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Jan 24, 20214 min read

Grudges in the Middle East? The United States and Iran- Part 1



Part 1: The United States and Iran

For the past several decades, the US has had to grapple with its history of interventionism in the Middle East, even as it continues in certain areas. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Iran, where the United States has had military involvement for nearly seventy years, both as a staging area against other countries and as an active area of conflict. Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Iran has been under a theocratic and authoritarian government that increasingly wants world recognition and power against the American military, putting itself and the West at odds with the help of Russia and China. But peace may be on the horizon if each country can maintain a steady hand and make some concessions in an increasingly hostile world climate.


The Iran Nuclear Deal

Since the revelation during the Clinton administration that Iran had been pursuing nuclear weapons, world powers including the U.S., E.U., and U.N. have laid crippling sanctions on Iran and frozen billions of dollars in assets. For a time, the people and government showed great fortitude, even as their currency was devalued. They continued developing their nuclear program for twenty years and developed a domestic economy to weather the storm, supported by illegal imports from smugglers. But by the early 2010s they were forced to come to the negotiation table, and by 2015 Iran had agreed with the UN on a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which relieved sanctions in exchange for international accountability and investigation against nuclear weapons. The world had succeeded in forcing Iran to choose between their oil economy and their nuclear program, and for a short time tensions decreased between the world powers and the Ayatollah.

However, even before the deal was finalized, Donald Trump railed against the deal in its entirety, claiming that it was ineffective and too narrow. When he won the Presidency, he set these goals into action by unilaterally removing the U.S. from the deal and reinstating penalties for any country that does business with Iran, including non-American entities, plunging the Iranian economy back into turmoil. This withdrawal was considered the worst and most dangerous foreign policy decision he made during his term. Within a year, Iran began more attempts to enrich uranium and create nuclear weapons. Although European countries including Germany and France made special efforts to keep the JCPOA alive and do business with Iran, the Ayatollah announced that it would violate the agreement by returning some nuclear operations, although they have not officially left the agreement. Without their participation, the world won’t know how close they are to enriching uranium to the 90% required for nuclear weapons, but even 20% enrichment was enough to bring them to war with Iraq before the agreement. As we currently stand at the end of the Trump administration, Iran continues to work towards nuclear weapons and remains extremely hostile to the United States, mostly thanks to Trump’s “maximum pressure” strategy.


Russia and Iran

Despite the massive pressure that Iran has faced from the West, they are aligned in interest with Russia, which also wants to rid the region of American influence. Using counterintelligence, strategic diplomacy, and sometimes outright military action, Russia has worked to undermine U.S. interests across Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Turkey, often with the help of Iran. This includes protection deals for the Syrian Kurds, military backing for Bashar Al-Assad, and the placing of bounties on American soldiers. All of these actions have the end goal of currying favor and trade relations with more stable countries with whom Russia was previously estranged, including the E.U., and the more America trends towards brutishness and unreliability, the more Russia benefits.

With specific attention to Iran, Russia has worked to gain influence in Iraq and support the Iran-backed Hezbollah, which both increase Iran’s ability to combat American forces. Diplomatically, they’ve capitalized on American failures such as the irrational collapse of the JCPOA and the assassination of Qassem Soleimani as indicators that America can never be trusted to work liberally with Middle Eastern countries. Although Iran is aware that Russia’s interests in the area are entirely selfish, they believe that Russia will support them in war with America and are thus emboldened to continue acting against America on the world stage. With time, other Middle Eastern countries may grow closer to Russia as America flounders with its policy, setting back any progress Washington may have made in securing a liberal, Israel-friendly Middle East.


The Biden Administration and the Future

The damage of Trump’s aggressive and brutal Iran strategy may have set back the world’s goal of stopping nuclear development in the region, but all may not be lost. Joe Biden has said that he will make it a priority to rejoin the JCPOA as soon as possible, which would serve both to relax tensions between the U.S. and Iran and to reclaim some regional influence from Russia. However, it’s not likely that Iran is open to returning to the 2015 status quo after the recent assassination of a top nuclear scientist and military strategist within their borders, which they have blamed on Israel. Iran has also recently arrested another U.S. national on spying charges, which could jeopardize negotiations.

In broad terms, Joe Biden’s priority seems to be an overhaul of Trump’s isolationist and militaristic Middle Eastern policy. In an announcement Saturday, he listed the overturn of Trump’s Muslim ban and a return to the JCPOA as top priorities, indicating that he could be forgiving of some Iranian hostility in light of the difference between the past administration’s and his approach to the situation. Biden could also harshen the American stance on Russia, with whom Trump was friendly, which would likely include more diplomatic action against Russian involvement with Iran, creating a path for a return of American influence in the region.

However, America currently faces a number of domestic issues that will take priority for the Biden administration for the foreseeable future, leaving much of the path forward with Iran to speculation and to the willingness of Europe to act on its own. Overall, the path to peace seems clear: the U.S. must work against bad actors in the Middle East to secure a fair negotiation with Iran and attempt to be as open and peaceable as possible with the rest of the Middle East so that eventually the residual effects of decades of strife and war might be overturned.


Discussion Questions:

  • Can America secure better relations with the Middle East at large while still defending Israel?

  • Are sanctions an effective tool to stop Iran’s nuclear development?

  • How much of the Cold War’s conflict still exists in the Middle East?

Sources/Further Reading:


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