Page 59 - ICE BUSINESS TIMES February 2020

Conflict Timeline:

Year Incident Brief description

1953 Overthrow U.S. and British intelligence agencies orchestrated a coup to oust Iran's
of Mossadeq democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadeq. The
secular leader had sought to nationalise Iran's oil industry.
1979 Iranian The U.S.-backed Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, is forced to leave
Revolution the country on 16 January following months of demonstrations and strikes
against his rule by secular and religious opponents. Two weeks later,
Islamic religious. leader Ayatollah Khomeini returns from exile. Following
a referendum, the Islamic Republic of Iran is proclaimed on 1 April.

1979- 81 U.S. The U.S. embassy in Tehran is seized by protesters in November 1979 and
Embassy American hostages are held inside for 444 days. The final 52 hostages were
Hostage freed in January 1981, the day of U.S. President Ronald Reagan's
Crisis inauguration. Another six Americans who had escaped the embassy are
smuggled out of Iran by a team posing as film-makers, in events
dramatised in the 2012 Oscar-winning film Argo.
1985- 86 Iran-Contra The U.S. secretly ships weapons to Iran, allegedly in exchange for Tehran's
scandal help in freeing U.S. hostages held by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
The profits are illegally channelled to rebels in Nicaragua, creating a
political crisis for Reagan.
1988 Iran The American warship U.S.S Vincennes shot down an Iran Air flight in the
Passenger Gulf on 3 July, killing all 290 people on board. The U.S. says the Airbus.
plane Shot A300 was mistaken for a fighter jet. Most of the victims are Iranian
Down pilgrims on their way to Mecca.
2002 Axis of Evil In his State of the Union address, President George Bush denounces Iran
as part of an "axis of evil" with Iraq and North Korea. The speech causes
outrage in Iran.
2000s Nuclear In 2002 an Iranian opposition group reveals that Iran is developing
Fears and nuclear facilities including a uranium enrichment plant. The U.S. accuses
Sanctions Iran of a clandestine nuclear weapons programme, which Iran denies. A
decade of diplomatic activity and intermittent Iranian engagement with
the UN's nuclear watchdog follows. But several rounds of sanctions are
imposed by the UN, the U.S. and the EU against ultra-conservative
president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government. This causes Iran's
currency to lose two-thirds of its value in two years.

2013- Closer Ties In September 2013, a month after Iran's new moderate president Hassan
2016 and Nuclear Rouhani takes office, he and U.S. President Barack Obama speak by phone
Deal - the first such top-level conversation in more than 30 years. Then in
2015, after a flurry of diplomatic activity, Iran agrees a long-term deal on
its nuclear programme with a group of world powers known as the P5+1 -
the U.S., UK, France, China, Russia and Germany. Under the accord, Iran
agrees to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow in international
inspectors in return for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.
2019 Tension in In May 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump abandons the nuclear deal,
the Gulf before reinstating economic sanctions against Iran and threatening to do
the same to countries and firms that continue buying its oil. Iran's
economy falls into a deep recession. Relations between the U.S. and Iran
worsen in May 2019, when the U.S. tightens the sanctions targeting Iran's
oil exports. In response, Iran begins a counter-pressure campaign. In May
and June 2019, explosions hit six oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, and the
U.S. accuses Iran. On 20 June, Iranian forces shoot down a U.S. military
drone over the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. says it was over international
waters, but Iran says it is over their territory. Iran begins rolling back key
commitments under the nuclear deal in July.

2020 Qasem On 3 January 2020, Iran's top military commander, Gen Qasem
Soleimani Soleimani, is killed by a U.S. drone strike in Iraq. Iran vows "severe
Assasination revenge" for his death and pulls back from the 2015 nuclear accord.

The U.S.-Iran conflict has taken a monstrous. shape earlier this year, which is
making the world leaders and economic forums worried about the spill-out.

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