran Sanctions Act (ISA)— imposes sanctions on foreign entities that
invest in Iran’s energy sector.
1997: Reformist cleric Mohammed Khatami (1943–) is
elected president; U.S. Executive Order 13059 clarifies Executive Orders 12957
and 12959 confirming that virtually all trade and investment activities with
Iran by U.S. persons, wherever located, are prohibited.
1998: Khatami proposes a “dialogue among
civilizations” in hopes of easing U.S.-Iranian tensions.
1999: Iran and Saudi Arabia support a Weapons of
Mass Destruction-Free Zone in the Middle East.
2000: Secretary of State Madeline Albright says
Washington bears some responsibility for turbulent U.S.-Iranian relations,
citing support for shah’s repressive regime, backing for Saddam Hussein in the
Iran-Iraq War, and role in the 1953 coup; U.S. lifts sanctions on non-oil
products including carpets, pistachios, and caviar; U.S. Iran Nonproliferation
Act sanctions foreign entities assisting Iran’s development of WMDs; reformists
win a majority of seats in parliamentary elections.
2001: Al-Qaeda attacks World Trade Center in New
York and Pentagon in Washington, DC, killing 3,000; United States leads
invasion of Afghanistan; President George W. Bush says aim is “to disrupt the
use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations, and to attack the
military capability of the Taliban regime”; U.S. Executive Order 13224 blocks
assets of entities or individuals supporting terrorism.
2002: Bush accuses Iran, Iraq, and North Korea of
pursuing weapons of mass destruction and labels the regimes an “axis of evil”;
Mujahedeen Khalq opposition group reveals that Iran is secretly building two
nuclear sites: a uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, and a heavy-water
nuclear plant in Arak.
February 2003: Iran acknowledges
Natanz and other facilities, and announces that it has extracted uranium from a
newly discovered mine in Savand; Iran accepts modifications in NPT Subsidiary
Arrangements, requiring Iran to notify IAEA of intentions to set up nuclear
facilities; it is not ratified by parliament.
March 2003: United States leads invasion of Iraq;
Bush says aims are “to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end
Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.”
May 2003: Swiss Ambassador to Iran Tim Guldimann
delivers an Iranian offer to the United States, said to be backed by Khamenei
and Khatami, proposing negotiations on a broad range of issues including
nuclear safeguards, economic cooperation, coordination in Iraq, support for an
Arab plan for peace with Israel, and halting weapons supplies to Palestinian
groups; Bush administration ignores the proposal.
September 2003: Khatami says in a
speech: “We don’t need atomic bombs, and based on our religious teaching, we
will not pursue them. But at the same time, we want to be strong, and being
strong means having knowledge and technology.”
October 2003: Iranian lawyer Shirin
Ebadi (1947–) is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for her efforts for democracy
and human rights”; Iran begins negotiations over its nuclear program with
Britain, France, and Germany (EU3); in the Sa’dabad Declaration, Khatami agrees
to suspend all enrichment activities, allow snap inspections by the IAEA, and
sign the Additional Protocol of the Safeguards Agreement.
November 2003: Iran announces
temporary suspension of its uranium enrichment program.
December 2003: Iran signs the
Additional Protocol; it is not ratified by parliament.
2004: Iran acknowledges
covert program to acquire nuclear technology; announces plan to build a
heavy-water nuclear reactor; Iran reveals production of hexafluoride gas used
to enrich uranium, ignoring the IAEA’s demand for suspension of all enrichment
activities; Iran and EU3 sign Paris Agreement, under which EU3 and Iran will
negotiate on guarantees that Iran’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes
and on commitments on nuclear, technology, and economic cooperation.
February 2005: Iranian Minister of
Defense Ali Shamkhani says in an interview with Iranian newspaper Sharq that
acquiring a nuclear weapon is not in Iran’s national interest; Iran and Russia
sign an agreement for Russia to supply the Bushehr nuclear facility with fuel
and Iran to return the fuel rods to ensure enriched uranium is not used for production
of nuclear weapons.
June 2005: U.S. Executive Order 13382 freezes
assets of entities that support proliferators of WMDs; hardliner and former
Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (1956–) is elected president.
August 2005: Khamenei issues a religious ruling
(fatwa) forbidding the “production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons”; at
United Nations, Ahmadinejad calls denial of Iran’s nuclear rights “nuclear
apartheid”; Bush threatens Iran with military force over its nuclear program,
saying “all options are on the table.”
October 2005: International
controversy erupts over Ahmadinejad’s reported comment at a “World Without
Zionism” conference in Tehran that Israel should be “wiped off the map.”
