--2005--

- June 25: Populist Ahmadinejad wins presidential election with 61.69 percent of the vote.

- August 8: Iran resumes its uranium conversion activities, insisting it only seeks to generate energy and not as international powers suspect to build nuclear bombs. It had suspended activities a year earlier under a deal with EU members Britain, France and Germany.

- October 26: Ahmadinejad says Israel is "doomed to be wiped off the map", provoking an international uproar.

 

--2006--

- December 23: The UN Security Council imposes sanctions on Iran's trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology. It strengthens the measures in 2007, 2008, and 2010.

 

--2008--

- March 14-April 25: Conservatives win legislative elections.

 

--2009--

- March 20: US President Barack Obama, in a message for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, urges a resolution of differences and an "honest" engagement.

- June 12: Ahmadinejad wins presidential election with 62.63 percent of the vote. The opposition says the elections were marred by fraud and launches a protest movement in which 36 are killed according to an official count, and 72 according to the opposition, with thousands of arrests. Many were later released.

 

--2010--

- August 21: Iran loads fuel into its first Russian-built nuclear power plant, making it operational.

 

--2011--

- April 17: Ahmadinejad boycotts the presidency for 11 days, after Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reinstates intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi, despite Ahmadinejad having reportedly forced his resignation.

- November 8: The UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, points to a possible military dimension to the Iranian nuclear programme.

 

--2012--

- March 14: Ahmadinejad defends his economic and political management in an unprecedented interrogation by a largely hostile parliament.

 

--2013--

- May 22: Moderate ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and an aide of Ahmadinejad, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, are barred from standing in the June 14 presidential election. Eight candidates are approved: five conservatives, two moderates and a reformer. Constitutionally Ahmadinejad is barred from running after having served two consecutive terms.