Timeline: Iran's Foreign Relations
A look at diplomacy in Iran since the country's revolution thirty years ago
1979
Jan 16: Shah leaves Iran after months of mass demonstrations
Feb 1: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns from Paris after 14 years of exile
Feb 11: Khomeini takes power and starts creating an Islamic republic
November 4: Iranian students seize US embassy and hold 52 American diplomats hostage1980
April 25: US hostage rescue mission fails
September 22: Iraq attacks Iran1981
January 20: Hostages released after 444 days1982
June: Iranian forces enter Iraq after recovering territory lost to Iraq1983
October: Iraq uses chemical weapons against Iran1986
Iran-Contra scandal erupts1988
August: Iran-Iraq war ends1989
June 3: Khomeini dies of cancer. Khamenei replaces him as supreme leader
Salman Rushdie fatwa issued1990
Iraq invades Kuwait1993
Rafsanjani becomes president1997
Khatemi becomes president and proposes exchanges to bring down "walls of distrust" between Iran and US2001
September: Khamenei and Khatemi condemn 9/11 attacks2002
January: US president George Bush calls Iran part of "axis of evil"2003
International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran has failed to meet its obligations under nuclear non-proliferation treaty2005
June Mahmoud Ahmadinejad elected president2007
October: US announces sweeping new sanctions against Iran, the toughest since it first issued sanctions 30 years ago
December: US national intelligence estimate concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 20032008
July: Iran test-fires a new version of the Shahab-3, a long-range missile it says is capable of hitting targets in Israel
Jan 16: Shah leaves Iran after months of mass demonstrations
Feb 1: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns from Paris after 14 years of exile
Feb 11: Khomeini takes power and starts creating an Islamic republic
November 4: Iranian students seize US embassy and hold 52 American diplomats hostage1980
April 25: US hostage rescue mission fails
September 22: Iraq attacks Iran1981
January 20: Hostages released after 444 days1982
June: Iranian forces enter Iraq after recovering territory lost to Iraq1983
October: Iraq uses chemical weapons against Iran1986
Iran-Contra scandal erupts1988
August: Iran-Iraq war ends1989
June 3: Khomeini dies of cancer. Khamenei replaces him as supreme leader
Salman Rushdie fatwa issued1990
Iraq invades Kuwait1993
Rafsanjani becomes president1997
Khatemi becomes president and proposes exchanges to bring down "walls of distrust" between Iran and US2001
September: Khamenei and Khatemi condemn 9/11 attacks2002
January: US president George Bush calls Iran part of "axis of evil"2003
International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran has failed to meet its obligations under nuclear non-proliferation treaty2005
June Mahmoud Ahmadinejad elected president2007
October: US announces sweeping new sanctions against Iran, the toughest since it first issued sanctions 30 years ago
December: US national intelligence estimate concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 20032008
July: Iran test-fires a new version of the Shahab-3, a long-range missile it says is capable of hitting targets in Israel
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