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| - Here are key developments in Iran since moderate conservative cleric Hassan Rouhani came to power as president in 2013. On June 14, 2013, Rouhani is elected president with the backing of reformists. He succeeds hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose eight-year presidency was marked by deep tensions with the West, notably over Iran's nuclear programme. In September Rouhani tells the UN General Assembly that Iran, which is accused of seeking to make an atom bomb, poses "absolutely no threat to the world". He condemns the international sanctions against his country. He also speaks out against the Holocaust -- a radical shift from Ahmadinejad's stance. On September 27, Rouhani and US president Barack Obama talk by phone, a contact unprecedented at this level since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the monarchy. A landmark nuclear accord is reached on July 14, 2015, after 21 months of negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany. Concluded in Vienna, the accord, which brings an end to a 12-year standoff, comes into force in early 2016. It gives Tehran relief from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear programme. Bolstered by the accord, which allows it to return to the international stage, Iran emerges increasingly as the Shiite rival of Sunni Saudi Arabia. It is accused of interfering in the affairs of Arab countries. Iran gives significant financial and military backing to the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the conflict which erupted in 2011. In Yemen, it backs Shiite Huthi rebels who overran the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to launch a military intervention the following year. In January 2016, Riyadh and its allies break off or scale back their diplomatic relations with Tehran, after a crisis prompted by Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric. Parliamentary elections held in February and April 2016 herald a greater balance of power between conservatives and reformist allies of Rouhani, while the more hardline conservatives are sidelined. In May 2017, Rouhani is re-elected with the support of reformists and a majority of the youth vote. However, criticism mounts that he has abandoned the poor with economic austerity policies. Days of anti-government protests erupt on December 28, leaving at least 25 people dead. President Donald Trump on May 8, 2018 pulls the United States out of the nuclear pact and reinstates sanctions on Iran and companies dealing with it. From May 2019, having slumped into a deep recession, Tehran retaliates and starts progressively stepping back from its commitments under the nuclear deal. Street protests break out over a surprise petrol price hike announced on November 15. The unrest spreads to dozens of urban centres and turns violent. Amnesty International says more than 300 people were killed in a crackdown on the unrest, amid a near-total internet blackout. The authorities dismiss the figures. Tensions with Washington, which have gradually risen since June 2019, escalate further in early 2020. On January 3, a US drone attack near Baghdad's international airport kills Qasem Soleimani, head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' foreign operations arm, the Quds Force. On January 8, Iran fires missiles at Iraqi bases housing US and other foreign troops. After three days of silence, Iran's armed forces admit they had "accidentally" shot down a Ukrainian airliner, also on January 8, killing 176 people. acm-jmy/eab/dv/hc/fz/dwo
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