Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran and America’s relations have become tense and hostile. The two countries stand against each other and, despite the efforts made to establish a relationship again, efforts have been fruitless.
It is safe to say that the level of inflammation we witnessed during Donald Trump’s presidency was unprecedented in contemporary Iranian history. Economic sanctions against Iran, the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, and the devaluation of the currency in Iran have led even Iranians to watch the US election and wait for who will become president and what changes will take place globally, including in relations between Iran and America.
But what level could these changes be at and what differences would there be between Biden, a member of the Democratic Party, and Trump? Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, in his last speech that was broadcast on Iranian television said that no matter which president is chosen in the US, it will have no impact on relations between the two countries.
To better understand the relationship between the two countries, it might be a good idea to take a look back and look at different periods of US Democratic and Republican presidents regarding Iran over the past hundred years.
After the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939, Iran declared its neutrality, but this neutrality was unstable due to the widening border between Iran and the Soviet Union, and of course the Soviet conflict with Germany. The Allied army occupied Iran under the pretext of the presence of German experts. Reza Shah asked Franklin Roosevelt of the Democratic Party for help, but his calls went unanswered.
This disregard led to the overthrow of Reza Shah and his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, succeeded him and became the Shah of Iran. Although the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union recognized Iran’s independence during the Tehran Conference, a few years later, after the end of World War II, Stalin refused to allow the Red Army to leave Iran. Iran was forced to appeal to the UN Security Council, and the US President Henry Truman backed Iran. Stalin’s fears of a military confrontation with the United States, then the only country with an atomic bomb, eventually forced the Soviet Union to withdraw from Iran.
A few years later, during the Republican presidency of Eisenhower, Iran took steps to nationalize oil. Operation AJAX is one of the most controversial events in the contemporary history of Iran, which took place at that time and caused people to have a pessimistic view of the United States and accuse it of interfering in Iran’s internal affairs.
US intervention led to the establishment of the Shah and the overthrow of Mosaddegh’s government. If Mosaddegh had won, Iran would have embarked on a new political, economic, and cultural path that would never have led to the Islamic Republic. Years later, Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State in the Bill Clinton administration, regretted Operation AJAX and accepted all steps taken by the United States to overthrow Mosaddegh.
When Kennedy came to the presidency from the Democratic Party, he forced the Shah to make sweeping reforms across the country. These reforms in Iran are known as the White Revolution or the Shah and People Revolution, which is related to a series of economic and social changes. Some believe that Kennedy did not play a role in these reforms, and that the Shah had already intended to make the changes. In any case, these changes coincided with Kennedy’s presidency.
After the assassination of Kennedy and the inauguration of Republican Richard Nixon, the United States sought to strengthen its economic, military, and political allies in the region instead of directly engaging its forces in regional conflicts to protect its interests. The militarization of countries aligned with the United States and at the same time helping these countries to develop economically was on the agenda. One third of US arms exports went to Iran.
After 30 years, the US National Security Archive released documents on January 14, 2008 showing that Ford, a Republican, and Carter, a Democrat, were concerned that Iran might acquire a nuclear bomb. These documents show that the Shah considered the acquisition of nuclear energy technology a right of the Iranians. The tensions between Iran and the West, as well as the revolutionary whispers that were heard in the country, caused the Shah to leave Iran and Khomeini to return from Nouvel Loussatou of France.
During the years leading up to the revolution, Khomeini and the United States repeatedly contacted each other with the help of Iranian and French intermediaries, but this contact changed after the Iran hostage crisis. The seizure of the US embassy led to sanctions against Iran and political relations between Iran and the United States were completely damaged. The Carter administration threatened to launch a military strike on Iran. The war between Iran and the United States never took place, but instead Iraq invaded Iran and this war lasted eight years. About 200,000 Iranians were killed in this war.
The Republican administration of Ronald Reagan sought to enter into negotiations with Iran, and in particular took steps to rescue American hostages in Lebanon, and senior US officials came to Iran. Iranian extremists opposed to US-Iranian relations have released information about McFarlane’s secret trip to Tehran. During the investigation, it was revealed that members of the Reagan administration had illegally provided profits from arms sales to Iran to the Contra. Contra was a right-wing militant group that the US Congress had banned from supporting. This is how the Iran-Contra controversy happened.
It is safe to say that under Obama, effective steps could have been taken to establish political and economic relations between Iran and the United States but unfortunately, after Trump came to power, all efforts were thwarted. In the Obama administration, in various ways, Iran sat at the negotiating table directly with the United States and its allies. Sanctions were imposed on Iran during this period, but the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was an opportunity that could greatly help improve the situation for Iranians.
One of the first things Trump did was pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and imposed tough sanctions on Iran, which discouraged Iranians and affected the economic situation of many families. He did not stop there and, like George W. Bush, repeatedly threatened Iran with military action, eventually killing one of Iran’s officials, Qassem Soleimani, in Iraq. In a series of tweets, Trump declared that Soleimani was a terrorist and considered his assassination one of his government’s honors, but Soleimani was a reasonably popular figure in Iran. His death caused many Iranian extremists to take a stand against the United States and consider it useless to establish relations with the United States.
Trump has previously said that Iran would be forced to negotiate if he won the election. It is clear that Biden’s victory will not change US foreign policy on Iran suddenly, because, as we know from the past, all US presidents have taken steps in the interests of their country. The question is how any demands led to more tensions between the two countries and how they helped to improve the situation peacefully.
Image credit: Gage Skidmore