Following the fracture of the Mongol Empire in 1256, Hulagu Khan established the Ilkhanate Empire in Iran. In 1357, the capital Tabriz was occupied by the Golden Horde khan Jani Beg and the centralised power collapsed, resulting in the emergence of rivalling dynasties. In 1370, yet another conqueror, Timur, took control over Iran, establishing the Timurid Empire. In 1387, Timur ordered the complete massacre of Isfahan, killing 70,000 citizens.
The relationship between the Safavids and the West begins with the presence of the Portuguese in the Persian Gulf from the 16th century, oscillating between alliances and open war between the 17th and 18th century. The Safavid era saw the start of mass integration from Caucasian populations and their mass resettlement within the heartlands of Iran. In 1588, Abbas the Great came to the throne during a troubled period. Under his leadership, Iran developed the ghilman system where thousands of Circassian, Georgian, and Armenian slave-soldiers joined the civil administration and the military. With the help of these newly created layers in Iranian society, Abbas eclipsed the power of the Qizilbash in the civil administration, the royal house, and the military. Abbas was a great builder and moved his capital from Qazvin to Isfahan, making the city the pinnacle of Safavid architecture. Tabriz was returned to Iran after 18 years of Ottoman rule. In his later years, following a court intrigue involving several leading Circassians, Abbas became suspicious of his own sons and had them killed or blinded. Following a gradual decline in the late 1600s and the early 1700s, which was caused by internal conflicts, the continuous wars with the Ottomans, and the foreign interference (most notably Russian), the Safavid rule was ended by the Pashtun rebels who besieged Isfahan and defeated Soltan Hoseyn in 1722.
In 1729, Nader Shah successfully drove out and conquered the Pashtun invaders. He took back the annexed Caucasian territories which were divided among the Ottoman and Russian authorities by the ongoing chaos in Iran. During the reign of Nader Shah, Iran reached its greatest extent since the Sasanian Empire, reestablishing Iranian hegemony over the Caucasus, as well as other major parts of west and central Asia, and briefly possessing arguably the most powerful empire at the time.
Nader Shah invaded India and sacked Delhi by the late 1730s. His territorial expansion and military successes declined following the final campaigns in the Northern Caucasus against then revolting Lezgins. The assassination of Nader Shah sparked a brief period of civil war and turmoil, after which Karim Khan of the Zand dynasty came to power in 1750.
Compared to its preceding dynasties, the geopolitical reach of the Zand dynasty was limited. Many of the Iranian territories in the Caucasus gained de facto autonomy and were locally ruled through Caucasian khanates. However, they remained subjects and vassals to the Zand king. It later quickly expanded to include much of the rest of contemporary Iran (except for the provinces of Balochistan and Khorasan) as well as parts of Iraq. The lands of present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia were controlled by khanates which were de jure part of the Zand realm, but the region was de facto autonomous. The island of Bahrain was also held for the Zands by the autonomous Al-Mazkur sheikhdom of Bushire. The reign of its most important ruler, Karim Khan, was marked by prosperity and peace. With his capital in Shiraz, arts and architecture flourished, with some themes in architecture being revived from the nearby sites of the Achaemenid and Sasanian era's of pre-Islamic Iran. Another civil war ensued after the death of Karim Khan in 1779, out of which Agha Mohammad Khan emerged, founding the Qajar Empire in 1794.
Agha Mohammad Khan's reign is noted for the return of a centralized and unified Iran and for relocating the capital to Tehran. In 1795, following the disobedience of the Georgian subjects and their alliance with the Russians, the Qajars captured Tbilisi by the Battle of Krtsanisi, and drove the Russians out of the Caucasus, reestablishing Iranian suzerainty over the region. The Russo-Iranian wars of 1804–1813 and 1826–1828 resulted in large territorial losses for Iran in the Caucasus, comprising all of the South Caucasus and Dagestan. As a result of the 19th-century Russo-Iranian wars, the Russians took over Iran's integral territories in the region (comprising modern-day Dagestan, Georgia, Armenia, and Republic of Azerbaijan), which was confirmed per the treaties of Gulistan and Turkmenchay.
The weakening of Persia made it a victim of the colonial struggle between Russia and Britain known as the Great Game. Especially after the treaty of Turkmenchay, Russia was the dominant force in Iran, while the Qajars would also play a role in several 'Great Game' battles such as the sieges of Herat in 1837 and 1856. As Iran shrank, many South Caucasian and North Caucasian Muslims moved towards Iran, especially until the aftermath of the Circassian genocide, and the decades afterwards, while Iran's Armenians were encouraged to settle in the newly incorporated Russian territories, causing significant demographic shifts. Around 1.5 million people—20 to 25% of the population of Iran—died as a result of the Great Famine of 1870–1872.
