Middle Eastern country bordering
Iraq,
Turkey,
Armenia,
Azerbaijan, the
Caspian Sea,
Turkmenistan,
Afghanistan,
Pakistan and the
Persian Gulf.
Ruled by the Pahlavi line until 1979, when the religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini came to power. In November 1979, Iranians overran the American embassy in Tehran and took 66 people hostage, some of whom were eventually kept for 444 days. There was a failed American attempt to come rescue the hostages, but it was over a year of negotiation with then-President Jimmy Carter and the fact that Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 (for unrelated reasons) that probably led to the hostages' release after Ronald Reagan had been elected President. Iran and Iraq stayed at war until 1988.