The United States & Iran

The Coup of 1953

Iran's modern grievance with the United States begins in 1953. In 1951 Iran's parliament had elected Mohammad Mosaddegh as prime minister after he nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which Britain had controlled for decades. The British government lost its chief revenue source and set out to remove him.

Working with U.S. intelligence, Britain's MI6 planned a coup. In August 1953 the CIA and MI6 carried it out under the code name Operation Ajax, paying Iranian operatives and agents to destabilize the Mosaddegh government. The coup restored the monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who returned from exile and ruled as an increasingly autocratic ally of Washington for the next quarter-century. The United States obtained a share of Iranian oil for American companies as part of the settlement.

For decades Washington officially denied involvement. In 2013, the CIA formally acknowledged in a public document that the agency had helped organize the coup and had proposed it to U.S. officials. The 1953 overthrow is widely regarded in Iran — and by many historians — as the founding trauma of the U.S.–Iran relationship, and it is still cited by Iranian leaders as the reason Washington cannot be trusted.

Revolution and the Hostage Crisis (1979–1981)

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 overthrew the Shah and brought the cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. The new government was deeply anti-American, seeing Washington as the guarantor of the monarchy it had just toppled.

In October 1979, President Jimmy Carter admitted the deposed Shah to the United States for medical treatment. In Tehran, hardline students reacted with fury. On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy compound and took American diplomats and staff hostage. Sixty-six Americans were seized; thirteen were released within weeks, leaving fifty-two hostages held for 444 days. The hostage takers' demands included the Shah's extradition for trial.

The Carter administration froze Iranian assets and, on April 7, 1980, broke diplomatic relations with Iran. The hostages were finally released on January 20, 1981, minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president, under an agreement brokered largely by Algeria. The crisis poisoned American opinion of Iran for a generation and contributed to Carter's defeat.

Operation Eagle Claw (1980)

In April 1980, President Carter authorized a military rescue of the hostages. Operation Eagle Claw was a complex mission built on a rendezvous of U.S. aircraft and special-operations forces at a remote desert staging site in eastern Iran codenamed Desert One.

On the night of April 24–25, 1980, the mission collapsed. A sudden sandstorm caused failures in several RH-53 helicopters, forcing the commander to abort. During the withdrawal, one helicopter collided with a refueling aircraft on the ground. The explosion killed eight U.S. servicemen and destroyed equipment. The failure humiliated the United States, helped seal Carter's political fate, and led directly to the creation of a unified special-operations command, USSOCOM, in 1987.

Iran–Iraq War, Iran-Contra, and the Tanker War (1980–1988)

On September 22, 1980, Iraq invaded Iran, beginning an eight-year war that killed hundreds of thousands. The United States stayed publicly neutral but tilted toward Iraq, fearing an Iranian revolutionary expansion; Washington later provided intelligence and, by some accounts, other support to Saddam Hussein's Baghdad.

In 1984, the State Department designated Iran a state sponsor of terrorism, a designation that remains in force today.

The Iran-Contra affair was the Reagan administration's secret contradiction of its own policy. In 1985–86, senior U.S. officials authorized covert arms sales to Iran — then under a U.S. arms embargo — in exchange for help freeing American hostages in Lebanon. Profits from the sales were diverted to fund the Nicaraguan Contras, whose support Congress had cut. The scheme became public in November 1986 and nearly destroyed the Reagan presidency. A U.S. president was impeached over it decades later; fourteen administration figures were charged in the affair, and six were pardoned by President George H.W. Bush before trial.

By 1987, the Iran–Iraq war had spread into the Persian Gulf, with Iran attacking shipping and Kuwait reflagging its tankers under the American flag for protection. The U.S. Navy began escorting reflagged tankers, a mission that drew it directly into the Tanker War. In October 1987, EO 12613 imposed a comprehensive U.S. import ban on Iranian goods.