The first Iranian filmmaker was probably Mirza Ebrahim (Akkas Bashi), the court photographer of Mozaffar-ed-Din Shah of the Qajar dynasty. Mirza Ebrahim obtained a camera and filmed the Qajar ruler's visit to Europe. Later in 1904, Mirza Ebrahim (Sahhaf Bashi) opened the first public cinema in Tehran. The first Iranian feature film, Abi and Rabi, was a silent comedy directed by Ovanes Ohanian in 1930. The first sounded one, Lor Girl, was produced by Ardeshir Irani and Abd-ol-Hosein Sepanta in 1932.
Between 1872 and 1905, protesters objected to the sale of concessions to foreigners by Qajar monarchs Naser-ed-Din and Mozaffar-ed-Din, leading to the Constitutional Revolution in 1905. The first Iranian constitution and the first national parliament were founded in 1906, through the ongoing revolution. The Constitution included the official recognition of Iran's three religious minorities: Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. The struggle related to the constitutional movement was followed by the Triumph of Tehran in 1909, when Mohammad Ali Shah was forced to abdicate. In 1907, the Anglo-Russian Convention divided Qajar Iran into influence zones, formalising many of the concessions. On the pretext of restoring order, the Russians occupied northern Iran and Tabriz and maintained a military presence in the region for years. But this did not end the civil uprisings and was soon followed by Mirza Kuchik Khan's Jungle Movement against both the Qajar monarchy and foreign invaders.
Despite Iran's neutrality during World War I, the Ottoman, Russian, and British Empires occupied western Iran and fought the Persian campaign before fully withdrawing their forces in 1921. At least 2 million Persian civilians died in the fighting, the Ottoman-perpetrated anti-Christian genocides or the war-induced famine of 1917–1919. A large number of Iranian Assyrian and Iranian Armenian Christians, as well as those Muslims who tried to protect them, were victims of mass murders committed by the invading Ottoman troops.
Apart from the rule of Agha Mohammad Khan, the Qajar rule is characterised as misrule. The inability of Qajar Iran's government to maintain the country's sovereignty during and immediately after World War I led to the British-directed 1921 Persian coup d'état and Reza Shah's establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty. Reza Shah became Prime Minister and was declared monarch in 1925.
Iran has known dance in the forms of music, play, drama or religious rituals since at least the 6th millennium BC. Artifacts with pictures of dancers were found in many archaeological prehistoric sites. Genres of dance in Iran vary depending on the area, culture, and language of the local people, and can range from sophisticated reconstructions of refined court dances to energetic folk dances. Each group, region, and historical epoch has specific dance styles associated with it. The earliest researched dance from historic Iran is a dance worshipping Mithra. Ancient Persian dance was significantly researched by Greek historian from Herodotus. Iran was occupied by foreign powers, causing a slow disappearance of heritage dance traditions. The Qajar dynasty had an important influence on Persian dance. In this period, a style of dance began to be called "classical Persian dance". Dancers performed artistic dances in the court of the king for entertainment purposes such as coronations, marriage celebrations, and Norouz celebrations. In the 20th century, the music came to be orchestrated and dance movement and costuming gained a modernistic orientation to the West. In 1928, ballet came to Iran and impacted dance performance.
Iran's contemporary art traces its origins to the time of Kamal-ol-molk, a prominent realist painter at the court of the Qajar dynasty who affected the norms of painting and adopted a naturalistic style that would compete with photographic works. A new Iranian school of fine art was established by Kamal-ol-Molk in 1928, and was followed by the so-called "coffeehouse" style of painting.
Iran's first symphony orchestra, the Tehran Symphony Orchestra, was founded by Qolam-Hoseyn Minbashian in 1933. By the late 1940s, Ruhollah Khaleqi founded the country's first national music society and established the School of National Music in 1949.
During World War II, in July and August 1941 the British demanded that the Iranian government expel all Germans. Reza Shah refused and on 25 August 1941, the British and Soviets launched a surprise invasion; Reza Shah's government quickly surrendered. The invasion's strategic purpose was to secure a supply line to the USSR (later named the Persian Corridor), secure the oil fields and Abadan Refinery (of the UK-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company), prevent a German advance on Baku's oil fields, and limit German influence in Iran. Following the invasion, on 16 September 1941 Reza Shah abdicated and was replaced by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Iran became a major conduit for British and American aid to the Soviet Union and an avenue through which over 120,000 Polish refugees and Polish Armed Forces fled the Axis advance. At the 1943 Tehran Conference, the Allied "Big Three"—Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill—issued the Tehran Declaration to guarantee the post-war independence and boundaries of Iran. However, at the end of the war, Soviet troops established two puppet states in north-western Iran: the People's Government of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Mahabad. This led to the Iran crisis of 1946, one of the first confrontations of the Cold War, which ended after oil concessions were promised to the USSR and Soviet forces withdrew in May 1946. The two puppet states were soon overthrown, and the oil concessions were later revoked.
