(Jefferey Fields’s post from THE CONVERSATION on 18 June 2025.)
US
and Iran have a long, complicated history, spanning decades before US strikes
on nuclear sites: With the U.S. bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran,
relations between the two countries have arguably reached one of the lowest
points in modern times.
But
the bad blood between the two countries isn’t new: The U.S. and Iran have been
in conflict for decades – at least since the U.S. helped overthrow a
democracy-minded prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, in August 1953. The U.S.
then supported the long, repressive reign of the Shah of Iran, whose security
services brutalized Iranian citizens for decades.
The
two countries have been particularly hostile to each other since Iranian
students took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979, resulting in
economic sanctions and the severing of formal diplomatic relations between the
nations.
Since 1984, the U.S. State Department has listed Iran as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” alleging the Iranian government provides terrorists with training, money and weapons. Some of the major events in U.S.-Iran relations highlight the differences between the nations’ views, but others arguably presented real opportunities for reconciliation.
1953: US overthrows Mossadegh
In
1951, the Iranian Parliament chose a new prime minister, Mossadegh, who then
led lawmakers to vote in favor of taking over the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company,
expelling the company’s British owners and saying they wanted to turn oil
profits into investments in the Iranian people. The U.S. feared disruption in
the global oil supply and worried about Iran falling prey to Soviet influence.
The British feared the loss of cheap Iranian oil.
President
Dwight Eisenhower decided it was best for the U.S. and the U.K. to get rid of
Mossadegh. Operation Ajax, a joint CIA-British operation, convinced the Shah of
Iran, the country’s monarch, to dismiss Mossadegh and drive him from office by
force. Mossadegh was replaced by a much more Western-friendly prime minister,
handpicked by the CIA.
1979: Revolutionaries oust the shah, take hostages
After
more than 25 years of relative stability in U.S.-Iran relations, the Iranian
public had grown unhappy with the social and economic conditions that developed
under the dictatorial rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Pahlavi
enriched himself and used American aid to fund the military while many Iranians
lived in poverty. Dissent was often violently quashed by SAVAK, the shah’s
security service. In January 1979, the shah left Iran, ostensibly to seek
cancer treatment. Two weeks later, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from
exile in Iraq and led a drive to abolish the monarchy and proclaim an Islamic
government.
In
October 1979, President Jimmy Carter agreed to allow the shah to come to the
U.S. to seek advanced medical treatment. Outraged Iranian students stormed the
U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, taking 52 Americans hostage. That convinced
Carter to sever U.S. diplomatic relations with Iran on April 7, 1980.
The
Iran hostage crisis began on November 4,
1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were
taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of them
being held until January 20, 1981.The incident occurred after the Muslim Student
Followers of the Imam's Line stormed and occupied the building in the months
following the Iranian Revolution.
With support from Ruhollah Khomeini, who had led the Iranian Revolution and would eventually establish the present-day Islamic Republic of Iran, the hostage-takers demanded that the United States extradite Iranian king Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who had been granted asylum by the Carter administration for cancer treatment.
Notable
among the assailants were Hossein Dehghan (future Minister of Defense of Iran),
Mohammad Ali Jafari (future Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps), and Mohammad Bagheri (future Chief of the General Staff of the
Iranian Armed Forces).
Two
weeks later, the U.S. military launched a mission to rescue the hostages, but
it failed, with aircraft crashes killing eight U.S. servicemembers. The hostage
crisis contributed to a dramatic decline in Iran–United States relations.
After
444 days, it came to an end with the signing of the Algiers Accords between the
Iranian and American governments. Iran's king had died in Cairo, Egypt, on July
27, 1980. The hostages weren’t released until Jan. 20, 1981, after 444 days of
captivity.
1980-1988: US tacitly sides with Iraq
In
September 1980, Iraq invaded Iran, an escalation of the two countries’ regional
rivalry and religious differences: Iraq was governed by Sunni Muslims but had a
Shia Muslim majority population; Iran was led and populated mostly by Shiites.
