Guide Note
Tensions with Iran have been an issue for the United States as well as other nations of the international community since the overthrow of the United States-backed Mohammad Reza Shah during the Iranian Revolution of 1978.
Fast Facts
- 1953: U.S.-backed coup installs Western-friendly dictatorship
- 1978: Iranians revolt, installing U.S.-hostile government
- Issues: Iranian sponsorship of terrorism, human rights violations, pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, US economic sanctions against Iran
Background
In 1953, responding to fears that Iran would become a communist nation, the United States and United Kingdom arrange to replace Prime Minister Muhammad Mussadeq with the more Western-friendly Mohammad Reza Shah. Where Iran had previously been a parliamentary democracy, it rapidly became a dictatorship. In 1978, Iranians revolted. By 1979, they had made the Ayatollah Khomeini their new leader. When the United States agreed to let the cancer-sickened Shah into the country, Iranian students took US diplomats hostage for 444 days, bringing US-Iran relations at a new nadir. More recently, the United States has accused Iran of pursuing weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons.
Iran Facts
- Capital: Tehran
- Government: Islamic Republic, declared in 1979
- Population: 71,208,000 (2007)
- Area: 636,372 square miles
- Currency: Iranian Rial (IRR)
- Official Language: Persian
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