January 2006: Iran announces that
it has achieved the capacity to extract uranium from ore; Iran breaks IAEA
seals at the Natanz facility.
February 2006: IAEA refers Iran to
the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for noncompliance of the Safeguards
Agreement after reporting inconclusive findings about Iran’s nuclear
program.
April 2006: IAEA report says that Iran produced
3.6 percent enriched uranium but found no sign that Iran enriched uranium for
military purposes.
May 2006: United States, Britain, and France
draft a UN resolution that would force Iran to halt uranium enrichment
activities, or face penalties and potential military action; China and Russia
reject the resolution.
June 2006: P5+1 negotiating group is formed,
consisting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (United
States, Britain, France, Russia and China) and Germany; it offers Iran
economic, political, and technological incentives if it addresses all IAEA
concerns regarding its nuclear program.
July 2006: UNSC Resolution 1696 demands that Iran
halt uranium enrichment activities within a month.
August 2006: Ahmadinejad inaugurates heavy-water
nuclear plant in Arak; Iran rejects P5+1 proposals, citing condition that it
suspend uranium enrichment.
September 2006: U.S. Iran Freedom
Support Act appropriates $10 million to aid groups opposed to the Iranian
government.
December 2006: UNSC Resolution 1737
is adopted after Iran fails to comply with Resolution 1696; It freezes assets
of entities supporting Iran’s nuclear program, and bans export of
nuclear-related materials and technology to Iran.
January 2007: Iranian state media
reports that nuclear scientist Ardeshir Hosseinpour died of asphyxiation due to
a gas leak in his apartment.
March 2007: UNSC Resolution 1747 expands the freeze
on Iranian assets, bans arms sales to Iran, and asks global financial
institutions not to enter commitments with the Iranian government.
April 2007: Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has
achieved the capacity to produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale; Iranian
nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani says Iran has injected gas into 3,000
centrifuges.
August 2007: Iran and IAEA reach agreement for a
work plan that specifies processes and a timeline to resolve outstanding issues
regarding Iran’s Safeguards Agreement
November 2007: IAEA report states
that Iran has “provided sufficient access to individuals and responded in a
timely manner to questions” regarding its nuclear program; IAEA Director
General Mohamed ElBaradei calls on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment
activities and fully implement the Additional Protocol; Iran acknowledges that
it acquired nuclear technology, including P-2 centrifuge blueprints, from A.Q.
Khan network over the past two decades; U.S. National Intelligence Estimate
states “We judge with high confidence that in Fall 2003, Tehran halted its
nuclear weapons program.”
February 2008: IAEA report says Iran
failed to disclose efforts to link uranium processing and explosives and to
design missile warheads.
March 2008: UNSC Resolution 1803 demands that Iran
halt uranium enrichment and heavy water-related activities, and urges states to
limit financial transactions with Iran and cut ties with two Iranian banks.
June 2008: P5+1 announces a repackaged proposal
based on the June 2006 offer.
July 2008: Under Secretary of State for Political
Affairs William J. Burns participates in talks with Iranian negotiators in
Geneva.
September 2008: UNSC Resolution 1835
reaffirms four previous UNSC resolutions on Iran.
March 2009: President Barack Obama, in a Nowruz
message to Iran’s “people and leaders,” calls for an end to “old divisions”;
Obama says: “The United States wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its
rightful place in the community of nations.”
June 2009: Ahmadinejad is declared the winner in
presidential election; reformist opponent Mir-Hossein Moussavi alleges election
fraud; hundreds of thousands of “Green Movement” supporters hold
demonstrations; months of disturbances result in an estimated seventy months
deaths.
September 2009: Iran acknowledges to
the IAEA the existence of the Fordo uranium enrichment facility near Qom.
October 2009: P5+1 announces the
TRR fuel swap proposal, for low-enriched uranium to be shipped from Iran to
Russia and then to France for further enrichment; fuel rods would be then sent
to Iran for production of isotopes for medical use; Iran rejects fuel swap
proposal.
November 2009: IAEA condemns Iran
for developing the secret uraniaum enrichment site near Qom; Iran announces
plans to establish ten additional enrichment sites.
January 2010: Iranian state media
reports that a remote-controlled bomb explosion killed Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, a
physics professor at Tehran University reportedly tied to Iran’s nuclear
program.
February 2010: Ahmadinejad announces
that Iran has produced 20 percent enriched uranium.
