U.S.-Iran relations

Relations officially started between Iran (then Persia) and The United States in the late 1800s when King Nasser-al-Din Shah sent an ambassador to Washington D.C. even though Americans had been coming to Iran since the mid 1800s. From then on, up until WW2, relations remained cordial and many constitutionalist Iranians came to view The U.S. as a "third force" in their struggle to break free of the humiliating British and Russian meddling and dominance in Iranian affairs. The American presence however came not without a price.

Howard Baskerville died in Tabriz when trying to help Iranian constitutionalists, and after Morgan Shuster was appointed Treasury General of Persia, an American was killed in Tehran by henchmen thought to be affiliated with the Russian and British influence. In fact, Iran's parliament in Tehran was bombed by General Liakhoff of Imperial Russia, and Morgan Shuster had to resign under tremendous British and Russian pressure on The Shah of Iran. Shuster's book "The Strangling of Persia" is a recount of the details of these events, a harsh criticism of Britain and Imperial Russia.

Morgan Shuster was soon followed by Arthur Millspaugh, appointed as Treasury General by Reza khan Pahlavi, and Arthur Pope, who was a main driving force behind the Persian empire revivalist policies of Reza Khan. But the friendly relations between The United States and Iran was in for a change as the 1950s arrived.

In 1953, Iran's nationalist Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh began a period of rapid power consolidation, which eventually led to his exiling of Iran's constitutional monarch, the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The United States and Britain, through a now-admitted covert operation of the CIA, helped organize protests to overthrow Moussadeq and return the Shah to Iran. After his return, Iran's fledgling attempts at democracy quickly descended into dictatorship as the Shah dismantled the constitutional limitations on his office and began to rule as an absolute monarch.

During his reign, the Shah received significant American support, frequently making state visits to the White House and earning praise from numerous American Presidents. The Shah's close ties to Washington and his bold agenda of rapidly Westernizing of Iran soon began to infuriate certain segments of the Iranian population, especially the hardline Islamic conservatives.

In 1979 Iranians revolted and the Shah was ousted for a second time. The violently anti-American Ayatollah Khomeni became Iran's new leader, and soon began issuing vicious rhetoric against the United States, describing the country as the "Great Satan" and a "nation of infidels."

The American administration under President Jimmy Carter refused to give the Shah any further support and expressed no interest in attempting to return him to power. A significant embarrassment for Carter occurred when the Shah, now suffering from cancer, requested entry into the United States for treatment. Carter reluctantly agreed, but the move only re-inforced Iranian notions that the former monarch was an American puppet.

On November 4, 1979, militant Iranian students occupied the American embassy in Tehran with the support of Ayatollah Khomeini. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days, see Iran hostage crisis. On April 7, 1980, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran, and on April 24, 1981, the Swiss Government assumed representation of U.S. interests in Tehran. Iranian interests in the United States are represented by the Pakistani Government.

In accordance with the Algiers declaration of January 20, 1981, the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal (located in The Hague, Netherlands) was established for the purpose of handling claims of U.S. nationals against Iran and of Iranian nationals against the United States. U.S. contact with Iran through The Hague covers only legal matters.

On July 3, 1988 the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian Airbus A300B2, on a scheduled commercial flight in Iranian airspace over the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in 290 civilian fatalities from six nations including 66 children. See Iran Air Flight 655 for details. On February 22, 1996 the United States agreed to pay Iran $61.8 million in compensation for the 248 Iranians killed in the shootdown.

Commercial relations between Iran and the United States are restricted by U.S. sanctions and consist mainly of Iranian purchases of food and medical products and U.S. purchases of carpets and food. The U.S. Government prohibits most trade with Iran.

There are serious obstacles to improved relations between the two countries. The U.S. Government defines five areas of Iranian policy which it considers objectionable:

• Alleged Iranian efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction;
• Alleged involvement in international terrorism;
• Alleged support for violent opposition to the Middle East peace process;
• Alleged threats and subversive activities against its neighbors; and
• Its dismal human rights record.

A similar, Iranian, list of complaints might read as follows:

• U.S. support for Israel's brutal suppression of Palestinian demands for a viable state;
• The U.S. failure to pressure Israel to declare and give up the nuclear weapons that it is widely believed to have;
• U.S. companies assistance in developing Iraq's chemical weapons facilities;
• USS Vincennes shooting down Iran Air Flight 655 with many civilian fatalities;
• The killing by American soldiers of many thousands of Iraqi non-combatants; and
• The U.S.' own human rights record, which is sometimes blemished (as illustrated at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere).

List of famous Americans in Iran

• Howard Baskerville, Iran's first American martyr.
• Arthur Pope and Phyllis Ackerman
• Arthur Millspaugh
• Morgan Shuster
• Richard Nelson Frye

See also

• History of Iran
• Foreign relations of Iran
• Politics of Iran

External links

• A New Day in Iran? (http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues05/mar05/pdf/iran.pdf)(pdf)