History of US-Iran Conflict
History of US-Iran conflict
The United states and Iran are
again at each other's throats, and the world is watching this fight with a mix
of surprise and fear. Countries that want healthy relations with both sides are
dreadfully confused on how to react, because they fear the wrath of the Giant
super power, if they showed any sympathy towards Iran. The most asked question,
especially by the younger generation is, where did it all start? This and many
other such questions can only be answered by looking back at the history of these two countries with each other, and that is
what we will do today in this article.
 |
| courtesy: Google |
Start of US-Iran tensions
In
1951, Musaddegh became
the prime minister of Iran. There was an Anglo-Iran deal made in 1914,
according to which Iran had only 51% share in its own oil. Mussadegh
wanted that deal gone and wanted all the money that came from their oil
to stay
in Iran. This thought was not welcomed by the west, and as a result,
Mussadegh made some very powerful enemies. CIA and MI6 orchestrated a
successful coup against him and he was forced to leave the country. The
power came back in the
Hands of the Shah of Iran, who was seen to be a pro-western ruler at
that time. He introduced a lot of liberal reforms, which boosted Iran's
economy with a
great pace. Some of his reforms, for example those related to the women
rights, were too liberal for the conservatives living in Iran. He called
it the
"White revolution". By 1978, Shah became very stronger and same was
the case with the Iranian economy, but him being too powerful, made some
very powerful people in the
west seemingly upset. It was then when Ayatullah Khumaini, then living
in
exile, started sending taps to his conservative supporters, telling them
to
standup for an Islamic revolution. It soon became a very powerful
uprising and
Shah called his friends in the west for help, but no one came to his
rescue. He
was forced to leave Iran in the January of 1979. The following month
Khumaini came
back to Iran after spending 14 years in exile to become the new leader
of Iran.
US-Iran conflict after the Islamic Revolution
This soon turned out to be the
start of a new era of US-Iran conflict. In November of 1979 the Islamic
militants of Iran stormed the American embassy and took 52 US citizens hostages,
this marked a new historic low in the relations between the two states.
Then came the Gulf war between
Iran and Iraq in which the US openly sided with Iraq. From 1980, when this war
started around 1.6 million precious lives were lost on both sides, until it finally ended in
1988. This worsened the US-Iran conflict many folds. Meanwhile, in 1981 when
Regan was elected president, the 52 US hostages were released by
Iran.
In
1988, the US shot down Iranian
Air bus killing 290 people onboard, including 66 children. This made
Iran more
hostile towards the US. The US called it an accident, which to Iran, was
not an
acceptable explanation at all. Iran did not take any revenge but this
widened the void of hostility between the two countries. This
environment
of hostility continued for the years to come. In 1995, President Clinton
imposed sanctions on Iran limiting its trade. In January 2002,
President Bush called Iran "the
axis of evil", which shows that the US-Iran rift was far from being over
even in
the 21st Century; from 2006 to 2010, the US imposed four rounds of
sanctions against Iran. This hit the Iranian Economy where it hurt the
most; and consequently, in 2012,
Iranian currency lost a whopping 80% of its value since 2011.
In
July 2015, President Obama
struck a historic nuclear deal with Iran also known as JCPOA, according
to
which Iran was to receive 150 billion US Dollars in which 1.8 billion
were paid
in cash. Iran's end of the deal was to limit its Uranium enrichment to
the agreed levels of safe use. This was
seen as a big leap forward in US-Iran relations, but this warmth in ties
between the two could not stand the chilly winds that blew once Donald
Trump was elected president of the United States.
Iran and the Trump administration
US-Iran
relations can be described
as a complete nightmare after Trump has been elected into the Oval
office.
Trump had promised during his campaign that, if elected, he would
withdraw from the Iran
nuclear deal. He delivered on his promise on May 8th 2018 by pulling the
US out of the Nuclear deal. Trump has turned out to be the most
anti-Iran
president in recent history. On August 07, 2018, he imposed new
sanctions
against Iran further weakening the already beleaguered economy of the
Islamic
republic. Iran in response said it will not hold its end of the bargain
and
will start working on its nuclear program again. In July
2019 Iran confirmed that it has surpassed the allowable limit of the
stockpile of
enriched Uranium. This further complicated the situation and thus
worsening the
relations between the two states even further.
In
the last week of December, the
situation started to slip out of hands when a US defense contractor was
killed in Iraq.
The US blamed Iran backed Militia for it and killed 25 people in an
attack on one such militia. The same week some violent protesters
stormed the US embassy in
Baghdad which was again blamed on Iran. This prompted an unprecedented
retaliation from the US when it killed a senior General of the Iranian
forces and the head of Al-Quds
guards, General Qassim Soleimani. General Soleimani was seen as a very
patriotic figure in Iran and was said to be the second most popular
person in
the country after the supreme leader of Iran. This escalated the
situation to a
very dangerous point; Iran threatened the US of serious consequences.
They
attacked US bases in Iraq with missiles but fortunately for the US,
there were
no casualties. President Trump, on January 08, slapped more sanctions on
Iran
and said the US want peace with Iran but Iran will have to reciprocate
the gesture.
Good
ReplyDelete❤️
ReplyDelete