The history of US-Iran tensions
The United States President Donald Trump launched direct airstrikes targeting Iran’s main nuclear sites on Saturday, joining Israel’s war with Tehran in a flashpoint moment for the Middle East. This marked the first time since the Iranian revolution in 1979 that the US has deployed assets to target major facilities in the country.
Iran denounced the US attacks as “lawless and criminal”, warning of “everlasting consequences” for which it said the US would be held fully responsible.
In retaliation, Iran’s parliament voted to close the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway through which approximately 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas supply passes.
Global attention has now turned to Iran, with observers questioning whether it will escalate the conflict by targeting US interests, or heed President Trump’s call to negotiate — an offer which in practice means giving up all nuclear enrichment plans in Iran.
Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Dr Reza Amiri Moghadam has warned that Tehran could retaliate by striking US facilities and bases in the region in response to US strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites. Addressing reporters at the National Press Club on Sunday, he stated that Iran was already prepared to fight a “long war” against Israel.
The Washington-directed strikes mark a new high in US-Iran tensions, which have been simmering for over a decade. The roots of their strained relationship lie in longstanding disputes, including US political interference in Iran, control over the country’s oil resources, Iran’s pursuit of nuclear power, and both nations’ expanding influence in the Middle East.
The following is a timeline of the US-Iran tensions since the 1950s.
1951
Tensions began in 1951 with the appointment of Mohammad Mossadegh as prime minister. Since the early 1900s, the British had controlled Iran’s oil through the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, according to CNN. By the time Mossadegh came to power, Iranians’ sentiments and voice to regain control of their resources grew louder. Mossadegh’s push to nationalise the company, backed by growing public support, angered the British.
1953
The US spy agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in coordination with the UK, engineered a coup to overthrow Iran’s democratically-elected prime minister, Mossadegh, and bring the once-deposed Western-friendly monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, to rule as the Shah of Iran. The foreign interference sparked deep resentment and fuelled lasting anti-American sentiment in Iran.
1954
Under US and UK pressure, Pahlavi signed the Consortium Agreement of 1954, which gave US, British, and French oil companies 40 per cent ownership of the nationalised oil industry for twenty-five years.
1957
Under US President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” initiative, Pahlavi signed a nuclear agreement with the US, Cooperation Concerning Civil Uses of Atoms —aimed at sharing nuclear technology with developing countries. This laid the foundation for the Iran’s nuclear programme, with the US later supplying a reactor and weapons-grade enriched uranium fuel until 1979 Iranian revolution.
1960
Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela establish the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to challenge Western dominance over global oil and reclaim control of their reserves. By the 1970s, OPEC’s soaring profits gave it significant leverage over Western economies, making Iran an increasingly vital US ally.
1972
President Richard Nixon travelled to Iran to ask the Pahlavi for help protecting US security interests in the Middle East, including by opposing a Soviet-allied Iraq. In return, Nixon promised that Iran could buy any non-nuclear weapons system it wanted.
1979
While US-Iran relations strengthened, many Iranians resisted Western influence. Secular protesters opposed the Shah’s authoritarian rule, while Islamists rejected his modernisation agenda. Widespread unrest eventually forced the Shah to flee to the US, paving the way for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s return from 14 years of exile to lead the newly formed Islamic Republic.
1980
Following the Shah’s departure, Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. They demanded the Shah’s extradition to stand trial for “crimes against the Iranian people.” The hostages were released under the the Algiers Accords, signed minutes after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration in 1981. As part of the deal, the US pledged non-intervention in Iranian politics. In response, Washington severed diplomatic ties and imposed sanctions. Pahlavi died in exile.
1980 - 1988
The bad blood between both countries got worse when the US backed Iraq with economic aid, training, and dual-use technology when Iraq’s Saddam Hussein decided to invade Iran, eager to push back against Khomeini’s ideology. Qasem Soleimani, who had joined the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps by this time, fought on the frontlines of this war.
1983
US barracks housing was attacked in Lebanon, killing 241 military personnel, which led to the withdrawal of US Marine troops from Lebanon. Hezbollah, a shia group supported by Iran, took responsibility for the attack.
