Iranian Revolution in the context of "Hezbollah"

The monarchs of Iran ruled for over two and a half millennia, beginning as early as the 8th century BC and enduring until the 20th century AD. The earliest Iranian monarch is generally considered to have been either Deioces of the Median dynasty (c. 727–550 BC) or Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty (550–330 BC). The last Iranian monarch was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979), who was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution. Since then, Iran has been governed by theocratic supreme leaders.

In classical antiquity, Iran reached the peak of its power and prestige under the Achaemenid Empire, which stretched from Egypt and parts of Southeast Europe in the west to the Indus Valley and parts of Central Asia in the east. By 323 BC, the Achaemenid Empire's territories had been conquered by the Macedonian Empire during the Wars of Alexander the Great, bringing Iran into the Hellenistic sphere. In the Wars of the Diadochi, the Seleucid Empire (305–129 BC) assumed control of Iran. Native Iranian rule was revived with the establishment and expansion of the Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 AD) and then the Sasanian Empire (224–651), which existed until the Arab conquest of Iran.

The 1970s (pronounced "nineteen-seventies"; commonly shortened to the "Seventies" or the "'70s") was the decade that began on January 1, 1970, and ended on December 31, 1979.

In the 21st century, historians have increasingly portrayed the 1970s as a "pivot of change" in world history, focusing especially on the economic upheavals that followed the end of the postwar economic boom. On a global scale, it was characterized by frequent coups, domestic conflicts and civil wars, and various political upheavals and armed conflicts which arose from or were related to decolonization, and the global struggle between NATO, the Warsaw Pact, and the Non-Aligned Movement. Many regions had periods of high-intensity conflict, notably Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa.

Bukan (Persian: بوکان) is a city in the Central District of Bukan County, West Azerbaijan province, Iran, serving as the capital of both the county and the district.

During the Qajar era, due to the attention and residence of Aziz Khan Mokri and his family, Bukan became important. The history of this city is related to four government figures known as Sardar Aziz Khan family. Bukan was the center of governance and their residence. After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, it flourished in social, cultural, sports, economic and political indicators. This city is one of the most important and effective cities in Iran.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (né Sabbaghian; 28 October 1956) is an Iranian politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. Ideologically a principlist and nationalist, he is currently a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and a strong supporter of Iran's nuclear programme. He was also the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country, and served as mayor of Tehran from 2003 to 2005, reversing many of his predecessor's reforms.

An engineer and teacher from a poor background, he was ideologically shaped by thinkers such as Navvab Safavi, Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, and Ahmad Fardid. After the Iranian Revolution, Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity. Appointed a provincial governor in 1993, he was replaced along with all other provincial governors in 1997 after the election of President Mohammad Khatami and returned to teaching. Tehran's council elected him mayor in 2003. He took a religious hard line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors. His 2005 presidential campaign, supported by the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, garnered 62% of the runoff election votes, and he became president on 3 August 2005.

In political philosophy, the right of revolution or right of rebellion is the right or duty of a people to "alter or abolish" a government that acts against their common interests or threatens the safety of the people without justifiable cause. Stated throughout history in one form or another, the belief in this right has been used to justify various revolutions, including the American Revolution, French Revolution, the Syrian Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and the Iranian Revolution.

Iran's nuclear program, one of the most scrutinized in the world, has sparked intense international concern. While Iran asserts that its nuclear ambitions are purely for civilian purposes, including energy production, the country historically pursued the secretive AMAD nuclear weapons project (paused in 2003 according to U.S. intelligence), reaching the highest known levels among countries without military nuclear programs. This has raised fears that Iran is moving closer to developing nuclear weapons, a prospect that has led to rising tensions, particularly with Israel, the United States, and European nations. The issue remains a critical flashpoint in the Middle East, with ongoing military and diplomatic confrontations. According to The New York Times in 2025, "If Iran is truly pursuing a nuclear weapon—which it officially denies—it is taking more time than any nuclear-armed nation in history."

Iran's nuclear program began in the 1950s under the Pahlavi dynasty with United States support. It expanded in the 1970s with plans for power reactors, paused after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and resumed secretly during the 1980s Iran–Iraq War. Undeclared enrichment sites at Natanz and Arak were exposed in 2002, and Fordow, an underground fuel enrichment site, was revealed in 2009.