Iran's National Olympic Committee was founded in 1947. Wrestlers and weightlifters have achieved the country's highest records at the Olympics. In September 1974, Iran became the first country in West Asia to host the Asian Games.
Iran's avant-garde modernists emerged by the arrival of new western influences during World War II. The vibrant contemporary art scene originates in the late 1940s, and Tehran's first modern art gallery, Apadana, was opened in September 1949 by painters Mahmud Javadipur, Hosein Kazemi, and Hushang Ajudani. The new movements received official encouragement by the mid-1950s, which led to the emergence of artists such as Marcos Grigorian.
In 1951, Mohammad Mosaddegh was elected Prime Minister of Iran. Mosaddegh became enormously popular after he nationalized the oil industry, which had been largely controlled by foreign interests. He worked to weaken the monarchy until he was removed in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état—initially an Anglo-American covert operation that marked the first time the US had participated in an overthrow of a foreign government during the Cold War.
Under Nader Shah Afshar in the 18th century, Iran was a leading world power, though by the 19th century, it had lost significant territory through a series of conflicts with the Russian Empire. The early 20th century saw the Persian Constitutional Revolution, the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty, and efforts at modernization. Attempts to nationalise the country's vast fossil fuel supply led to an Anglo-American coup in 1953. After the Iranian Revolution, the monarchy was overthrown in 1979 and the Islamic Republic of Iran was established by Ruhollah Khomeini, who became the country's first supreme leader. Iran is officially governed as an Islamic Republic with a presidential system, albeit with ultimate authority vested in a theocratic supreme leader (rahbar), currently Ali Khamenei since Khomeini's death in 1989. The Iranian government is authoritarian and has attracted widespread criticism for its constraints and violations of human rights.
Iran's animation industry began by the 1950s and was followed by the establishment of the influential Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in January 1965. With the screening of the films Qeysar and The Cow, directed by Masoud Kimiai and Dariush Mehrjui respectively in 1969, alternative films set out to establish their status in the film industry and Bahram Beyzai's Downpour and Nasser Taghvai's Tranquility in the Presence of Others followed soon. Attempts to organise a film festival, which had begun in 1954 within the framework of the Golrizan Festival, resulted in the festival of Sepas in 1969. The endeavours also resulted in the formation of Tehran's World Film Festival in 1973. After the Revolution of 1979, and following the Cultural Revolution, a new age emerged in Iranian cinema, starting with Long Live! by Khosrow Sinai and followed by many other directors, such as Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi. Kiarostami, an acclaimed Iranian director, planted Iran firmly on the map of world cinema when he won the Palme d'Or for Taste of Cherry in 1997. The continuous presence of Iranian films in prestigious international festivals, such as the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival, attracted world attention to Iranian masterpieces. In 2006, six Iranian films represented Iranian cinema at the Berlin International Film Festival. Critics considered this a remarkable event in the history of Iranian cinema.
Iran's population grew rapidly from about 19 million in 1956 to about 85 million by February 2023. However, Iran's fertility rate has dropped dramatically, from 6.5 children born per woman to about 1.7 two decades later, leading to a population growth rate of about 1.39% as of 2018. Due to its young population, studies project that the growth will continue to slow until it stabilises around 105 million by 2050.
Iran has made considerable advances in science and technology, despite international sanctions during the past 30 years. In recent years, the growth in Iran's scientific output is reported to be the fastest in the world. In the biomedical sciences, Iran's Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics has a UNESCO chair in biology. In late 2006, Iranian scientists successfully cloned a sheep at the Royan Research Center in Tehran. Stem cell research in Iran is among the top 10 in the world. Iran ranks 15th in the world in nanotechnologies. Iranian scientists outside Iran have also made some major contributions to science. In 1960, Ali Javan co-invented the first gas laser, and fuzzy set theory was introduced by Lotfi A. Zadeh. Iranian cardiologist Tofigh Mussivand invented and developed the first artificial cardiac pump, the precursor of the artificial heart. Furthering research and treatment of diabetes, the HbA1c was discovered by Samuel Rahbar. A substantial number of papers in string theory are published in Iran. In August 2014, Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani became the first woman, as well as the first Iranian, to receive the Fields Medal, the highest prize in mathematics. Iran has increased its publication output nearly tenfold from 1996 through 2004, and has been ranked first in terms of output growth rate, followed by China. According to a study by SCImago in 2012, Iran would rank fourth in the world in terms of research output by 2018, if the current trend persists.
Dozens of cities have airports that serve passenger and cargo planes. Iran Air, the national airline, was founded in 1962 and operated domestic and international flights. All large cities have mass transit systems using buses, and several private companies provide bus services between cities.
