The Iranian Empire began in the Iron Age with the rise of the Medes, who unified Iran as a nation and empire in 625 BC. [34] The Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC), founded by Cyrus the Great, was the largest empire the world had seen, spanning from the …

1 day ago · Iran is a mountainous, arid, and ethnically diverse country of southwestern Asia. The heart of the Persian empire of antiquity, Iran has long played an important role in the region as an imperial power and as a factor in superpower rivalries. Modern Iranian culture owes itself in part to a renaissance in the 8th century.

Iranian peoples, [1] or Iranic peoples, [2] are the collective ethnolinguistic groups [3] who are identified chiefly by their native usage of any of the Iranian languages, which are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages within the Indo-European language family.

3 days ago · Stay on top of Iran latest developments on the ground with Al Jazeera’s fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated maps.

2 days ago · The president, who is elected by universal adult suffrage, heads the executive branch and must be a native-born Iranian Shiʿi. This post was largely ceremonial until July 1989, when a national referendum approved a constitutional amendment that abolished the post of prime minister and vested greater authority in the president.

5 days ago · U.S. President Donald Trump blocked a planned Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites in favor of negotiating a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program, the New York Times reported on ...

1 day ago · This group, which constitutes only a small proportion of Iran’s population, has resisted the Iranian government’s efforts, both before and after the revolution of 1979, to assimilate them into the mainstream of national life and, along with their fellow Kurds in adjacent regions of Iraq and Turkey, has sought either regional autonomy or the ...

The Iranian government was changed to an Islamic Republic by Islamic Revolution. Soon afterwards, the Iranian Students Movement (Tahkim Vahdat), with the backing of the new government , took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran .

5 days ago · Visit the Definitions and Notes page to view a description of each topic.

1 day ago · A student looks at Iran’s domestically built centrifuges in an exhibition of the country’s nuclear achievements, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023.