2015 political events at a glance

Iran's nuclear agreement with six world powers, reopening of the UK embassy in Tehran, Iran’s defense capabilities, Mina stampede and Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s letter made the year 2015 a hectic one for Iran.

The marathon negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers have been among the longest and most important of their kind in contemporary “diplomatic” history. On March 26th, the negotiating parties convened in the Swiss city of Lausanne, in pursuit of reaching a framework for the nuclear deal, which turned out to be successful.

This is while in bearing unjust pressure on Iran, the West has always wanted to exert its control over the Middle East, wherein Iran stands as the symbol of stability. Among all these ups and downs throughout the world, historians will never ignore what happened in Sep. 24, 2015. It all happened in Mina, also known as the Tent City, 5 kilometers to the east of the holy city of Mecca.

In the Mina stampede, some 2,431 pilgrims died, out of whom close to 470 were Iranian.

Iran has a simultaneous election ahead in Feb. 26, 2016, for Assembly of Experts and the parliament (Majlis). Following a terrorist attack in Paris, Ayatollah Khamenei wrote a letter addressing European and North American Youths.

When he came to power, Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, spoke of a win-win resolution, of a deal that would have the two sides meet each other half way, in order to find common grounds.

In mid-December 2015, Yukiya Amano, the head of the IAEA affirmed termination of the PMD dossier which means in the following month all the sanctions must be lifted based on JCPOA. On August 23, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond traveled to Iran to reopen his country’s embassy in Tehran, which had been closed for four years, and to meet a number of Iranian officials in the post-JCPOA arena of diplomatic activities. He became the first British foreign secretary to visit Iran in almost 12 years.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has been the focal point of Western military and economic threats. In reaction to such threats, Iran has responded by strengthening its military. The UNSC Resolution 1929, banned ballistic missile tests by Iran but Tehran says it will do what needed to beef up its military strengths.

The upcoming parliamentary vote in February is of high importance as it will see the presence of the first Iranian MPs, following the JCPOA and during the post-sanctions era, giving special significance to the mix and make-up of the parliament. The ugly face of violence was laid bare once again on November 13, 2015, this time in the city of lights, Paris.

Ayatollah Khamenei wrote an open letter, the second in 2015, addressing the youth of Europe and North America. In it, he called on them Not to allow the brutality of Daesh, cloud their perception of Islam.

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