Iran America Relationship



Iran America Relationship



CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

As time goes on Iran is becoming an increasing area of concern and threat to the United States and its allies. Iran has been working for some time at trying to establish itself as a dominant power, especially within the Middle East. This quest for recognition has caused rising national security concerns within the United States and some of its allied countries. Some of the most recent concerns include; Iran's nuclear program, threats of closing of the Straits of Hormuz, the oil sanctions, and Iran's threats towards other oil producing Arab nations. Iran has also been working at strengthening its ties with Syria, the Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shiite groups in Iraq, and ties to groups in Palestine and Afghanistan.

According to Mansour (2008), Iran has many tools in place that have a major impact on their surrounding countries and on the United States. Iran is gaining allot of ground on becoming a dominating force within its region and is growing as a major influence on many countries. Iran is continuously gaining stronger alliances with some of its neighboring Arab communities including Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Even though the United States has worked with some of these countries in the past, it may prove to be difficult for some of them to choose sides if a conflict arises.

The rising national security concerns with Iran have led to measures being taken by not only the United States, but also the U.N. Security Council, to provide economic and diplomatic pressures on Iran. Countries were joining together in exiting the Iranian market, and the sale of arms to U.S. supporting countries has been increased as well.

The research of this topic is necessary to make U.S. military and U.S. citizens aware of the rising concerns with Iran and what implications could occur if further actions were taken. This paper will discuss how the problems in Iran began and how they have escalated to where we are at today. We will also be looking at what impact these concerns have on other countries if the threats and concerns were to escalate. We will now look at how the concerns affect the instability in the Middle East, and whether the actions aid or deteriorate the instability.

History

The United States and Iran have a history of problems and grievances that goes back nearly 60 years. It all began in 1953 when the United States supported the overthrowing of Mohammad Mossadegh, Iran's elected Prime Minister. Even though Mossedegh's withdraw may have been beneficial to the United States for a short time, his predecessor, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi led the Iranian people to resent the U.S. which has impacted relations to this day. In 1979 there was an Iranian revolution, where what good relations the U.S. had with Iran were severed. Iran viewed the United States as the main factor behind Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's long and repressive rule. Iran then proceeded to seize the ...