In 1999, the population of Iran was estimated at approximately 66 million people. The economy of the country is based largely on oil exports, agriculture and industry. Its main industries are textiles, automotive, petrochemical and telecommunications. Iran has a long history of strong foreign relations with other countries in the Middle East and beyond. In terms of politics, Iran has had an Islamic Republic system with Mohammad Khatami as President since 1997. His reformist party continued to hold a majority in Parliament after their victory in the 1999 elections. See ethnicityology for Iran in the year of 2018.
Yearbook 1999
Iran. Reform-oriented supporters of President Mohammad Khatami won the local elections March 7-8. The turnout was around 60%. Khatami’s supporters did particularly well in the cities. Even the female candidates did well – in four cities, women won all the seats. But during the rest of the year, reform forces seemed to lose ground in the fight against the conservative clergy.
Visit Countryaah official website to get information about the capital city of Iran. There was a major blow to freedom of speech in Iran. In January, the Ministry of Information, dominated by the Conservative clergy, announced that a number of its agents had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murders of intellectuals by the end of 1998. resign. In July, Parliament voted on restrictions on freedom of the press. Students protested, whereupon police and citizen guards went on trial in the university area, killing at least one person. Over the next few days, nearly 25,000 students demonstrated in defense of freedom of speech. The clashes with the police became the most violent in Iran since the revolution in 1979. Four students were sentenced to death in September for leading the rattles.
- Also see Abbreviationfinder.org to see the acronym of IRN which stands for Iran and other definitions of this 3-letter abbreviation.
Three reform-friendly newspapers – Salam, Khorad and Neshat – were forced to close during the year. Khorad’s responsible publisher, the deposed Interior Minister Abdollah Nouri, was sentenced in November to five years in prison for violating the basic principles of Islam in his newspaper. Nouri, who was one of Khatami’s closest men and the candidate who received the most votes in the Tehran local elections, would have become the reform friends ‘trump card in the parliamentary elections on February 18, 2000. Also, the other publishers’ responsible publishers were sentenced to jail or fines and to refrain from journalism work for a certain number of years. Three students who had put up a satirical play about the twelfth imam, Ali, were sentenced in November to prison of between six months and three years. Several famous Ayatolls had demanded the death penalty for the students.
Thirteen Jews from the cities of Shiraz and Isfahan were arrested in March accused of spying for Israel and the United States. A large number of Western countries demanded that the arrested be released. In addition, I’s relations with a number of countries improved during the year. Khatami visited Italy and the Vatican in March, becoming the first Iranian leader to visit a western country since the revolution. In May he visited Saudi Arabia as the first Iranian President, and in October he came to France. Austrian President Thomas Klestil visited Iran in September, becoming the first European head of state in Iran since the revolution.
Parliament decided in February to allow foreign companies to buy up to 49% of the shares in Iranian oil refineries. French, Italian and Canadian companies signed contracts during the year for oil extraction in Iran, which was seen as a setback for the US attempt to isolate Iran financially. A new oil field, named Azadegan, which was estimated to be the largest new field in Iran for the past 30 years, was found in late summer near the Iraq border.
In September, the government began selling government bonds to finance the budget deficit.
In Sweden, a Swedish student was sentenced in November to four months’ imprisonment for having smuggled tyratron into electronic equipment, which can be used as a trigger in nuclear weapons.
In April, the United States escalated the pressure on Iran by declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. It was the first time the United States ever declared a foreign state military a “terrorist organization,” and behind it was the United States’ national “security adviser,” John Bolton, who is one of the people Israel has placed close to the president. Iran responded again by declaring the US military units in the region for terrorist organizations. In early May, the United States further escalated threats to Iran when it decided to send an aircraft carrier and bomber to the Gulf. This happened after credible intelligence on “threats” from Iran. The “intelligence” was produced by Israel. Bolton also threatened Iran with war if the country attacked the United States or its allies. An English general found that there was no evidence for the United States’ s and Israel’s claim of an Iranian threat. Iran once again stated that it did not want war with the United States, which in turn issued a warning to civilian air traffic in the region. In 1988, the United States shot down an Iranian passenger plane, killing all of its 290 passengers. In an attempt to further escalate the situation, an intelligence service at the end of the month conducted attacks against two oil tankers. The United States immediately blamed Iran, which was probably the one with the least interest in the incident, as the US economic war has already reduced its oil exports to a minimum. The United States then presented its “evidence” to the UN. It reminded superpower Secretary of War John Powel who, in March 2003, provided “evidence” of Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. There were also counterfeits. To further increase tension, the United States sent a spy plane into Iranian airspace on June 20. Iranians twice warned the United States of the violation before shooting down the spy plane – a drone -. Israel and Bolton were close to gaining their will when the United States announced a retaliatory attack on Iran, but minutes before the attack was launched, it was canceled by the president.
Following the US’s unsuccessful attempt to start the war on June 21, another attempt was made in July when the United States forced Britain to launch its pirates against an Iranian oil tanker in the Gibraltar Strait. The United States told Britain that the tanker was loaded with oil to Syria, which is subject to EU “sanctions”. However, the only legally legal international sanctions are UN sanctions, and the British warships attacked the oil tanker was therefore piracy. Iran threatened to retaliate against British thinkers, and the US has now managed to get Britain involved in its side. (Iran fury as Royal Marines seized tanker suspended from carrying oil to Syria, Guardian 5/7 2019)
The US economic war on Iran cost the country dearly, and the EU, in the opinion of the Iranians, did too little to compensate. Already in June, Iran began threatening to break the nuclear agreement ceiling on enrichment of uranium. However, the threats had little effect on the European Union that could or would not compensate for the US economic war. The ceiling was therefore broken several times. In terms of quantity and enrichment. However, the Iranians remained far from being able to produce bomb-fueled uranium.
