President Nixon, who had first met the Shah in 1953, regarded him as a modernizing anticommunist statesman who deserved American support now that the British were withdrawing from the region.
The Johnson administration continued the Kennedy administration's support for Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi of Iran and its emphasis on buttressing Iran's internal security by encouraging a far-reaching program of political, social, and economic reform—the Shah's so-called “White Revolution.” U.S. policymakers, who agreed ...
Judging Mosaddegh to be unamenable and fearing the growing influence of the communist Tudeh, UK prime minister Winston Churchill and the Eisenhower administration decided in early 1953 to overthrow Iran's government.
[T]he United States actively supported the Iraqi war effort by supplying the Iraqis with billions of dollars of credits, by providing U.S. military intelligence and advice to the Iraqis, and by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq to make sure that Iraq had the military weaponry required.
According to the report, in turn, Carter and his administration helped Khomeini and made sure that the Imperial Iranian army would not launch a military coup.
The Shah received significant American support during his reign. He frequently made state visits to the White House, and received praise from numerous American presidents. The Shah's close ties to Washington and his modernization policies soon angered some Iranians, especially the hardcore Islamic conservatives.
As a result of the Iranian takeover of the American Embassy on November 4, 1979, the United States and Iran severed diplomatic relations in April 1980. The United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran have had no formal diplomatic relationship since that date.
Between 1981 and 1986, senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras, a right-wing rebel group, in Nicaragua.
Iraq War Resolution
Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, and programs to develop such weapons, posed a "threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region". Iraq's "brutal repression of its civilian population".
Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage after a group of militarized Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took them as hostages.
The post-revolutionary leader—Shia cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini—first came to political prominence in 1963 when he led opposition to the Shah and his White Revolution.
Khomeini called for the shah's immediate overthrow, and on December 11 a group of soldiers mutinied and attacked the shah's security officers. With that, his regime collapsed and the shah fled.
Shah (/ʃɑː/; Persian: شاه, Šâh [ʃɒːh], lit. 'king') is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.
In 1976, the Shah's government angered pious Iranian Muslims by changing the first year of the Iranian solar calendar from the Islamic hijri to the ascension to the throne by Cyrus the Great.
There are many claims that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has repeatedly intervened in the internal affairs of Iran, from the Mossadegh coup of 1953 to the present time. The CIA is said to have collaborated with the last Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Nevertheless, Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel as a sovereign state after Turkey. After the 1953 coup d'état, which reinstalled the pro-Western leader Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as the Shah of Iran, relations between the two countries significantly improved.
The United States imported an average of 311,000 barrels of petroleum per day from Iraq in 2022.
As of July 19, 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Defense casualty website, there were 4,431 total deaths (including both killed in action and non-hostile) and 31,994 wounded in action (WIA) as a result of the Iraq War.
Iran and Iraq are very close allies supporting each other against the Islamic State. The relationship between the two countries is strong in part due to the fact that both governments operate on a Shi'ite system of governance.
After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the United States ended its economic and diplomatic ties with Iran, banned Iranian oil imports and froze approximately 11 billion 1980-US dollars of its assets. Many of the assets were then unfrozen in 1981 after the Algiers Accords were signed and the hostage crisis ended.
Yaakov Nimrodi, who was Israel's military attache in Tehran from 1955 to 1979, similarly in July 1981 signed an arms deal with Iran's Ministry of National Defense. Nimrodi agreed to sell to Iran $136 million worth of arms, including Lance missiles, Copperhead shells and Hawk missiles.
The U.S. provided more than half of the weapons purchased by 13 of the top 17 arms importers, with Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia buying the most from the U.S. The world's top arms importer, India, reduced its purchases of Russian weaponry by 37% from 2018-2022 vs.
It is a founding member of the United Nations, the ECO, the OIC, and the OPEC. It has large reserves of fossil fuels—including the second largest natural gas supply and the third-largest proven oil reserves. The country's rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 26 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
In 2023, the Biden administration condemned Iran for advancing its nuclear program, supporting Russia in the war against Ukraine, cracking down on protesters, and backing militant proxies across the Middle East. Officials lauded the Iranian people, who faced suppression and intimidation from the regime.
Syria and Iran are strategic allies. Syria is often called Iran's "closest ally", the Arab nationalism ideology of Syria's ruling Baath party notwithstanding.