Background:
Known as
Persia until
1935 (see also
History of Persia,
History of Levant),
Iran became an
Islamic republic in
1979 after the ruling shah was forced into exile.
Conservative clerical forces subsequently crushed westernizing liberal elements.
Militant Iranian students seized the
US Embassy in
Tehran on 4 November
1979 and held it until
20 January 1981.
From
1980 to
1988, Iran fought a bloody, indecisive war with
Iraq over disputed territory.
The key current issue is how rapidly the country should open up to the modernizing influences of the outside world.
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