Ruhollah Khomeini, a radical Muslim cleric, became a critic of the Shah's reforms known as the White Revolution. Khomeini publicly denounced the government and was imprisoned for 18 months. After his release in 1964, he was eventually sent into exile.
Iran took control of Bumusa, and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs in 1971, all located in the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Despite the islands being small and having little natural resources or population, they are highly valuable for their key strategic location. Although the United Arab Emirates claims sovereignty over them, it has constantly been met with strong response from the Iranian government, based on their historical and cultural background. Iran has control over the islands.
Iran has the world's second largest proved gas reserves, with 33.6 trillion cubic metres, and the third largest natural gas production. It also ranks fourth in oil reserves with an estimated 153,600,000,000 barrels. It is OPEC's second largest oil exporter. Despite this, Iran spent $4 billion on fuel imports as of 2005 due to a lack of domestic refining capacity. Oil industry output averaged 4 million barrels per day (640,000 m /d) in 2005, compared with the peak of six million barrels per day reached in 1974.
The Iranian Revolution began in January 1978 with major demonstrations against Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi. After a year of strikes and demonstrations paralyzing the country and its economy, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled to the United States, and Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile in February 1979, forming a new government. After holding a referendum, Iran officially became an Islamic republic in April 1979. A second referendum in December 1979 approved a theocratic constitution.
On 4 November 1979, after the United States refused the extradition of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a group of Muslim students seized the US Embassy and took 52 personnel and citizens hostage. Attempts by the Jimmy Carter administration to negotiate the release of the hostages, and a failed rescue attempt, helped with the falling popularity of Carter among US citizens. On Carter's final day in office, the last hostages were set free under the Algiers Accords. As a result of the Iranian takeover of the American Embassy, the US and Iran severed diplomatic relations in April 1980, and the two countries have had no formal diplomatic relationship since that date.
The Cultural Revolution began in 1980, with threats to close universities which did not conform to Islamization demands from the new government. All universities were closed down in 1980, and reopened in 1983.
Since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the arrival of ISIS in the mid-2010s, Iran has financed and trained militia groups in Iraq, including the PMF. Since the Iran-Iraq war in 1980s and the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iran has shaped Iraq's politics. Following Iraq's struggle against the ISIS in 2014, companies linked to the IRGC such as Khatam al-Anbiya, started to build roads, power plants, hotels and businesses in Iraq, creating an economic corridor worth around $9 billion before COVID-19. This number is expected to grow to $20 billion in the coming years.
On September 22, 1980, Iraq invaded the western Iranian province of Khuzestan, initiating the Iran–Iraq War. Although the forces of Saddam Hussein made several early advances, by mid-1982, the Iranian forces began to gain momentum, with successfully driving the Iraqis back into Iraq, and regaining all lost territory by June 1982. After pushing Iraqi forces back to the pre-war border lines, Iran rejected United Nations Security Council Resolution 514 and launched an invasion of Iraq, conquered Iraqi territory and captured cities such as Basra. The subsequent Iranian offensive within Iraqi territory lasted for five years, with Iraq taking back the initiative and subsequently launching a series of major counter-offensives. The war continued until 1988, when the Iraqi army defeated the Iranian forces inside Iraq and pushed the remaining Iranian troops back across the border. Subsequently, Khomeini accepted a truce mediated by the United Nations, with both sides withdraw to their pre-war borders. It was the longest conventional war of the 20th century and the second longest war of this century after the Vietnam War. The total Iranian casualties in the war were estimated to be 123,220–160,000 KIA, 60,711 MIA, and 11,000–16,000 civilians killed.
Since the Iranian Revolution, Iran has grown its influence across and beyond the region. It has built military forces with a wide network of state and none-state actors, starting with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 1982. Since its establishment as a primary branch to the Iranian Army, the IRGC has been key to Iranian influence, through its Quds Force. The instability in Lebanon (from the 1980s), Iraq (from 2003) and Yemen (from 2014) have allowed Iran to build strong alliances and foothold beyond its borders. Iran has a prominent influence in the social services, education, economy and the politics of Lebanon, and analysts have argued that Lebanon provides Iran access to the Mediterranean Sea. Hezbollah's strategic successes against Israel, such as its symbolic victory during the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War, elevated Iran's influence in Levant and strengthened its appeal across the Arab World.
Following the Iran–Iraq War, in 1989, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani concentrated on a pragmatic pro-business policy of rebuilding and strengthening the economy without making any dramatic break with the ideology of the revolution. In 1997, Rafsanjani was succeeded by moderate reformist Mohammad Khatami, whose government attempted, unsuccessfully, to make the country freer and more democratic.