Praying Mantis and the Downing of Iran Air 655 (1988)

On April 14, 1988, the guided-missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts struck an Iranian mine that blew a large hole in her hull and nearly sank her. Ten sailors were injured. The Navy's response was the largest U.S. surface action since the Second World War.

Operation Praying Mantis, on April 18, 1988, was a coordinated strike: U.S. warships sank an Iranian frigate and a missile boat, and helicopter and naval fire destroyed two Iranian oil platforms used as bases for attacks on shipping.

Months later came one of the darkest incidents of the confrontation. On July 3, 1988, the cruiser USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655, a civilian airliner on a scheduled run to Dubai, killing all 290 people aboard, including 66 children. The United States said the crew mistook the airliner for an attacking Iranian fighter; Iran called it murder. Washington paid $61.8 million in compensation to the families in 1996 but never formally apologized. Days later, Iran accepted the ceasefire that ended the Iran–Iraq War — a decision many analysts attributed, in part, to the twin blows of Praying Mantis and the airliner shootdown.

The 1990s: Economic Siege

After the 1991 Gulf War, Washington's policy toward Iran hardened into comprehensive economic isolation. In March 1995, President Bill Clinton approved a $1 billion deal allowing the U.S. company Conoco to develop Iranian oil fields — then reversed course within days under political pressure and instead issued Executive Orders 12957 and 12959, prohibiting U.S. trade and investment with Iran.

In 1996, Congress passed the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA), threatening penalties against foreign companies that invested more than $40 million a year in Iran's energy sector — an attempt to pressure third countries to join the embargo. EO 13059 (1997) consolidated and tightened the U.S. trade ban.

By the end of the decade, the United States and Iran had essentially no official relationship, and the United States had become the driving force behind Iran's international isolation. The sanctions regime built in these years became the foundation of the later "maximum pressure" campaign.

"Axis of Evil" and the Nuclear Program (2002–2010)

On January 29, 2002, in his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush grouped Iran with Iraq and North Korea:

States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger.— President George W. Bush, January 29, 2002

The label — which many in Washington later judged a strategic mistake — hardened Iranian suspicion that the United States sought regime change.

In 2002, an Iranian exile group revealed two undeclared nuclear facilities, including the Natanz enrichment plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency investigated and in November 2003 issued GOV/2003/75, reporting that Iran had failed to declare sensitive nuclear activities for 18 years. Iran signed the Additional Protocol allowing tougher inspections, then suspended its application in 2006 after the issue was referred to the UN Security Council. The Security Council imposed four rounds of sanctions between 2006 and 2010 (Resolutions 1737, 1747, 1803, and 1929).

In 2010, the Stuxnet computer worm—later widely attributed to the United States and Israel—damaged roughly a thousand Iranian uranium-enrichment centrifuges, the first known offensive use of a cyber weapon against critical infrastructure.

The JCPOA and the American Withdrawal (2013–2018)

After the 2013 election of the reformist president Hassan Rouhani, Iran entered secret talks with the United States, brokered by Oman. In November 2013 the two sides signed an interim agreement, the Joint Plan of Action, freezing the most dangerous parts of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for limited relief from sanctions.

After two years of negotiation, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed on July 14, 2015 in Vienna by Iran and the P5+1 (the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia). Iran agreed to cap uranium enrichment, reduce its stockpile, and accept intrusive IAEA inspections in exchange for the removal of most international sanctions. The deal went into effect in January 2016.

The JCPOA was controversial in Washington from the start. On October 13, 2017, President Donald Trump refused to certify Iran's compliance to Congress. On May 8, 2018, he withdrew the United States from the deal and announced the restoration of "maximum pressure" sanctions, including on foreign companies doing business with Iran. Iran's government called the move a betrayal, and within a year Iran began exceeding the deal's limits on enrichment. The 2018 withdrawal is the pivot on which the entire period of escalating conflict since 2019 turns.

2019: The Pressure-Cooker Year

On April 8, 2019, the Trump administration designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization — the first time a country's national military had been so designated. Iran responded by designating U.S. Central Command forces as terrorists.

