Iran, the US: Ice versus fire in international politics’ world.

Caption) Mỹ và Iran như băng và lửa trên bàn chính trị thế giới, bởi những căng thẳng và xung
đột triền miên hàng thập kỷ giữa hai quốc gia. Và mới đây, tưởng như sự chuyển giao quyền
lực ở Nhà Trắng sẽ mang đến sự hạ nhiệt cho mối quan hệ giữa Iran và Hoa Kì, thì sự thực,
vòng xoáy lo ngại về nguy cơ trả đũa quân sự giữa hai quốc gia, vẫn luôn thường trực. Kể từ
năm 1980 đến nay, Mỹ và Iran, quyết định không thiết lập quan hệ ngoại giao với cả đôi bên,
nghiêm trọng hơn, Pakistan phải phục vụ như là quốc gia đại diện cho Iran ở Hoa Kỳ, ở chiều
ngược lại, Thụy Sĩ thay mặt cho đất nước xứ cờ hoa ở Iran.

  P1( First Cooperation)In fact, two countries were all on good terms in the past, and their
diplomatic relation was initialized in the 1850s, when Shah dispatched Nassereddin Shah Qajar to
Washington in 1856. 1883 was when the US Government appointed Samuel. G.W. Benjamin as the first
diplomat to Iran. Moreover, Iran and the US even had a direct conversation, which was initiated by Amir
Kabir of the Naseeruddin Shah. By the end of the 19 century, Iran put forward the start of the railway
th

from Persian Gulf to Tehran by duly conversations with America’s government.  Furthermore, when Iran
was really watching out of the colonies' benefit of Russia and England in “The Big Game”, they still
regarded the White House’ Parliament as their “Reliable Ally”. Remarkably, American PhD Arthur
Millspaugh and Lawyer Morgan Shuster were promoted to be Administrator-General of Finances and
financial advisors of Iran. In 1944, two countries established their Embassy inside their territories. In
World War II, although being invaded by the allies of the White House: England and Soviet Union, Iran's
government was still in good relationship with the US.

         (P2: Tensions)However, the Iran’s coup d'etat in 1953 has initially set up the conflict background
of the two countries, when the overthrow of the Mohammad Mosaddegh was alleged to have been abetted
by the CIA and the MI6 (SIS, Secret Intelligence Service. Although, there was such an cooperative and
supportive era lasting nearly three decades between the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the US
government, with the whole-hearted assistance of the US to rebuild the Shah’s government, which
explained why Iran used to be the closest ally of the US before “the chosen year”, 1979, but then, the
absolute divergent of the opinions and the political decisions in the 1979 Iran Revolution led to the
irreparable rift in the US- Iran relationship.

         Since 1979, their conflicts have invariably fluctuated. The Iran hostages crisis occurred from
1979 to 1981, initiating when a mob of students overran the US Embassy in Tehran, and took 66
American diplomats and marines hostage. Although the rescue missions failed, eventually, the US and
Iran agreed on a settlement in 1981.

         1980-1988 was a period of the Iran- Iraq war. Fearing that Iran could be able to beat Iraq and set
up complete control in this area, the Reagan administration provided Baghdad with intelligence and arms.
Moreover, despite their condemnation to the Iraqi’s utility of chemical weapons against Iran, they even
went on supporting Shadam Hussein.

         In 1984, The US designated Iran a state sponsor of terrorism and unleashed severe sanctions. The
CIA documented more than 60 Iran-backed attacks against the US, France and moderate Arabs in 1984,
including an attack on the US Embassy in Lebanon.

         1985-1986 was the occurrence of the Iran-Contra affair. Despite a weapon embargo, the Reagan’s
government carried on selling arms to Iran, which was for rescuing the hostage in Lebanon. And the
revenue from the trade was used for establishing the Contra guerrillas against the left-wing Sandinista
Government in Nicaragua, in order to stop the dissemination of socialism in Latin America.
                 From 1992 to 1997, America ramped up its restricting influence on Iran. The Congress
passed the two Act on Iran: Iran-Iraq Arms Nonproliferation Act in 1992, and the Iran-Libya Sanctions
Act, later known as the Iran Sanctions Act, penalizing investments in Iran's petroleum industry. In the mid
1990s, the US President Bill Clinton put forward the executive order that promoted sanctions and
prohibited the exchange of goods and services between the US and Iran.

         P3: Ups and downs. In 2001, after a terrorist attack on Sep 12 , Bush established the back channel
th

with Iran, for fighting against the mutual enemy: the Taliban. 

But in 2002, George.W.Bush included Iran as the “Axis of Evil'' in his State of the Union. Later,
Iran was proved to have enriched uranium, and they confirmed that it was for energy capabilities, not for
arms.

In 2009, Obama took office and told Iran that he would extend a hand if Iran could persuade and
reassume with the West that they were not creating a nuclear bomb. Britain, France and the US believed
that Iran was secretly building a uranium-enrichment site at Fordow, near the city of Qom. However, Iran
said that it opened to the UN nuclear watchdog earlier in the week.

         US and Iranian officials began secret talks, which intensified in 2013, on the nuclear issue. On
Sep 28 , Obama and Rouhani- the new president of Iran spoke by telephone in the highest-level contact
th

between the two countries in three decades.

         On Nov. 23,2013, Iran and six major powers(the US, Britain, France, China, Germany and
Russia) reached an interim pact called the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) under which Iran agreed to curb
its nuclear work in return for limited sanctions relief.

         In 2017, US President Donald Trump made a speech holding Iran responsible for global
extremism in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on his first foreign visit since being the 45 President.
th

         However, in 2018, Trump walked away from the Iran deal and reimposed crippling sanctions. He
also said that the deal did nothing to limit Iran’s ballistic missile program or its regional aggressions.

         In May,2019, exactly one year after Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal, Iran
announced that it would relax some of the curbs the deal imposed on its nuclear program.

On January 3 , 2020, Trump authorized an airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani,
rd

commander of the IRGC’s elite Quds Force, without congressional approval. 

On April 22,2020, Iran launched its first military satellites, prompting U.S. concerns over Iran’s
long-range missile capabilities. Days later, U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US was still
involved in the JCPOA, and would seek to snap back multilateral sanctions against Iran through a
Security Council resolution. 

In October 2020, at the UN Security Council, a U.S- backed resolution to lengthen the embargo
failed, remarking a lack of international help for Washington’s Iran policy and the United States’
diminishing influence.

From October to December of 2020, Trump ramps up his maximum-pressure campaign against
Iran with a flurry of new sanctions targeting entities in the oil and financial sectors and a leading charity,
among others, as well as top officials. 
 Lately, in April 2021, The JCPOA’s signatories hold talks in Vienna aimed at bringing the United
States and Iran back in compliance with the agreement. Each side insisted that the other should be the first
to resume its obligations, and they tried to downplay expectations for immediate progress. And that is all
the line of the history, of one of the most long-term tensions in the history. And in the future, can Iran and
the USA stand in the same opinion, and fix this broken relationship, in the era of international
cooperation?