If You Were Iran, Would You Trust the U.S. or Israel?
Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
As the recently announced truce between the U.S.-Israel and Iran hobbles along, one must wonder if the two-week cease-fire will hold, let alone lead to a genuine, long-term peace agreement.
Among the numerous initial stumbling blocks is Iran’s claim that the ceasefire agreement covers Lebanon, while the U.S. and Israel insist it does not cover Lebanon. According to a report from The Hill,“Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who helped negotiate the ceasefire, on Wednesday called for ‘an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon and other regions, effective immediately.’”
Sadly, the U.S-Israel war against Iran is but the latest round in a nearly three-quarters-of-a-century struggle. Jeffrey Fields outlines this long, tumultuous history in an invaluable study from 2020, “U.S. and Iran have a long, troubled history.” Sara Al-Sayed, in “The US-Israeli History Behind Their War Against Iran,” brings the history up to 2026. The following summarizes much of these reports.
1951-’53: In ’51, Iran’s prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, ordered the government takeover the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company; Pre. Dwight Eisenhower backed “Operation Ajax,” a joint CIA-British MI6 military campaign that overturned Mossadegh and returned Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to absolute power.
1968: Iran signs Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
1977-’79: Slowly building popular discontent with the Shah’s corrupt government came to a head in August ’78 when a revolution erupted; in October ’79, the Shah flees the U.S. On November 4th, students captured the U.S. Embassy, taking 66 hostages; after 444 days, the embassy seizure ended, and the hostages were released with the signing of the Algiers Accord. The Shah is replaced by an Islamic Republic led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
1980-’88: The U.S. backed Iraq in the Iraq-Iran war that ended in a “stalemate”; Fields notes, “a combined total of more than 500,000 military deaths and 100,000 civilians dead on both sides.” Among U.S. military actions against Iran were: Operation Nimble Archer (1987) and Operation Praying Mantis (1988). Most surprisingly, while the U.S. formally imposed an arms embargo on Iran, it secretly sold weapons to Iran as part of what became known as the Iran-Contra scandal.
1995: The UN adopts the “Resolution on the Middle East,” formally the Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction-Free Zone (MEWMDFZ), covering nuclear, chemical and biological weapons as well as their delivery systems.
Pres. Bill Clinton imposed economic sanctions on Iran
2002: Pres. George W. Bush characterized Iran, Iraq and North Korea as constituting an “Axis of Evil.” Iran’s nuclear arms program is revealed and the U.S.-Israel engage in a series of cyberattacks against Iran’s Natanz centrifuges.
2003: Iran sends a diplomatic proposal to Washington offering broad negotiations, covering its nuclear program, regional policy and relations
with Israel; the Bush administration did not formally respond.
2006: Iran resumes uranium enrichment; Israel conducted covert operations against the nuclear program, including cyberattack using the compture worm Stuxnet.
2013-’15: The U.S., under Pres. Barack Obama joined with France, Germany and the United Kingdom in bilateral negotiations with Iran that led to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement with international inspections.
2018: Pres. Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from JCPOA.
2019: Pres. Trump designated Iran’s Quad Force a terror organization.
2020: An American drone killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the second most powerful man in Iran after Supreme Leader Khamenei.
2021-’23: Negotiations in Vienna to revive the nuclear deal collapsed.
2024: Israel targeted Iranian cities Isfahan and Tabriz.
2025: Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, testified that the U.S. intelligence community “continues to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized a nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.”
The U.S. and Iran began a series of negotiations aimed at reaching a nuclear peace agreement; Trump set a two-month (60 day) deadline for Iran to reach an agreement. After the deadline passed without an agreement, Israel attacked Iran in what was dubbed “The Twelve-Day War,” an armed conflict between Iran and Israel that lasted from June 13th to 24th. The U.S. joined the campaign under “Operation Midnight Hammer” targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, including at Fordow, Natanz, the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre and the unfinished Arak heavy water reactor.
2026: According to The New York Times, Pres. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had been planning the attack on Iran for months while nuclear negotiations with Iran were underway. The war, Operation Epic Fury, was formally launched on February 28, 2026.
Perhaps the most telling aspect of the historic efforts by the U.S. and Israel to undercut, if not end, Iran efforts to build an atomic bomb is revealed in a recent New Yorker article about the former CIA agent Kevin Chalker. He and his associates spent decades in an effort to either recruit and/or assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists.
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