On June 13, 2019, two oil tankers, the M/T Altair and the M/T Kokuka Courageous, were damaged by limpet mines near the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command released footage it said showed IRGC members removing an unexploded mine from one ship and blamed Iran. Iran denied involvement.

A week later, on June 20, 2019, Iran shot down an American RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone it said had entered its airspace; the Pentagon said the drone was in international airspace. President Trump ordered retaliatory strikes, then called them off at the last minute, explaining on Twitter:

Iran made a very big mistake!— President Donald Trump, June 20, 2019

In September 2019, a combined drone-and-missile attack crippled the Abqaiq oil-processing facility and the Khurais field in Saudi Arabia — briefly halting about half of Saudi output. The United States and Saudi Arabia blamed Iran; Washington sent additional forces to the Gulf. Iran denied responsibility.

2020: Soleimani and the Missile Exchange

On January 3, 2020, a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad airport killed Qassem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC's Quds Force and the architect of Iran's network of proxies across the Middle East. Iran vowed revenge; the strike brought the two countries to the edge of open war.

On January 8, 2020, Iran fired 16 ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops — al-Asad air base and Erbil — wounding more than 100 American servicemen. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the attack a "slap in the face" of the United States. That same night, Iranian forces misidentified an airliner as a missile and shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, killing all 176 people aboard, most of them Iranian and Canadian citizens. Iran initially denied responsibility, then acknowledged the shootdown after evidence emerged, and blamed the panic caused by the risk of war with the United States.

Stalled Diplomacy (2021–2023)

The Biden administration came into office in 2021 promising to return to the JCPOA "if Iran resumed compliance." In 2021–22, negotiators in Vienna came close to reviving the deal. The talks repeatedly stalled over Iran's demand that Washington remove the IRGC's terrorism designation — a step the White House resisted.

By January 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the deal was "not our focus" and that diplomacy had moved to managing the crisis rather than resolving it. In September 2023, the two governments negotiated a prisoner swap that released five detained Americans in exchange for five Iranians and the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds to Qatar; the funds were later frozen again after the October 2023 Hamas attack. Through this period Iran continued enriching uranium at higher levels than the JCPOA permitted.

The Proxy War Explodes (2023–2025)

On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking hostages, and Israel responded with a devastating campaign in Gaza. Iran and its "Axis of Resistance" — Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iraqi militias, and Hamas — opened multiple fronts.

In November 2023, the Houthi movement in Yemen began attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in solidarity with Gaza, seizing the cargo ship Galaxy Leader. The United States and Britain launched Operation Prosperity Guardian (December 2023) to protect shipping and then Operation Poseidon Archer (January 2024), striking Houthi targets in Yemen. The Houthis made more than 190 attacks on vessels, sank no ships but killed four crew on the True Confidence in March 2024, and forced the world's major shipping lines to divert traffic around Africa — at times more than 60 percent of container traffic bypassing the Suez route. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2722 demanding the attacks stop.

In April 2024, after an Israeli strike on Iran's consulate in Damascus killed IRGC commanders, Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles directly at Israel — its first direct attack on Israeli soil — and Israel retaliated. The exchanges were contained, but they marked the first time Iran and Israel traded direct blows rather than through proxies.

2025: The Twelve-Day War and the First U.S. Strikes on Iran

In March 2025, the United States launched a sustained air campaign against Houthi targets in Yemen, warning Iran against further involvement.

On June 13, 2025, Israel attacked Iran, striking nuclear, missile, and military targets and detonating an underground "mountain base" at Natanz. Iran and Israel were then effectively at war, in what became known as the twelve-day war. On June 15, Khamenei called the Israeli strikes "a crime" and "a declaration of war."

