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| - Iran, where a general election will be held on February 21, is the world's largest Shiite Muslim majority country and a fierce rival of Sunni kingpin Saudi Arabia. Successor to the ancient Persian Empire ruled by monarchs called shahs, Iran installed military strongman Reza Shah Pahlavi on the throne in 1925 after years of upheaval. He was forced to abdicate in 1941 in favour of his son Mohammad Reza. In the early 1950s the prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, nationalised the key oil sector, which had been controlled by the British. But in 1953 he was ousted in a coup orchestrated by London and Washington. In 1963, Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became the leader of opposition to the shah's modernising reforms. He was exiled the following year. Anti-government demonstrations and strikes erupted in January 1978. In the face of the growing protests, the shah left Iran in January 1979 for what turned out to be permanent exile. Khomeini, who had led the uprising from exile, made a triumphant return in February. The shah's government fell 10 days later and an Islamic republic was proclaimed on April 1, Khomeini becoming its first supreme leader. In September 1980, Saddam Hussein's Iraq declared war on Iran. Over eight years, the war left 680,000 dead or missing. They included 180,000 from Iraq and 500,000 from Iran, according to French historian Pierre Razoux. Iran's constitution gives the final say on all issues of state to the supreme leader, whose authority trumps that of the elected president. The role was taken by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after Khomeini's death in 1989. An elected council of vetted clerics, the Assembly of Experts, oversees the work of the supreme leader and has the authority to dismiss him. Next in line is the president, who names the government and is elected for four years by universal suffrage. Moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani became president in 2013, winning a second term in 2017. Parliament's powers are limited when compared with other institutions. It is vetted by the Guardian Council of clerics and jurists with the authority to interpret the constitution. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is particularly influential and is considered to be the country's ideological army. There are more than 80 million people in Iran and 90 percent are Shiites. Iran rivals Sunni kingpin Saudi Arabia for influence in the Middle East and the two take opposing sides in regional conflicts. In the Syrian conflict, which started in 2011, Tehran has been the main regional military and financial backer of President Bashar al-Assad, of the Alawite branch of Shiite Islam, against Riyadh-backed Sunni rebels. In Yemen, Tehran is accused by Riyadh and Washington of militarily supporting Shiite rebels who control part of the country, something it denies. In 2015, Iran reached a landmark agreement with major powers -- after 12 years of negotiations -- to accept limits on its controversial nuclear programme in exchange for an easing of crippling sanctions. But in 2018, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the accord and reimposed sanctions. Since May 2019, Tehran has gradually stepped back from its own commitments under the deal. Iran is a founding member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and sits on the world's fourth-biggest oil reserves and second-largest gas reserves. But it suffers from chronic unemployment and high inflation. Washington's reimposition of sanctions on its oil and financial sectors have aggravated the situation and sent the rial tumbling. In December 2019, Iran presented a "budget of resistance" against the crippling US sanctions. Around 20 Iranian sites are on UNESCO's world heritage list, including the former capitals Isfahan and Shiraz, as well as Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire founded at the end of the 6th century BC. acm-eab/jmy/sw
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