U.S.A. vs. Iran

These two countries are nowhere near each other, yet conflict has risen between them. Why?

It all started in 1979, when Iran had a revolution. The government was changed from a monarchy to a parliamentary-democratic interim government, backed by the U.S. A religious leader named Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini opposed the interim government, and staged another revolution. He formed a theocracy, which is a government where the head is a religious figure ruling in the name of God or a god. This government opposed the U.S., and imprisoned 52 American diplomats and citizens. After 444 days (over a year), the Iranian government released them.

Then, in 1980, Iran had a war with Iraq. Iran decided to create nuclear weapons for security. But many countries did not like this new stockpile, and in 2003-2004 Iran agreed to stop its nuclear weapon production. But investigation revealed that Iran kept building them, so in 2006 six countries - U.S.A., Russia, China, U.K., France, and Germany - negotiated with Iran to stop the stockpile. Finally, in 2015, an agreement was reached, and the Joint Comphrensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed by all seven countries.

Iran stopped its nuclear ambitions, but focused instead on regional affairs. The Quds Force - an international branch of the Iranian Armed Forces - has participated in 11-14 conflicts in southwest Asia! That’s a lot. But because of all this involvement, the U.S. called Iran the “foremost state sponsor of terrorism”. 

Iran also started developing ballistic missiles, a missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. This, according to the U.S., violates UN resolution 2231, because the ballistic missiles could be used to deliver nuclear weapons to different areas. The JCPOA did not cover ballistic missiles in its condemnation, and so the U.S. withdrew from the deal in 2018. The U.S. proposed new points for a new agreement, and in the meantime imposed very hard economic sanctions on Iran. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, these sanctions just “emboldened Iranian hardliners.”

Iran started to dismiss the JCPOA, and started building up its nuclear stock, causing tensions to rise between the seven countries. In April 2019, the U.S. designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - the organization in which the Quds Force is in - as a terrorist organization, the first time the U.S. classified a part of another government as such. In July 2019, Iran exceeded the maximum amount of nuclear stockpile the JCPOA allowed, and things have worsened since then, including Iran stating that it might supply Russia with missiles for the Russo-Ukrainian War and the U.S. launching drone attacks.

What will happen in the future? Will Iran cancel its agreement? Will the U.S. stop its attacks? Only time will tell.

For more information on the Russo-Ukrainian War and why it happened, click this link.