The
U.S. was concerned that the conflict would limit the flow of Middle Eastern oil
and wanted to ensure the conflict didn’t affect its close ally, Saudi Arabia. The
U.S. supported Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in his fight against the
anti-American Iranian regime. As a result, the U.S. mostly turned a blind eye
toward Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Iran.
U.S.
officials moderated their usual opposition to those illegal and inhumane
weapons because the U.S. State Department did not “wish to play into Iran’s
hands by fueling its propaganda against Iraq.” In 1988, the war ended in a
stalemate. More than 500,000 military and 100,000 civilians died.
1981-1986: US secretly sells weapons to Iran
The
U.S. imposed an arms embargo after Iran was designated a state sponsor of
terrorism in 1984. That left the Iranian military, in the middle of its war
with Iraq, desperate for weapons and aircraft and vehicle parts to keep
fighting.
The
Reagan administration decided that the embargo would likely push Iran to seek
support from the Soviet Union, the U.S.’s Cold War rival. Rather than formally
end the embargo, U.S. officials agreed to secretly sell weapons to Iran
starting in 1981.
The
last shipment, of anti-tank missiles, was in October 1986. In November 1986, a
Lebanese magazine exposed the deal. That revelation sparked the Iran-Contra
scandal in the U.S., with Reagan’s officials found to have collected money from
Iran for the weapons and illegally sent those funds to anti-socialist rebels –
the Contras – in Nicaragua.
1983: Beirut US Marine Barracks Bombing
On
October 23, 1983, in Beirut, Lebanon, two large truck bombs struck separate
buildings housing US and French peacekeeping forces, killing 241 U.S. personnel
(220 Marines, 18 sailors, 3 soldiers) and 58 French paratroopers. Carried out
by a pro-Iranian group (linked to Hezbollah), it was the deadliest single-day
attack on the US Marine Corps since 1945.
1988: US Navy shoots down Iran Air flight 655
On
the morning of July 8, 1988, the USS Vincennes, a guided missile cruiser
patrolling in the international waters of the Persian Gulf, entered Iranian
territorial waters while in a skirmish with Iranian gunboats.
Either
during or just after that exchange of gunfire, the Vincennes crew mistook a
passing civilian Airbus passenger jet for an Iranian F-14 fighter. They shot it
down, killing all 290 people aboard.
The
U.S. called it a “tragic and regrettable accident,” but Iran believed the
plane’s downing was intentional. In 1996, the U.S. agreed to pay US$131.8
million in compensation to Iran.
1997-1998: The US seeks contact
In
August 1997, a moderate reformer, Mohammad Khatami, won Iran’s presidential
election. U.S. President Bill Clinton sensed an opportunity. He sent a message
to Tehran through the Swiss ambassador there, proposing direct
government-to-government talks.
Shortly
thereafter, in early January 1998, Khatami gave an interview to CNN in which he
expressed “respect for the great American people,” denounced terrorism and
recommended an “exchange of professors, writers, scholars, artists, journalists
and tourists” between the United States and Iran. However, Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei didn’t agree, so not much came of the mutual overtures
as Clinton’s time in office came to an end.
In
his 2002 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush characterized
Iran, Iraq and North Korea as constituting an “Axis of Evil” supporting
terrorism and pursuing weapons of mass destruction, straining relations even
further.
2002: Iran’s nuclear program raises alarm
In
August 2002, an exiled rebel group announced that Iran had been secretly
working on nuclear weapons at two installations that had not previously been
publicly revealed. That was a violation of the terms of the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty, which Iran had signed, requiring countries to disclose
their nuclear-related facilities to international inspectors.
One
of those formerly secret locations, Natanz, housed centrifuges for enriching
uranium, which could be used in civilian nuclear reactors or enriched further
for weapons. Starting in roughly 2005, U.S. and Israeli government
cyberattackers together reportedly targeted the Natanz centrifuges with a
custom-made piece of malicious software that became known as Stuxnet.