Storytelling has an significant presence in Iranian folklore and culture. In classical Iran, minstrels performed for their audiences at royal courts and in public theatres. A minstrel was referred to by the Parthians as gōsān, and by the Sasanians as huniyāgar. Since the Safavid Empire, storytellers and poetry readers appeared at coffeehouses. After the Iranian Revolution, it took until 1985 to found the MCHTH (Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts), a now heavily centralized organization, supervising all kinds of cultural activities. It held the first scientific meeting on anthropology and folklore in 1990.
Healthcare is provided by the public-governmental system, the private sector, and NGOs. The healthcare sector's market value in Iran was almost US$24 billion in 2002.
In 2004, a large share of Iran's natural gas reserves were untapped. The addition of new hydroelectric stations and the streamlining of conventional coal and oil-fired stations increased installed capacity to 33,000 megawatts. Of that amount, about 75% was based on natural gas, 18% on oil, and 7% on hydroelectric power. In 2004, Iran opened its first wind-powered and geothermal plants, and the first solar thermal plant was to come online in 2009. Iran is the world's third country to have developed GTL technology.
Iran's telecommunications industry is almost entirely state-owned, dominated by the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI). Fixed-line penetration in 2004 was relatively well-developed by regional standards, at 22 lines per 100 people, compared with Egypt with 14. Iran had more than one mobile phone per inhabitant by 2012.
The Iranian Space Agency (ISA) was established on 28 February 2004. Iran became an orbital-launch-capable nation in 2009, and is a founding member of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Iran placed its domestically built satellite Omid into orbit on the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, on 2 February 2009, through its first expendable launch vehicle Safir, becoming the ninth country in the world capable of both producing a satellite and sending it into space from a domestically made launcher. Simorgh's launch in 2016, is the successor of Safir.
The northern part of Iran is covered by the lush lowland Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests, near the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. The eastern part consists mostly of desert basins, such as the Kavir Desert, which is the country's largest desert, and the Lut Desert, as well as some salt lakes. The Lut Desert is the hottest recorded spot on the Earth's surface according to NASA, with 70.7 °C recorded in 2005. The only large plains are found along the coast of the Caspian Sea and at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, where the country borders the mouth of the Arvand river. Smaller, discontinuous plains are found along the remaining coast of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Gulf of Oman.
In 2006, about 45% of the government's budget came from oil and natural gas revenues, and 31% from taxes and fees. As of 2007 , Iran had earned $70 billion in foreign-exchange reserves, mostly (80%) from crude oil exports. Iranian budget deficits have been a chronic problem, mostly due to large-scale state subsidies, that include foodstuffs and especially petrol, totalling more than $84 billion in 2008 for the energy sector alone. In 2010, the economic reform plan was approved by parliament to cut subsidies gradually and replace them with targeted social assistance. The objective is to move towards free market prices in a five-year period and increase productivity and social justice.
In 2011 Iran had 173,000 kilometres (107,000 mi) of roads, of which 73% were paved. In 2008 there were nearly 100 passenger cars for every 1,000 inhabitants. The Tehran Metro is the largest metro system in the Middle East. It carries more than 3 million passengers a day. In 2018, 820 million trips were made on Tehran Metro. Trains operate on 11,106 km (6,942 mi) of track. The country's major port of entry is Bandar-Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz. After arriving in Iran, imported goods are distributed throughout the country by trucks and freight trains. The Tehran–Bandar-Abbas railroad connects Bandar-Abbas to the railroad system of Central Asia via Tehran and Mashhad. Other major ports include Bandar e-Anzali and Bandar e-Torkeman on the Caspian Sea and Khorramshahr and Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni on the Persian Gulf.
Iran's domestic consumer electronic market was estimated at $7.3 billion in 2008 ($8.2 billion in 2010), with 47% market share for computer hardware, 28% Audio/Video and 25% mobile phone.
Transport in Iran is inexpensive because of the government's subsidization of the price of petrol. The downside is a huge draw on government coffers, economic inefficiency because of highly wasteful consumption patterns, smuggling to neighbouring countries and air pollution. In 2008, more than one million people worked in the transportation sector, accounting for 9% of GDP.
Iran's official New Year begins with Nowruz, an ancient Iranian tradition celebrated annually on the vernal equinox and described as the Persian New Year. It was registered on the UNESCO's list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2009. On the eve of the last Wednesday of the preceding year, as a prelude to Nowruz, the ancient festival of Čāršanbe Suri celebrates Ātar ("fire") by performing rituals such as jumping over bonfires and lighting fireworks.
