Iranian History and Conflict with the United States
1921 Reza Khan, a military officer in Persia’s Cossack Brigade, names himself shah of Persia after successfully staging a coup against the government of the Qajar Dynasty. He immediately launches an ambitious campaign to modernize the country. Among other plans, he hopes to develop a national public education system, build a national railroad system and improve health care. By 1935 Reza Khan’s dictatorial approach begins to cause dissent; country re-named Iran.
1941 Although Reza Khan declares Iran a neutral power during World War II, Iran’s British-controlled oil interests are largely maintained by German engineers and technicians, and Khan refuses to expel German citizens despite a request by Britain. In September 1941, following British and Soviet occupation of western Iran, Reza Shah is forced out of power. His son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, succeeds him on the throne.
1951 Nationalist Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq attempts to nationalize the British-owned oil industry. The Shah opposes Mossadeq and removes him from power, but he regains power and the shah leaves Iran. In 1953 the shah returns to Iran when Gen. Fazlollah Zahedi, with backing from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, overthrows Mossadeq in an August coup d’etat.
1963 The Shah implements “The White Revolution,” an aggressive campaign of social and economic Westernization that is met with intense popular opposition. Popular nationalist Ayatollah Khomeini is arrested in one of many crackdowns on the shah’s opponents. By the late 1960s the shah relies regularly on SAVAK, Iran’s intelligence organization to quell dissidence.
1976 In one of a series of reforms that alienate his people, the shah replaces the Islamic calendar with an “imperial” calendar, beginning with the founding of the Persian Empire. Many of the shah’s growing number of critics see this as anti-Islamic. In 1978 Iranians resort to rioting, mass demonstrations and strikes to protest the Shah’s authoritarian rule. In response, the Shah enforces martial law. On January 16, 1979, the Shah flees Iran amid intensifying unrest.
1979 On February 1 Islamic nationalist Ayatollah Khomeini returns from France, where he was exiled for his opposition to the Shah’s regime. He encourages the brewing revolution. Under Ayatollah Khomeini’s guidance, Iran declares itself a theocratic republic guided by Islamic principles, and a referendum is held to name it the Islamic Republic of Iran. On November 4 Islamic students storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking hostage 52 American employees and demand that the shah return from receiving medical treatment in the United States to face trial in Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini applauds their actions. The hostage situation ignites a crisis between the United States and Iran.
1980 On April 24, 1980, President jimmy Carter orders a military operation by helicopters to rescue the 52 American hostages held in Tehran, which ends with eight U.S. servicemen dead and no hostages rescued. Iran and the United States sever diplomatic ties over the hostage crisis, and the U.S. Embassy becomes a training ground for the Revolutionary Guards Corps. In September Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invades Iran after years of disagreements over territory, notably the Shatt al Arab waterway, starting what became an eight-year war.
1981 In January following negotiations mediated by Algeria, the U.S. hostages are released after 444 days of captivity. On 7 June 1981, a surprise airstrike by the Israeli Air Force destroys an unfinished nuclear reactor 11 miles southeast of Baghdad.
1988 In July an American navy ship, the USS Vincennes, shoots down an Iranian civilian plane, killing all 290 passengers and the crew. The United States later apologizes and agrees to financial compensation for the victims’ families, saying the civilian plane was mistaken for an attacking military jet. In August Iran accepts United Nations Security Council Resolution 598, leading to a cease-fire in the Iran-Iraq War.
1989 Khomeini dies. An elected body of senior clerics, the Assembly of Experts, chooses the outgoing president of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, to succeed Khomeini as the national religious leader. In August Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the speaker of the National Assembly, becomes president. Rafsanjani was an influential member of the Council of Revolution of Iran in the Islamic Republic’s early days. In 1993 Rafsanjani wins re-election.
1997 (Ali) Mohammad Khatami-Ardakani is elected to the presidency in a landslide victory amidst his pledges of political and social reforms as well as economic revitalization. In 2001 President Khatami wins reelection. Pro-reform candidates and allies of President Khatami win 189 of the 290 seats in parliament, setting the stage for reformers to control the legislature for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Conservatives win 54 seats, independents 42 and another five seats are reserved for religious minorities.
2002 In his January State of the Union speech, American President George W. Bush refers to Iran as part of an “axis of evil,” saying the country is actively pursuing weapons of mass destruction. The speech is met with anger in Iran. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi responds by calling President Bush’s comments “arrogant” and saying Iran sees them as “interference in its internal affairs.” In 2003 the International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran admits to plutonium production, but the agency says there is no evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Iran agrees to more rigorous U.N. inspections of nuclear facilities.
2005 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hardline Islamic mayor of Tehran, who campaigned as a champion of the poor and pledged to return to the values of the revolution of 1979, defeats one of Iran’s elder statesmen in presidential elections. In 2006 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sends a letter to President Bush calling for ways to ease tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, but continues to defy U.N. deadlines to halt uranium enrichment activities. Ahmadinejad insists the nuclear program is for civilian energy purposes only.
2009 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is declared the landslide victor in presidential elections, sparking protests by supporters of candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who unsuccessfully appealed the results to Iran’s Guardian Council.
2015 In April US President Barack Obama announces an agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran over Iran's nuclear program. Iran agreed to scale back its nuclear capabilities for an extended period of time in exchange for a loosening of some economic sanctions against the country. The agreement is endorsed by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union as Joint Comprehensive Plan of action (JCPOA.)
