In November of 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini declared the United States as “the Great Satan”. Today, 39 years later, a mob of protesters gathered at the Tehran city centre chanting “down with USA”. An unnamed cleric echoed Khomeini’s words, “the American people are different from the state. The Great Satan is the government,” as quoted by CNN. Four decades after the nail-biting hostage crisis at the American Embassy in Tehran, it is clear that the Iranian public have not revised their sentiments concerning America. In the wake of Donald Trump imposing the ‘toughest ever’ sanctions against Iran, here's a look at what exactly may have led to this enduring hate between the two countries.
Surprising as it may seem, there was once a time when Iran was thought of as one of the United States' closest allies. Their relations formally began in 1856 when the Shah of Persia (now Iran), Nassereddin Shah Qajar, officially dispatched Persia's first ambassador to the US, solidifying over the years through the close involvement of Americans like Morgan Shuster, Arthur Millspaugh and Arthur Pope in Iranian affairs.
In 1941, the British and the Soviets removed the Shah from power based on suspicions of Axis leanings, and installed his son, Reza Shah Pahlavi in his place. He was prominently pro-American in his stances and attempted to modernise the country. In 1953, the US involvement in the Iranian coup d'état that deposed Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq (since the US did not take Mossadeq's policy of nationalising Iran's oil reserves kindly) led to the criticism that Washington was overstepping its bounds. Following his reinstatement as leader of Iran with little curbs to his powers, the Shah pursued a closer relationship than ever with the USA. He was invited to the White House several times, and basked in praise by various American presidents. The USA funnelled more than $1 billion into the Iranian economy over the next decade, and played a crucial role in maintaining the ruthless secret police known as the SAVAK. In a wonderful twist of irony, it was the USA that kickstarted the very nuclear programme in Iran, that they struggle to crack down today, by providing Iran their first nuclear reactor in 1957. Three of Iran’s top universities were inspired by premier American institutions like MIT and University of Pennsylvania—leading to American influence in the education sphere as well. The Shah’s attempted reforms through the White Revolution of 1963 were received with appreciation in the Western hemisphere, but back home, many Iranians were angered at the spread and perceived domination of Western culture over theirs. The conservatives and the clerics were some of the most disgruntled—chief among them was Ayatollah Khomeini. Trouble in paradise escalated when protests were met with extreme violence and the exile of the Ayatollah. Finally, the Shah was overthrown in 1979 and was forced to seek asylum in America, signalling the first nail on the coffin of US-Iran relations. The final straw was during the aftermath of Khomeini’s revolution, when Iranian students stormed the American embassy in Tehran and held 63 diplomats hostage for a harrowing 444 days. Due to this incident, the Carter administration severed diplomatic relations with Iran in 1980, and the situation has not changed till now—neither country has a separate embassy on each other’s land (Pakistan and Switzerland are protecting powers for Iran and the USA respectively). The hostage crisis invoked irreparable damage to the relationship between the previous allies. On the way through the timeline, there are various other incidents that served to further the rift between the two nations—the USA backing the Iraqi side for the Iran-Iraq war, several terrorist attacks attributed to the allegedly Iranian Hezbollah, the Iran-Contra Affair, Operation Praying Mantis launched by the US against Iran, the occasional (read frequent) air surveillance by the US in Iranian airspace. The sanctions imposed by President Clinton in 1995 were continuously renewed till Obama lifted them in the historic nuclear agreement of 2015. That was before Trump came along, of course.
The diplomatic relationship between the US and Iran is projected to become progressively worse under the Trump administration. President Trump has done his best to (rather successfully) undo any goodwill that had been built between the countries by the Obama administration. In his controversial order to ban citizens from certain countries from immigrating into the US, Iranians were included as well. May of 2018 saw Trump pulling America out of Obama’s historic Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, months after calling it ‘the worst deal ever negotiated’ during his campaign. Iran’s resolute anti-Israel stance and Trump’s aggressive pro-Israel one is another bone of contention, with Iran refusing to even acknowledge the existence of the Jewish state. In August this year, supreme leader Khameini of Iran banned all direct talks with the US, leaving little room for negotiation or verbal settling of any issues in the near future. And now, all previously removed sanctions have been re-imposed on Iran by the Trump administration, putting pressure on several other countries to search elsewhere for their oil needs.
Considering their turbulent history, all that remains is to watch how these two will play out their relationship in the amphitheatre of global politics. One slight glitch though—it is the audience that may inadvertently suffer the collateral damage in the process.
