EXPLAINER
Iran stays the US’s adversary within the Center East because the 1979 Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
United States-Iran tensions have surged to the very best level in many years after President Donald Trump on Sunday ordered direct strikes that he stated “obliterated” key nuclear services throughout the Center Jap nation.
Iran stays the largest adversary of the US within the area because the 1979 Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini toppled pro-Western Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Since then, the 2 nations have sparred over a large number of points, together with Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Iran’s backing of proxies within the area, and US political interference.
Israel, which has lengthy thought of Iran a risk, launched unprecedented strikes throughout Iran final week after accusing the nation of growing nuclear weapons. Israeli claims haven’t been backed by any credible proof, however Trump dragged the US into the warfare following the Israeli strikes.
On Sunday, the US immediately hit Iran in what the Trump administration referred to as a extremely refined covert assault that concerned greater than 125 US plane and 75 precision bombs. Washington stated it “devastated” Iran’s nuclear websites, however Tehran has warned it would retaliate.
Right here’s a timeline of US-Iran relations since 1953:
- (1953) US-backed coup and reinstallation of the shah: Tensions initially started brewing over the democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh’s efforts to nationalise the Anglo-Iranian Oil Firm (now BP). The British colonial energy managed the bulk stake within the joint-venture firm since oil was found within the early 1900s. Mosaddegh’s strikes to nationalise the corporate after his 1951 election angered the British. The US’s Central Intelligence Company supported the UK in engineering a coup and backing once-deposed monarch, Pahlavi, again into energy as shah.
- (1957) Atoms for Peace: The shah’s ambitions for a nuclear-powered Iran gained help from the US and different Western allies. Each international locations signed a nuclear settlement for the civilian use of nuclear energy as a part of then-US President Dwight D Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace programme. A decade later, the US supplied Iran with a nuclear reactor and uranium to gasoline it. The nuclear collaboration types the idea for the present nuclear query.
- (1979) Islamic revolution: Whereas relations between Tehran and Washington flourished, Iranians groaned beneath the dictatorship of the shah and resisted the perceived overreach of Western affect on their enterprise. Revolutionary protests started rocking the nation in late 1978 and compelled the shah to flee in January 1979. Exiled Islamic scholar Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to rule the brand new Islamic republic.
- (1980) US cuts diplomatic ties: Following the US’s transfer to confess the shah for most cancers therapy after his exile, Iranian college students broke into the US embassy in Tehran and kidnapped 52 Individuals for 444 days. Washington reduce off diplomatic ties and imposed sanctions on the nation. The shah died in exile.
- (1980-88) US backs Iraqi invasion: Following Iraq’s invasion of Iran beneath Saddam Hussein, who was wanting to push again in opposition to Khomeini’s ideology, the US sided with Iraq, deepening tensions between the 2 nations. The warfare lasted until 1988 and noticed hundreds die on either side. Iraq additionally used chemical weapons on Iran.
- (1984) Sponsor of terror designation: President Ronald Reagan formally designated Iran as a “state sponsor of terror” after a sequence of assaults in Lebanon, the place the US had been drawn in after Israel invaded the nation. In a single assault on a army base in Beirut, 241 US service members had been killed. The US blamed Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia motion backed by Iran. Later, although, Reagan labored with Iran behind the scenes to free American hostages held by Hezbollah. When it got here to mild, the Iran-Contra affair, because it was termed, was an enormous scandal for Reagan.
- (1988) Iran Air flight shot down: Amid warfare tensions and even direct assaults on one another’s army warships within the Gulf, a US naval ship breached Iranian waters and fired on the civilian Iran Air flight (IR655) headed to Dubai on July 8. All 290 individuals on board had been killed. The US, which claimed it was a mistake, didn’t formally apologise or declare accountability however paid households $61.8m as compensation.
- (1995) Tighter sanctions: Between 1995 and 1996, the US imposed extra sanctions. Then, President Invoice Clinton’s govt orders banned US corporations from coping with Iran, whereas Congress handed a regulation penalising international entities investing within the nation’s power sector or promoting Iran superior weapons. The US cited nuclear development and help of teams like Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
- (2002) 9/11 aftermath: Following the 9/11 assaults on the US, President George W Bush, in a State of the Union tackle, stated Iran was a part of an “Axis of Evil” alongside Iraq and North Korea. On the time, Iran had been parlaying with the US behind the scenes to focus on their mutual foes – the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda. The cooperation was soured, and by the tip of 2022, worldwide observers famous extremely enriched uranium in Iran, inviting extra sanctions.
- (2013) Iran nuclear deal: Between 2013 and 2015, US President Barack Obama started high-level talks with Iran. In 2015, Tehran agreed to the nuclear deal, formally often known as the Joint Complete Plan of Motion (JCPOA), that might restrict Iran’s nuclear actions in trade for an easing of sanctions. China, Russia, France, Germany, the UK and the European Union had been additionally get together to the deal that capped Iran’s enrichment at 3.67 %.
- (2018) Trump withdraws from the nuclear deal: Beneath Trump’s first time period, the US unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018 and slapped again sanctions in opposition to Iran. Trump and Israel had been vital of the deal. Iran additionally referred to as off its commitments and started producing enriched uranium past the boundaries the deal had imposed.
- (2020) IRGC chief assassinated: Throughout Trump’s first time period, the US killed Iranian Basic Qassem Soleimani, the pinnacle of the elite Quds Drive of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in Baghdad in a drone strike. A yr earlier, the administration had named the Quds Drive a “terrorist” organisation. Iran responded with strikes on US belongings in Iraq.
- (2025) Letter to Tehran: In March, Trump shot off a letter to Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposing new negotiations on a nuclear cope with a deadline of 60 days. However Khamenei rejected the supply, saying the US will not be searching for negotiations with Iran however somewhat imposing calls for on it. Talks began unofficially in Oman and Italy, with Muscat performing because the mediator. Trump claimed his workforce was “very shut” to a deal after a number of rounds of talks and warned Israel in opposition to strikes. Tehran, too, expressed optimism however insisted on the fitting to complement uranium – a sticking level within the talks. Israel launched strikes throughout Iran a day earlier than the sixth spherical of the Iran-US talks.
- (2025) US strikes: The US bombed three key nuclear services in Iran, citing safety issues and the defence of Israel.
