Long, fraught timeline of Iran nuclear tensions
Tehran: Iran planned to hold a call with three European nations Friday as they threatened to reimpose United Nations sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme.
The call Iran will hold with France, Germany and the United Kingdom comes as Tehran faces an August 31 deadline set by the three nations to reach a “satisfactory solution” to the nuclear issues.
1967 — Iran takes possession of its Tehran Research Reactor under America’s “Atoms for Peace” programme.
1979 — Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, fatally ill, flees Iran as popular protests against him surge. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran and the Islamic Revolution sweeps him to power. Students seize the United States Embassy in Tehran, beginning the 444-day hostage crisis. Iran’s nuclear programme goes fallow under international pressure.
August 2002 — Western intelligence services and an Iranian opposition group reveal Iran’s secret Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.
June 2003 — Britain, France and Germany engage Iran in nuclear negotiations.
October 2003 — Iran suspends uranium enrichment.
February 2006 — Iran announces it will restart uranium enrichment following the election of hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Britain, France and Germany walk out of stalled negotiations.
June 2009 — Iran’s disputed presidential election sees Ahmadinejad reelected despite fraud allegations, sparking Green Movement protests and a violent government crackdown.
October 2009 — Under President Barack Obama, the US and Iran open a secret backchannel for messages in the sultanate of Oman.
July 2012 — US and Iranian officials hold secret face-to-face talks in Oman.
July 14, 2015 — World powers and Iran announce a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limits Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
May 2018 — US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdraws the US from the nuclear agreement, calling it the “worst deal ever.” He says he’ll get better terms in new negotiations to stop Iran’s missile development and support for regional militias.
May 8, 2019 — Iran announces it will begin backing away from the accord. A series of regional attacks on land and at sea blamed on Tehran follow.
January 3, 2020 — A US drone strike in Baghdad kills Gen Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Tehran’s proxy wars in the Middle East.
January 8, 2020 — In retaliation for Soleimani’s killing, Iran launches a barrage of missiles at military bases in Iraq that are home to thousands of American and Iraqi troops.
July 2020 — A mysterious explosion tears apart a centrifuge production plant at Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. Iran blames the attack on archenemy Israel.
April 6, 2021 — Iran and the US under President Joe Biden begin indirect negotiations in Vienna over how to restore the nuclear deal. Those talks, and others between Tehran and European nations, fail to reach any agreement.
April 11, 2021 — A second attack within a year targets Iran’s Natanz nuclear site, again likely carried out by Israel.
April 16, 2021 — Iran begins enriching uranium up to 60 per cent — its highest purity ever and a technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.
February 24, 2022 – Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Moscow ultimately will come to rely on Iranian bomb-carrying drones in the conflict, as
well as missiles.agencies