2018 President Donald Trump terminates United States participation in the JCPOA, as it failed to protect America’s national security interests. The JCPOA enriched the Iranian regime and enabled its malign behavior, while at best delaying its ability to pursue nuclear weapons and allowing it to preserve nuclear research and development. United States withdrawal from the JCPOA will pressure the Iranian regime to alter its course of malign activities and ensure that Iranian bad acts are no longer rewarded.
2020 In January President Donald Trump orders a precision drone strike to "terminate" a top Iranian commander, General Qasem Soleimani. who was plotting "imminent and sinister attacks" on Americans, adding that this action is one of deterrence rather than aggression. In November a top Iranian scientist believed to be responsible for developing the country's military nuclear program was killed, causing outrage in Iran and raising U.S. concerns over potential retaliation. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was in a vehicle that came under attack from "armed terrorists," according to Iran's Defense Ministry. "In the shootout between Fakhrizadeh's bodyguards and the terrorists, the scientist was seriously wounded and taken to hospital," where the medical team was unable to save him.
2021 On January 19 Iran imposed sanctions on President Trump and nine other U.S. officials for their role in terrorist activities against Iran, including sanctions and killing Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
January 20, 2021
Main source www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/middle_east-jan-june10-timeline
Joseph R. Degenfelder
Biden Wants a Deal With the Khobar Towers Killers
His bid to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal is an insult to the 19 U.S. airmen who died 25 years ago.
By Mike Pompeo’ The Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2021 5:59 pm ET
The destroyed Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, June 30, 1996. PHOTO: SALEH RIFAI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 25 marks the 25th anniversary of the 1996 bombing of a housing complex in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, by Iranian-backed terrorists. Nineteen U.S. airmen lost their lives and 372 American personnel were wounded. Many who survived—some of whom went on to work with me at the State Department—have lived the rest of their lives with permanent injuries, brain trauma and tortured memories.
The anniversary of the bombing should serve as a stark reminder that the Iranian regime will probe for vulnerabilities and punish America if we are not strong, and that the costs to America from Iranian malign activity can be enormous. We should never forget that day, and we should never appease Iran’s terrorist leaders.
The Middle East has changed a great deal since 1996. Israel has been recognized by many majority-Muslim states as part of the Abraham Accords. But the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran remains as committed to carrying out terrorism today as it was a quarter-century ago.
Iran’s responsibility for Khobar is indisputable. In a 2001 federal indictment of Saudi Hizballah members involved in the attack, the Justice Department found that “elements of the Iranian government inspired, supported, and supervised members of the Saudi Hizballah.” In 2006, in a lawsuit brought by families of 17 victims of the bombing, a federal judge ruled that Iran was responsible for the attack: “The totality of the evidence at trial . . . firmly establishes that the Khobar Towers bombing was planned, funded and sponsored by senior leadership in the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Another federal judge last year ordered Iran to pay nearly $900 million to victims and their families for its culpability.
Orchestrating the death and maiming of Americans is a day at the office for the mullahs who run the Islamic Republic. Since seizing power by force in 1979, the regime has consistently targeted U.S. military personnel across the Middle East. In 1983, Iran worked with an early incarnation of Hezbollah to kill 241 American service members by bombing their barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. In that attack, the Khobar Towers bombing and others, Iran has enlisted terror groups to do its dirty work. Iran’s Quds Force, the wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps assigned the task of spreading the Islamic Revolution via military engagement, used this strategy to great effect during the Iraq war. Iran helped kill more than 600 American troops during that conflict through terror groups like Kataib Hezbollah. These loose associations allow the Iranian regime to deny its role in terrorist attacks—denials only the most gullible can believe.
Foolishly, the Obama administration tried to appease Iran into good behavior by agreeing to the nuclear deal in 2015. At the core of this misguided diplomacy was the notion that Western engagement and trade with Iran would transform an outlaw regime into a constructive actor in the Middle East. Instead, Iran took advantage of the economic windfall from the removal of sanctions to increase funding for Shiite proxy militias across the region, with many of them taking orders from Quds Force head thug Qasem Soleimani. He was actively plotting new attacks against American soldiers and diplomats in the Middle East when the Trump administration took him off the battlefield in January 2020.
Now the Biden administration is about to empower the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism again. The president is racing to repeal sanctions and rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement that would give the ayatollahs a greater ability to underwrite terrorist attacks like the Khobar Towers bombing and the recent barrage of Hamas rockets that would have taken countless Israeli lives had the Iron Dome interceptor system not worked to near-perfection. President Biden has learned nothing from Tehran’s behavior over the past 40 years.
Nothing will change under incoming Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who won a rigged election and is a close ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. I was proud to help drive sanctions against him in 2019 for grotesque human-rights violations.
The Trump administration wasn’t fooled about the nature of the Iranian regime, or how the nuclear deal exposed Americans to greater harm. So we pulled out of it and slapped more than 1,000 sanctions on Iranian entities. We re-established military deterrence against Iran. We supported Israeli security more than any other U.S. administration in history, both bilaterally and through the Abraham Accords. Our actions reduced the operational and financial capacity for terror by groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and various Shiite militias in Iraq.
We confronted Iranian aggression. Mr. Biden is encouraging it.
The Khobar Towers bombing caused immense heartache for American families who saw the lives of their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons cut short in the name of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Mr. Biden and his team risk the recurrence of this type of bloodshed if they fail to recognize that rejoining the deal will aid Tehran’s decades long campaign of killing Americans.
Mr. Pompeo is a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute. He served as secretary of state, 2018-21.