Iran's carpet-weaving has its origins in the Bronze Age and is one of the most distinguished manifestations of Iranian art. Iran is the world's largest producer and exporter of handmade carpets, producing three-quarters of the world's output and having a share of 30% of export markets. In 2010, the "traditional skills of carpet weaving" in Fars Province and Kashan were inscribed to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Carpet weaving is an essential part of Persian culture and Iranian art. Within the group of Oriental rugs produced by the countries of the "rug belt", the Persian carpet stands out by the variety and elaborateness of its manifold designs. Carpets woven in towns and regional centres like Tabriz, Kerman, Ravar, Neyshabour, Mashhad, Kashan, Isfahan, Nain and Qom are characterized by their specific weaving techniques and use of high-quality materials, colours and patterns. Hand-woven Persian rugs and carpets have been regarded as objects of high artistic and utilitarian value and prestige since the first time they were mentioned by ancient Greek writers.
The Iranian humanoid robot Sorena 2, which was designed by engineers at the University of Tehran, was unveiled in 2010. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has placed the name of Surena among the five prominent robots of the world after analyzing its performance.
Demographic trends and intensified industrialization have caused electric power demand to grow by 8% per year. The government's goal of 53,000 megawatts of installed capacity by 2010 is to be reached by bringing on line new gas-fired plants, and adding hydropower and nuclear power generation capacity. Iran's first nuclear power plant went online in 2011. It is the second nuclear power plant in the Middle East.
Asghar Farhadi, a well-known Iranian director, has received a Golden Globe Award and two Academy Awards, representing Iran for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012 and 2017, with A Separation and The Salesman.
The Supreme Leader ("Rahbar"), or Leader of the Revolution is the head of state and is responsible for delineation and supervision of policy. The Iranian president has limited power compared to the Rahbar Khamenei. The current longtime Rahbar is Ali Khamenei. Key ministers are selected with the Rahbar's agreement and he has the ultimate say on Iran's foreign policy. The Rahbar is directly involved in ministerial appointments for Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs, as well as other top ministries after submission of candidates from the president. Iran's regional policy is directly controlled by the office of the Rahbar with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' task limited to protocol and ceremonial occasions. All of Iran's ambassadors to Arab countries, for example, are chosen by the Quds Corps, which directly reports to the Rahbar. The Rahbar can also order laws to be amended. Setad is estimated at $95 billion in 2013 by Reuters, accounts of which are secret even to the Iranian parliament.
Hassan Rouhani was elected president on 15 June 2013, improving relations with other countries.
The Central Bank of Iran is responsible for developing and maintaining the Iranian rial, the country's currency. The government does not recognise trade unions other than the Islamic labour councils, which are subject to the approval of employers and the security services. The minimum wage in June 2013 was 487 million rials a month ($134). Unemployment has remained above 10% since 1997, and the unemployment rate for women is almost double that of the men.
Economic sanctions against Iran have damaged the economy. In 2015, Iran and the P5+1 reached a deal on the nuclear programme that removed the main sanctions pertaining to Iran's nuclear programme by 2016. The United States under the Trump administration, withdrew from the deal on May 8, 2018, causing the return of sanctions and the resumption of uranium enrichment in Iran. Various countries, international organizations, and U.S. scholars have expressed regret or criticized the withdrawal, while U.S. conservatives, Israel and Saudi Arabia have supported it.
Iran nuclear program dates back to the 1950s, when it received technical assistance under the U.S. Atoms for Peace program. While this assistance ended with the Iranian Revolution, Iran remained interested in nuclear technology and developed an extensive nuclear fuel cycle, including sophisticated enrichment capabilities, which became the subject of intense international negotiations and sanctions between 2002 and 2015. Many countries have expressed concern that Iran could divert civilian nuclear technology into a weapons programme. This has led the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions against Iran. On 14 July 2015, Iran and the P5+1 agreed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan on Action (JCPOA), aiming to end economic sanctions in exchange for Iran's restriction in producing enriched uranium. In 2018, however, the United States withdrew from the deal under the Trump administration, and intended to re-impose sanctions on Iran. This decision was met with resistance by Iran and the other members of the P5+1. A year later, Iran began decreasing its compliance. By 2020, Iran announced that it would no longer observe any limit set by the agreement. Progress since then has brought Iran to the nuclear threshold status. As of November 2023, Iran has uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile content, close to weapon grade. Some analysts already regard the country as a de facto nuclear power.
In 2016, Iran made global headlines for international female champions boycotting tournaments in Iran in chess (U.S. Woman Grandmaster Nazí Paikidze) and in shooting (Indian world champion Heena Sidhu), as they refused to enter a country where they would be forced to wear a hijab.
The country faces the common problem of other young demographic nations in the region, which is keeping pace with growth of an already huge demand for various public services. An anticipated increase in the population growth rate will increase the need for public health infrastructures and services. Total health spending was equivalent to 6% of GDP in Iran in 2017. About 90% of Iranians have some form of health insurance. Iran is also the only country with a legal organ trade. Iran has been able to extend public health preventive services through the establishment of an extensive Primary Health Care Network. As a result, child and maternal mortality rates have fallen significantly, and life expectancy at birth has risen. Iran's medical knowledge rank is 17th globally, and 1st in the Middle East and North Africa. In terms of medical science production index, Iran ranks 16th in the world.
Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and the Sunni branch of Islam are officially recognised by the government and have reserved seats in the Iranian Parliament. Iran has the largest Jewish population in the Middle East outside of Israel. Around 250,000 to 370,000 Christians reside in Iran, and Christianity is the country's largest recognised minority religion. Most are of Armenian background, as well as a sizable minority of Assyrians. The Iranian government has supported the rebuilding and renovation of Armenian churches, and has supported the Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran. In 2019, the government registered the Vank Cathedral, in the New Julfa district of Isfahan, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Currently three Armenian churches in Iran have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Iran's tourism had constantly been growing before the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching nearly 9 million foreign visitors in 2019, the world's third fastest-growing tourism destination before the pandemic. In 2021 and 2022, Iran's tourism industry grew 40% for two years in a row, expanding the sector's share to 4.7% of country's national economy. In September and October 2023, Iran achieved a positive balance compared to the same period in 2019. Iran's tourism experienced a growth of 48.5% in 2023, attracting over 5.2 million visitors.
There are many other popular museums across the country such as the Golestan Palace (UNESCO World Heritage Site), The Treasury of National Jewels, Reza Abbasi Museum, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Sa'dabad Complex, The Carpet Museum, Abgineh Museum, Pars Museum, Azerbaijan Museum, Hegmataneh Museum, Susa Museum and more. In 2019, around 25 million people visited the museums.
According to the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities (as of January 2017 ), Iran's top five universities include Tehran University of Medical Sciences (478th worldwide), the University of Tehran (514th worldwide), Sharif University of Technology (605th worldwide), Amirkabir University of Technology (726th worldwide), and the Tarbiat Modares University (789th worldwide). Iran was ranked 62nd in the Global Innovation Index in 2023, up from 67th in 2020.
In 2020, Ashkan Rahgozar's "The Last Fiction" became the first representative of Iranian animated cinema in the competition section in both Best Animated Feature and Best Picture categories at the Academy Awards.
On 3 January 2020, the IRGC general, Qasem Soleimani, was assassinated by the US in Iraq, which considerably heightened existing tensions between the two countries. His assassination lead to Operation Martyr Soleimani, the largest ballistic missile attack ever on Americans. Initially, the U.S. was not willing to concede the seriousness of the attack, but ultimately, the U.S. Department of Defense said that 110 service members had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries. Millions of mourners attended Soleimani's funeral ceremony on 6 January, the largest in Iran since the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, was a scheduled international civilian passenger flight from Tehran to Kyiv, operated by Ukraine International Airlines. On 8 January 2020, the Boeing 737-800 flying the route was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shortly after takeoff, killing all 176 occupants on board and leading to nation-wide protests. An international investigation led to the government admitting to the shootdown, calling it a "human error".
Ebrahim Raisi successfully ran for president a second time in 2021 with nearly 63% of the votes, succeeding Hassan Rouhani. Raisi is often seen as a frontrunner to succeed Khamenei as the Supreme Leader.
Excluding the Basij and Faraja, Iran has been identified as a major military power, owing it to the size and capabilities of its armed forces. It possesses the world's 14th strongest military. It ranks 13th globally in terms of overall military strength, 7th in the number of active military personnel, and 9th in the size of both its ground force and armoured force. Iran's armed forces are the largest in West Asia and comprise the greatest Army Aviation fleet in the Middle East. Iran is among the top 15 countries in terms of military budget. In 2021, its military spending increased for the first time in four years, to $24.6 billion, 2.30% of the national GDP. Funding for the IRGC accounted for 34% of Iran's total military spending in 2021.
Travels from other Western Asian countries to Iran grow 31% in the first seven months of 2023, surpassing that of Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Domestic tourism in Iran is one of the largest in the world, with the Iranian tourists spent $33.3 billion in 2021. Iran projects investment of over $32 billion in the tourism sector by 2026.
Censorship in Iran is ranked among the most extreme worldwide. Iran also has strict regulations when it comes to internet censorship, with the government and the IRGC persistently blocking social media and other websites. In January 2021, Iranian authorities added Signal to the list of blocked social media platforms, which included Facebook, Telegram, Twitter and YouTube. They carried out arbitrary arrests for social media postings deemed "counter-revolutionary" or "un-Islamic".
Relations between Iran and China is strong both bilaterally and economically. They have developed a friendly, economic and strategic relationship. In March 2021, Iran and China signed a 25-year cooperation agreement that will strengthen the relations between the two countries and would include "political, strategic and economic" components. Iran-China relations dates back to at least 200 BC and possibly earlier.