May 2010: Iran signs Tehran Declaration
agreement with Turkey and Brazil calling for a TRR fuel swap; United States,
Russia, and France reject agreement; U.S. Comprehensive Iran Sanctions,
Accountability, and Divestment Act (CISADA) expands previous American punitive
measures against foreign entities that invest in Iran’s oil industry, and
sanctions human rights violators in Iran.
June 2010: UNSC Resolution 1929 demands that Iran
comply with previous UNSC resolutions, and expands financial, military, and
travel sanctions on Iran; security researchers identify Stuxnet 0.5 computer
virus attacking Iranian targets.
August 2010: Iran holds ceremony marking the completion of the Bushehr nuclear plant; in 2011, officials announce that the plant has been connected to Iran’s national energy grid; EU bans trade related to Iranian natural gas production.
November 2010: Ahmadinejad announces
that a cyber attack damaged centrifuges at an Iranian nuclear facility; experts
believe that a Stuxnet attack struck Natanz; Iranian state media reports that
separate bomb blasts in Tehran killed nuclear engineer Majid Shahriyari and
injured nuclear scientist Fereydoun Abbasi-Dabani.
July 2011: Ahmadinejad welcomes a “road map”
proposed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that calls for eventual
suspension of UN sanctions and limited enrichment activity in Iran; Iranian
media report that gunmen assassinated nuclear scientist Dariush Rezaeinejad; Der
Speigel reports that Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, is
behind the killing.
November 2011: Fars News Agency
reports that a bomb explosion at an arms depot near Tehran killed seventeen
members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, including Major General
Hassan Moqqadam, a key figure in Iran’s ballistic missile program; U.S.
Executive Order 13590 imposes sanctions on entities supporting the development
of Iran’s energy industry.
January 2012: EU imposes an embargo on Iranian oil imports
and freezes Iran’s central bank assets; Iranian media reports that an explosion
in Tehran killed nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan.
February 2012: Iran announces
installation of Iranian-made nuclear fuel rods at TRR; NBC News, citing two
anonymous senior U.S. officials, reports that Mossad is working with the
Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen Khalq to assassinate Iranian nuclear
scientists; U.S. Executive Order 13599 imposes sanctions on Iran’s financial
institutions and certain individuals, as well as on property and interests held
by the Iranian government.
March 2012: SWIFT international banking network
bars electronic transactions by Iranian banks.
April 2012: U.S. Executive Order 13606 blocks
property and entry into the United States of Iranians involved in human rights
abuses by means of information and communications technology.
May 2012: U.S. Executive Order 13608 bans certain
transactions with—and bars entry into the U.S. to—those who evade or violate
U.S. sanctions on Iran or Syria; IAEA reports traces of 27 percent enriched
uranium at the Fordo facility.
June 2012: New York Times reports that the
Bush administration developed a covert program, Operation Olympic Games, aimed
at sabotaging Iran’s nuclear program through cyber attacks; the paper says the
Obama administration continued the program.
July 2012: U.S. Executive Order 13622 imposes new
sanctions on Iranian energy and petrochemical sectors.
August 2012: U.S. Iran Threat Reduction & Syria
Human Rights Act (ITRSHRA) broadens sanctions on foreign entities doing
business with Iran’s energy, financial, and transportation sectors.
September 2012: Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium
could put it within reach of a nuclear weapon by mid-2013; hints at military
attack if Iran fails to heed “red line.”
October 2012: U.S. Executive Order 13628 authorizes
implementation of ITRSHRA, including sanctions on foreign subsidiaries of U.S.
firms.
January 2013: Israeli Defense
Minister Ehud Barak says “if worse comes to worst, there should be a readiness
and an ability to launch a surgical operation that will delay [Iran’s nuclear
weapons program] by a significant time frame.”
February 2013: Vice President Joe
Biden offers direct talks on Iran’s nuclear program; Khamenei rejects the offer
saying sanctions on Iran are a “gun held to its head.”
March 2013: Asked on Israeli television if the U.S.
would attack Iran if diplomacy failed, Obama said “All options are on the
table. The United States obviously has significant capabilities.”
April 2013: Iran announces it has activated a
uranium processing plant and two uranium mines to expand Iran’s capacity to
produce nuclear material.
May 2013: IAEA report finds that Iran has
produced 324 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium; U.S. ends ban on sale of
communications equipment and software to Iranians.
June 2013: Cleric Hassan Rowhani (1948–),
former secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and lead nuclear
negotiator, is elected president; U.S. Executive Order 13645 imposes sanctions
on Iran’s automobile industry and on transactions in Iranian currency.