INDEPTH: IRAN
History
CBC News Online | March 13, 2006
'Axis of Evil': 1999 - Present
Iran's relations with the U.S. have been frosty since the Islamic Revolution of the late 1970s. In his state of the union address in January 2002, President George W. Bush named Iran along with Iraq and North Korea as being a member of an "axis of evil" which he accused of "arming to threaten the peace of the world." He said, "Iran aggressively pursues these weapons (of mass destruction) and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom.
Bush's frustration likely stemmed at least in part from the seizure of a 50-ton shipment of Iranian weapons earlier in the month. According to U.S. officials, the weapons were bound for Hezbollah forces in the Gaza Strip, who intended to use them against Israeli targets.
The "axis of evil" moniker has stuck in spite of signs that Iran may be trying to warm relations. In June 2002, Iran handed over 16 suspected al-Qaeda fighters to Saudi Arabia. On the one-year anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, Iran issued a statement expressing "solidarity with the innocent victims."
Any political goodwill earned by the gesture was quashed in December 2002 when Iran cancelled upcoming UN inspections of its nuclear facilities. At the time, the U.S. had raised suspicions over why Iran - an oil-rich nation - would pursue the development of an alternative energy source. Washington saw the program as a pretext for the development of a nuclear weapons program.
A year later, Iraq signed an agreement to allow UN inspectors back into the country, but then froze the inspections again in March 2004. At the same time, Iran was dealing with the devastation of the city of Bam by a powerful earthquake, and political turmoil after Muslim clerics declared thousands of reformist candidates ineligible for the February 2004 elections.
So it came as no surprise that in 2004's parliamentary elections, the reformist majority was replaced with a conservative one. Hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had been appointed mayor of Tehran in 2003, won a presidential runoff in 2005, replacing the last reformist anywhere in Iran's power structure.
The Iranian government has since shown no interest in accommodating the rest of the world's concerns over its nuclear program. Despite warnings from the West, it resumed a uranium enrichment program and appeared anxious to confront its opponents on the world stage. Iran had come full circle;
– once again embracing the anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric that had been the chorus of its revolution a generation earlier.
MORE: TIMELINE
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Official Title:
Islamic Republic of Iran
Area:
1.648 million sq. km
Arable land:
10.17%
Irrigated land:
75,629 sq. km
Land borders:
5,440 km
Coastline:
2,400 km along the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, also 740 km along the Caspian Sea
Climate:
Mostly arid or semi-arid, subtropical along Caspian Sea
Terrain:
Mostly a central desert basin surrounded by mountainous rims
Government:
Theocratic republic
Capital:
Tehran
Head of State:
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei
Head of Government:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Population - July 2005:
68 million
Age structure:
0-14: 27.1%
15-64: 68.0%
65 and over: 4.9%
Life expectancy at birth:
Male - 68.58 years
Female - 71.40 years
Literacy (15 and over):
79.4%
Gross Domestic Product:
$552 billion US (2005)
GDP by sector (2002):
Agriculture 11.8%
Industry 43.3%
Services 44.9%
Inflation rate:
16% (2005)
Unemployment rate:
11.2% (2005)
Population living below
poverty line:
40% (2002 est.)
Sources:
CIA World Fact Book
CBC News
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Iran presidency website
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