Reza Shah Pahlavi (previously Reza Khan; 15 March 1878 – 26 July 1944) (Persian: رضاشاه پهلوی [ɾeˈzɒː ˈʃɒːhe pʰæɦlæˈviː]) was an Iranian military officer and monarch who was the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and Shah of Iran from 1925 to 1941. Originally an army officer, he became a politician, serving as minister of war and prime minister of Iran, and was elected shah following the deposition of Ahmad Shah, the last monarch of the Qajar dynasty.

Joining the Persian Cossack Brigade at age 14, he rose through the ranks, becoming a brigadier-general by 1921. In February 1921, as leader of the entire Cossack Brigade based in Qazvin province, he marched towards Tehran and seized the capital. He forced the dissolution of the government and installed Zia ol Din Tabatabaee as the new prime minister. Reza Khan's first role in the new government was commander-in-chief of the army and the minister of war. Two years after the coup, Seyyed Zia appointed Reza Pahlavi as Iran's prime minister, backed by the compliant national assembly of Iran. In 1925, the constituent assembly deposed Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last Qajar shah, and amended Iran's 1906 constitution to allow the election of Reza Pahlavi as the Shah of Iran. He founded the Pahlavi dynasty that lasted until it was overthrown in 1979 by the Iranian Revolution.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Persian: محمدرضا پهلوی [mohæmˈmæd reˈzɒː pæhlæˈviː]) (26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980) was the Shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979. He succeeded his father Reza Shah and ruled the Imperial State of Iran until he was overthrown by the 1979 Islamic Revolution led by Ruhollah Khomeini, which abolished the Iranian monarchy to establish the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 1967, he took the title Shahanshah (lit. 'King of Kings'), and also held several others, including Aryamehr (lit. 'Light of the Aryans') and Bozorg Arteshtaran (lit. 'Grand Army Commander'). He was the second and last ruling monarch of the Pahlavi dynasty.

During World War II, the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran forced the abdication of Reza Shah and succession of Mohammad Reza Shah. During his reign, the British-owned oil industry was nationalized by the prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, who had support from Iran's national parliament to do so; however, Mosaddegh was overthrown in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, which was carried out by the Iranian military under the aegis of the United Kingdom and the United States. Subsequently, the Iranian government centralized power under the Shah and brought foreign oil companies back into the country's industry through the Consortium Agreement of 1954.

Omid (Persian: امید, meaning "Hope") was Iran's first domestically made satellite. Omid was a data-processing satellite for research and telecommunications; Iran's state television reported that it was successfully launched on 2 February 2009. After being launched by an Iranian-made carrier rocket, Safir 1, the satellite was placed into a low Earth orbit. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supervised the launch, which coincided with the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution; NASA verified the launch's success the following day. Its Satellite Catalog Number or USSPACECOM object number is 33506.

Ahmadinejad said the satellite was launched to spread "monotheism, peace and justice" in the world. The Tehran Times reported that "Iran has said it wants to put its own satellites into orbit to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation and improve its telecommunications." Foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Iran launched the satellite to "meet the needs of the country" and that it was "purely for peaceful purposes". Since there was very little encryption on the satellite, data could be collected and read by citizens.

The Imperial Bank of Persia (Persian: بانک شاهنشاهی ایران‎, romanized: Bânk-e Šâhanšâhi-ye Irân), sometimes transcribed as Bank Shahi, was a British bank that played a central role in the financial history of late Qajar Iran, known in English at the time as Persia. The bank was legally established in London and subject to British law, with the bulk of its operations based in Tehran under a concession initially granted by the Qajar government to Paul Julius Reuter. It served as the country's main bank of issue until that role was transferred to Bank Melli Iran in 1932, and introduced European financial practices to a country in which they were previously unknown.

Following political changes in Pahlavi Iran it was renamed the Imperial Bank of Iran in 1935, then the British Bank of Iran and the Middle East in 1949 following expansion into other Middle Eastern countries. In 1952, its operations in Iran were terminated, with some of its former business restructured as Bank Bazargani. The remaining activity outside Iran was renamed British Bank of the Middle East (BBME), which in 1959 was purchased by HSBC and in 1999 was renamed HSBC Bank Middle East. Bank Bazargani in turn was reorganized in 1979 following the Iranian Revolution, to become the nucleus of Bank Tejarat.