That
effort, which slowed down Iran’s nuclear program was one of many U.S. and
international attempts – mostly unsuccessful – to curtail Iran’s progress
toward building a nuclear bomb.
2003: Iran writes to Bush administration
An
excerpt of the document sent from Iran, via the Swiss government, to the U.S.
State Department in 2003, appears to seek talks between the U.S. and Iran. In
May 2003, senior Iranian officials quietly contacted the State Department
through the Swiss embassy in Iran, seeking “a dialogue ‘in mutual respect,’”
addressing four big issues: nuclear weapons, terrorism, Palestinian resistance
and stability in Iraq.
Hardliners
in the Bush administration weren’t interested in any major reconciliation,
though Secretary of State Colin Powell favored dialogue and other officials had
met with Iran about al-Qaida.
When
Iranian hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president of Iran in 2005,
the opportunity died. The following year, Ahmadinejad made his own overture to
Washington in an 18-page letter to President Bush. The letter was widely
dismissed; a senior State Department official told me in profane terms that it
amounted to nothing.
2015: Iran nuclear deal signed
After
a decade of unsuccessful attempts to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the
Obama administration undertook a direct diplomatic approach beginning in 2013. Two
years of secret, direct negotiations initially bilaterally between the U.S. and
Iran and later with other nuclear powers culminated in the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action, often called the Iran nuclear deal.
Iran,
the U.S., China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom signed the deal
in 2015. It severely limited Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium and mandated
that international inspectors monitor and enforce Iran’s compliance with the
agreement.
In
return, Iran was granted relief from international and U.S. economic sanctions.
Though the inspectors regularly certified that Iran was abiding by the
agreement’s terms, President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in May
2018.
2016: United States–Iran naval incident
On
January 12, 2016, two United States Navy riverine command boats were seized by
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy after they entered Iranian
territorial waters near Iran's Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf.
Initially,
the U.S. military claimed the sailors inadvertently entered Iranian waters
owing to mechanical failure, but it was later reported that they entered
Iranian waters because of navigational errors.
U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry called Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif within five minutes, the first of a series of phone calls between the
two. The sailors had a brief verbal exchange with the Iranian military and were
released, unharmed, 15 hours later.
The
release was hailed by the Obama administration as an unintended benefit of the
new diplomatic relationship. Iran released pictures of captured U.S. sailors.
Some U.S. Republican 2016 presidential candidates such as Ted Cruz, Marco
Rubio, and Donald Trump criticized the U.S. response to the detention, which
they deemed too weak.
2020: US drones kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani
On
Jan. 3, 2020, an American drone fired a missile that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem
Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force. Analysts considered Soleimani
the second most powerful man in Iran, after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
At
the time, the Trump administration asserted that Soleimani was directing an
imminent attack against U.S. assets in the region, but officials have not
provided clear evidence to support that claim. Iran responded by launching
ballistic missiles that hit two American bases in Iraq.
2023: The Oct. 7 attacks on Israel
Hamas’
brazen attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, provoked a fearsome militarized
response from Israel that continues today and served to severely weaken Iran’s
proxies in the region, especially Hamas – the perpetrator of the attacks – and
Hezbollah in Lebanon.
2025: Trump 2.0 and Iran
Trump
saw an opportunity to forge a new nuclear deal with Iran and to pursue other
business deals with Tehran. Once inaugurated for his second term, Trump
appointed Steve Witkoff, a real estate investor who is the president’s friend,
to serve as special envoy for the Middle East and to lead negotiations.
Negotiations
for a nuclear deal between Washington and Tehran began in April, but the
countries did not reach a deal. They were planning a new round of talks when
Israel struck Iran with a series of airstrikes on June 13, forcing the White
House to reconsider is position.
On
June 22, in the early morning hours, the U.S. chose to act decisively in an
attempt to cripple Iran’s nuclear capacity, bombing three nuclear sites and
causing what Pentagon officials called “severe damage.” Iran vowed to
retaliate.
