Washington, Jun 25 (AP) Now comes a new chapter in US-Iran relations, whether for the better or the even worse.
For nearly a half century, the world has witnessed an enmity for the ages — the threats, the plotting, the poisonous rhetoric between the "Great Satan" of Iranian lore and the "Axis of Evil" troublemaker of the Middle East, in America's eyes.
Now we have a US president saying, of all things, "God bless Iran."
This change of tone, however fleeting, came after the intense US bombing of Iranian nuclear-development sites this week, Iran's retaliatory yet restrained attack on a US military base in Qatar and the tentative ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump in the Israel-Iran war.
The US attack on three targets inflicted serious damage but did not destroy them, a US intelligence report found, contradicting Trump's assertion that the attack "obliterated" Iran's nuclear programme.
Here are some questions and answers about the long history of bad blood between the two countries:
Why did Trump offer blessings all around?
In the first blush of a ceasefire agreement, even before Israel and Iran appeared to be fully on board, Trump exulted in the achievement. "God bless Israel," he posted on social media. "God bless Iran." He wished blessings on the Middle East, America and the world, too.
When it became clear that all hostilities had not immediately ceased after all, he took to swearing instead.
"We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the f— they're doing," he said on camera.
In that moment, Trump was especially critical of Israel, the steadfast US ally, for seeming less attached to the pause in fighting than the country that has been shouting "Death to America" for generations and is accused of trying to assassinate him.
Why did US-Iran relations sour in the first place?
In two words, Operation Ajax.
That was the 1953 coup orchestrated by the CIA, with British support, that overthrew Iran's democratically elected government and handed power to the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The Western powers had feared the rise of Soviet influence and the nationalisation of Iran's oil industry.
The shah was a strategic US ally who repaired official relations with Washington. But grievances simmered among Iranians over his autocratic rule and his bowing to America's interests.
All of that boiled over in 1979 when the shah fled the country and the theocratic revolutionaries took control, imposing their own hard line.
How did the Iranian revolution deepen tensions?
Profoundly.
On Nov 4, 1979, with anti-American sentiment at a fever pitch, Iranian students took 66 American diplomats and citizens hostage and held more than 50 of them in captivity for 444 days.
It was a humiliating spectacle for the United States and President Jimmy Carter, who ordered a secret rescue mission months into the Iran hostage crisis. In Operation Eagle Claw, eight Navy helicopters and six Air Force transport planes were sent to rendezvous in the Iranian desert. A sand storm aborted the mission and eight service members died when a helicopter crashed into a C-120 refuelling plane.
Diplomatic ties were severed in 1980 and remain broken.
Iran released the hostages minutes after Ronald Reagan's presidential inauguration on Jan 20, 1981. That was just long enough to ensure that Carter, bogged in the crisis for over a year, would not see them freed in his term.
Was this week's US attack the first against Iran?
No. But the last big one was at sea.
On April 18, 1988, the US Navy sank two Iranian ships, damaged another and destroyed two surveillance platforms in its largest surface engagement since World War II. Operation Praying Mantis was in retaliation against the mining of the USS Samuel B Roberts in the Persian Gulf four days earlier. Ten sailors were injured and the explosion left a gaping hole in the hull.
Did the US take sides in the Iran-Iraq war?
Not officially, but essentially.
The US provided economic aid, intelligence sharing and military-adjacent technology to Iraq, concerned that an Iranian victory would spread instability through the region and strain oil supplies. Iran and Iraq emerged from the 1980-1988 war with no clear victor and the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, while US-Iraq relations fractured spectacularly in the years after.
What was the Iran-Contra affair?
An example of US-Iran cooperation of sorts — an illegal, and secret, one until it wasn't.
Not long after the US designated Iran a state sponsor of terrorism in 1984 — a status that remains — it emerged that America was illicitly selling arms to Iran. One purpose was to win the release of hostages in Lebanon under the control of Iran-backed Hezbollah. The other was to raise secret money for the Contra rebels in Nicaragua in defiance of a US ban on supporting them.
President Ronald Reagan fumbled his way through the scandal but emerged unscathed — legally if not reputationally.
How many nations does the US designate as state sponsors of terrorism?
Only four: Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Syria.
The designation makes those countries the target of broad sanctions. Syria's designation is being reviewed in light of the fall of Bashar Assad's government. (AP) VN
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