---
category: Major Conflict
date: 1979
location: Iran
summary: 1979 popular uprising that overthrew Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, establishing
  an Islamic republic and fundamentally reshaping Middle Eastern geopolitics.
tags:
- Event
- Iran
- Politics
---

Iranian Revolution refers to the popular uprising in [Iran](/places/iran/) that led to the overthrow of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in February 1979. The [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) had provided upbeat predictions that the Shah would manage to cling to power, despite a trenchant analysis from [Uri Lubrani](/people/uri-lubrani/), a former Israeli ambassador to Iran, in 1978, which stated that the Shah would not survive. The CIA's embarrassingly inept reporting on Iran forced the American leadership to turn once again to Israeli help in trying to anticipate world events.[^1]

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 1.