Football is the most popular sport in Iran, with the men's national team having won the Asian Cup on three occasions. The men's national team ranks first in Asia and 22nd in the world according to the FIFA World Rankings (as of September 2021 ). The Azadi Stadium in Tehran is the largest association football stadium in Western Asia and on the list of top-20 best stadiums in the world.
Iran's economy is a mixture of central planning, state ownership of oil and other large enterprises, village agriculture, and small-scale private trading and service ventures. In 2022, Iran's nominal GDP was $352.2 billion, while its nominal GDP per capita was $4,110. The service sector contributes the largest percentage of the GDP, followed by industry (mining and manufacturing) and agriculture.
UN Special Rapporteur Javaid Rehman has reported discrimination against several ethnic minorities in Iran. A group of UN experts in 2022 urged Iran to stop "systematic persecution" of religious minorities, adding that members of the Baháʼí Faith were arrested, barred from universities, or had their homes demolished.
On February 29, 2024, Iran launched its domestically developed imaging satellite, Pars 1, from Russia into orbit. This was done for the second time since August 2022, when Russia launched another Iranian remote-sensing, The Khayyam satellite, into orbit from Kazakhstan, reflecting deep scientific cooperation between the two countries.
Another Protests against the government began on 16 September 2022 after a woman named Mahsa Amini died in police custody following her arrest by the Guidance Patrol, known commonly as the "morality police".
Iran is globally ranked 16th in car manufacturing, ahead of the UK, Italy, and Russia. It has outputted 1.188 million cars in 2023, a 12% growth compared to the previous years. Iran has exported various cars to countries such as Venezuela, Russia and Belarus. From 2008 to 2009, Iran leaped to 28th place from 69th in annual industrial production growth rate. Iranian contractors have been awarded several foreign tender contracts in different fields of construction of dams, bridges, roads, buildings, railroads, power generation, and gas, oil and petrochemical industries. As of 2011, some 66 Iranian industrial companies are carrying out projects in 27 countries. Iran exported over $20 billion worth of technical and engineering services over 2001–2011. The availability of local raw materials, rich mineral reserves, experienced manpower have all played crucial role in winning the bids. 45% of large industrial firms are located in Tehran, and almost half of these workers work for the government. The Iranian retail industry is largely in the hands of cooperatives, many of them government-sponsored, and of independent retailers in the bazaars. The bulk of food sales occur at street markets, where the Chief Statistics Bureau sets the prices. Iran's main exports are to Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Syria, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Canada, Venezuela, Japan, South Korea and Turkey. Iran's automotive industry is the second most active industry of the country, after its oil and gas industry. Iran Khodro is the largest car manufacturer in the Middle East, and ITMCO is biggest tractor manufacturer. Iran is the 12th largest automaker in the world. Construction is one of the most important sectors in Iran accounting for 20–50% of the total private investment.
Following Russia's purchase of Iranian drones during the invasion of Ukraine, in November 2023, the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) finalized arrangements to acquire Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets, Mil Mi-28 attack helicopters, air defence and missile systems.
On January 15, 2024, Iran launched ballistic missile and drone attacks against alleged Mossad headquarters in Iraqi Kurdistan, and ISIS bases in northern Syria, in response to the killing of Razi Mousavi and the 2024 Kerman bombings. As one of Iran's most extensive operations, the attack caused significant collateral damage in Erbil. A day after the attack, Iran carried out a similar series of strikes in Panjgur District of Pakistan, targeting the Sunni terror group Jaish ul-Adl.
On January 20, 2024, Iran launched the Soraya satellite into its highest orbit yet (750 km), a new space launch milestone for the country. It was launched by Qaem 100 rocket.
On January 28, 2024, Iran successfully launched three indigenous satellites, The Mahda, Kayan and Hatef, into orbit using the Simorgh carrier rocket. It was the first time in country's history that it simultaneously sent three satellites into space. The three satellites are designed for testing advanced satellite subsystems, space-based positioning technology, and narrowband communication.
On 1 April 2024, Israel's airstrike on an Iranian consulate building, adjacent to the country's embassy in Damascus, killed a senior commander of the IRGC, Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi. In retaliation, Iran launched Operation True Promise, a major attack directly on Israel with UAVs, cruise and ballistic missiles on 13 April 2024. Several countries in the West Asia closed their airspaces a few hours before the operation. The American, British, French and Jordanian air forces and navy helped Israel to shoot down the Iranian drones. At least nine missiles hit Israel, mainly the Nevatim and Ramon airbases. It was the largest drone strike in history, intended to overwhelm anti-aircraft defenses, the biggest missile attack in Iranian history, and its first ever direct attack on Israel. It was also the first time since 1991 that Israel was directly attacked by a state force. It followed by an limited Israeli-suspected MAV strike within Iran on 18 April 2024. The tit for tat occurred at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East, amid the ongoing Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.