On June 21, 2025, the United States joined the conflict directly, striking three Iranian nuclear sites — Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan — with B-2 stealth bombers dropping precision-penetrating bunker-busters and Tomahawk cruise missiles. It was the first direct U.S. military assault on Iranian soil in the history of the relationship. The White House said the goal was to end the conflict quickly by degrading Iran's nuclear program; it had warned Iran for months that it would destroy the program rather than allow a race to a bomb. Hundreds of people were killed in Iran and about two dozen in Israel across the campaign. Iran's supreme leader called the attack a "crime" and suspended cooperation with IAEA inspectors. A state funeral was held for those killed in the strikes.

Experts immediately questioned whether air power alone could end the nuclear program. The IAEA director general, Rafael Grossi, warned that "we are not going to solve this in a definitive way, militarily." The UN chief, António Guterres, cautioned: "Military action carries the risk of igniting a chain of events that no one can control in the most volatile region of the world."

2026: Operation Epic Fury

On February 28, 2026, the United States launched Operation Epic Fury, a joint American-Israeli campaign that began with strikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities. The assault killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was reportedly in Tehran. An initial death toll put more than 200 killed and more than 700 injured. President Trump announced the strikes on social media:

Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead.— President Donald Trump, February 28, 2026

The campaign expanded rapidly — at one point hitting some 500 targets — and Iran's retaliation followed. Iranian forces fired missiles at U.S. bases in the Gulf and closed the Strait of Hormuz for the first time, threatening the world's oil supply. An attack forced QatarEnergy to declare force majeure at the huge Ras Laffan gas facility. The price of oil spiked worldwide.

A ceasefire was declared on April 8, 2026, and peace talks were held in Islamabad, but they collapsed. The United States imposed a blockade on Iran, enforcing it with naval forces. By late spring the campaign had cost 13 American lives and wounded about 400. In June 2026, the United States renewed strikes on the Iranian island of Qeshm, and IRGC attacks on Gulf bases continued, with two successive ceasefire frameworks violated. As of mid-2026, the Strait of Hormuz was handling roughly 5 percent of the world's oil shipments instead of its usual 20 percent.

Where It Stands

More than seven decades after the 1953 coup, the United States and Iran are at war — the most serious and sustained direct conflict in the history of the relationship. Iran has lost its supreme leader and much of its nuclear infrastructure, but the program's future is uncertain, and the country faces a leadership vacuum. The United States has demonstrated a willingness to strike Iran directly that it never before showed, but the region remains unstable, the Strait of Hormuz remains at risk, and American forces in the Gulf remain targets.

This account was compiled in August 2026 and reflects the public record as it stood then. The conflict is ongoing, and its outcome is not yet written.

Bibliography & Sources

Primary documents, government, and official sources:

• National Security Archive, "CIA Confirms Role in 1953 Iran Coup," George Washington University (NSAEBB 435).
• U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, "The Iranian Hostage Crisis, 1979–81."
• Naval History and Heritage Command, "Operation Praying Mantis," April 18, 1988.
• IAEA Board of Governors, "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran," GOV/2003/75.
• The White House, State of the Union Address, January 29, 2002.
• U.S. Department of the Treasury / White House statements, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (July 14, 2015) and withdrawal (May 8, 2018).
• U.S. Central Command, statement on attacks on M/T Altair and M/T Kokuka Courageous, June 13, 2019.
• Congressional Research Service, IN12571, "U.S. Strikes on Iranian Nuclear Sites," June 2025.

News and reference reporting:

• "U.S.–Iran Relations: A Timeline," Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• "Timeline: U.S.–Iran relations, 1953–2026," NBC News (reporting on the Council on Foreign Relations timeline).
• Reuters, reporting on Iran's January 8, 2020 ballistic-missile attacks on al-Asad and Erbil.
• Associated Press, reporting on the June 2019 Global Hawk shootdown and President Trump's response.
• The Washington Post, "IRGC designation stalemate," April 2022.
• Bloomberg, reporting on Secretary Blinken's January 2023 remarks.
• Al Jazeera, BBC, and The New Yorker (Cipher Brief) reporting on the June 2025 war, the February 2026 Operation Epic Fury, and the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
• United Nations coverage of Security Council Resolution 2722 and Secretary-General statements.