1984
Reagan officially designated Iran as a “state sponsor of terror” after a series of attacks in Lebanon. Reagan’s government covertly continued to look into ways to mend relationships with Iran in hopes of the return of Americans held hostage by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
1988
After an Iranian mine nearly sank an American frigate in the Strait of Hormuz, the US Navy launched a retaliatory campaign called Operation Praying Mantis, destroying two Iranian oil platforms and sinking a frigate.
In July, a US naval ship breached Iranian waters and fired at the civilian Iran Air flight (IR655) headed to Dubai on July 8. All 290 people on board were killed. The US, which claimed it was a mistake, did not formally apologise or claim responsibility but paid families $61.8m as compensation.
1992 -1996
The US tightened sanctions against Iran. In 1992, Congress passed the Iran-Iraq Arms Nonproliferation Act, which sanctions materials that could be used to develop advanced weaponry. The White House expanded sanctions with a complete oil and trade embargo in 1995. By 1996, the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act imposes an embargo against non-American companies investing more than $20 million per year in Iran’s oil and gas sectors.
2002
Post 9/11 attacks on the US, President George Bush declared Iran as a part of “Axis of Evil” alongside Iraq and North Korea, despite taking help from Iran in defeating a common enemy, the Taliban.
2003
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced traces of highly-enriched uranium at a nuclear plant in Iran. Tehran agreed to suspend production of enriched uranium; however, it restarted with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
2006
Ahmadinejad sent an eighteen-page letter to Bush seeking an ease US-Iran nuclear tensions, but Iran took no steps to slow its uranium enrichment programme, which it said was for civilian energy production.
2013
Between 2013-2015, US President Barack Obama began high-level talks with newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, which resulted in a nuclear deal Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), that would limit Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for an easing of sanctions.
2017
President Donald Trump took office and immediately banned nationals from seven Muslim-majority nations, including Iran, from entering the US for 90 days. Iran called the ban “an obvious insult to the Islamic world” and responded by conducting a ballistic missile test, which re-escalated tensions between the two countries.
2018
Under Trump’s first term, the US unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018 and slapped back sanctions against Iran to place “maximum pressure”. Iran responded by boosting uranium enrichment in defiance of the agreement’s terms
2020
Trump designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—a branch of the Iranian army—a “foreign terrorist organisation” (FTO) in 2019. By 2020, the US killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s IRGC, in Baghdad in a drone strike.
2021
Talks restarted under President Joe Biden as he tried to revive the nuclear deal. The talks continue despite an apparent explosion at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility. Iran blamed the explosion on Israel and announced it will ramp up uranium enrichment to 60pc purity.
In the same year, Iran’s new president Ebrahim Raisi stalled the nuclear talks and maintained a much harder line stance than his predecessors.
2023
Five Americans were freed from Iranian detention as part of a wider deal that included the US unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian funds held in South Korea and the release of five Iranians from US custody.
After the release, the US imposed sanctions on Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and former President Ahmadinejad over the lack of information about another American, Bob Levinson, who is believed to have died while detained in Iran.
2025
Trump came back to office, reinstating his “maximum pressure” campaign. In March, he sent a letter to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, proposing new negotiations on the nuclear deal with a deadline of 60 days. Khomeini rejected the letter, saying that the US was threatening and imposing demands instead of seeking negotiations. He made it clear that Tehran would not come under the “bully pressure.”
Talks followed in Oman and Italy with Muscat being the negotiator. Trump claimed his team was “very close” to a deal after several rounds of talks. Tehran, too, expressed optimism but insisted on the right to enrich uranium — a sticking point in the talks. Israel launched strikes across Iran a day before the sixth round of the Iran-US talks.
On June 22, the US launched direct airstrikes on three nuclear facilities of Iran.
Header Image: A staff member removes the Iranian flag from the stage after a group picture with foreign ministers and representatives of the US, Iran, China, Russia, Britain, Germany, France and the European Union during Iran nuclear talks at the Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria in July 14, 2015. — Reuters