IRAN’S MOUNTING PROBLEMS
The country has been reeling from one crisis to another in recent times. Here's a close look at five crises that the country is now facing
1 ECONOMIC SANCTIONS
After withdrawing from Iran's 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers, the US began ratcheting up sanctions. The sanctions have exacerbated an economic crisis, sending the local currency into a freefall and wiping away many people's life savings
2 STREET PROTESTS
As the economic crisis has worsened, Iran has seen wave after wave of sporadic, leaderless protests. The protests are sparked by economic grievances but rapidly escalate into calls to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Amnesty International says more than 300 people were killed in protests in November over a hike in gasoline prices, when authorities shut down the internet for several days
3 LOSS OF SOLEIMANI
As head of the Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force, commander Qasem Soleimani was the architect of Iran's regional military operations and its support for armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. He also helped Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces battle rebels and Islamic extremists
4 PLANE TRAGEDY
In response to the sensational assassination of top IRGC commander Soleimani in Baghdad in an airstrike on January 3, Iran launched a wave of ballistic missiles at US bases in Iraq. As Tehran braced for a counterattack, the Revolutionary Guard shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane shortly after it took off from Tehran, mistaking it for a US cruise missile. Authorities concealed their role for three days, initially blaming a technical failure, until confessing to shooting it down
5 FALTERING N-DEAL
Iran continued to comply with the nuclear deal that was signed in 2015 despite severe economic sanctions imposed the US until last summer. Tehran, however, began openly breaching certain limits that had been set by the 2015 deal, and after the killing of Soleimani said it was no longer bound at all by any of the agreement's restrictions. Last week, the European nations party to the nuclear deal triggered a dispute mechanism in the agreement in an attempt to bring Iran back into compliance