"[46] Gasiorowski concludes the study; "Consequently, while the United States delivered the final blow to Mosaddeq's regime, Iranian actors — together with the British and the major international oil companies — played crucial roles as well.

[92] During the second half of the Iran–Iraq War, the Reagan administration pursued several sanction bills against Iran; on the other hand, it established full diplomatic relations with Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist government in Iraq by removing it from the US list of State Sponsors of Terrorism in 1984.

[92] According to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, the administrations of Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous dual-use items, including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as anthrax and bubonic plague.

[138] Iranian and U.S. officials were engaged in a series of secret, high-level negotiations during 2003, and Iran's UN ambassador Mohammad Javad Zarif had met with U.S. diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad on May 3–one day prior to the State Department receiving the alleged "Grand Bargain.

In November 2006, journalist Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker supported this claim, stating that the American military and the Israelis are giving the group equipment, training, and targeting information in order to create internal pressures in Iran.

To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.Ahmadinejad issued a list of grievances, including the 1953 coup, support for Saddam Hussein in the Iran–Iraq War, and the Iran Air Flight 655 incident.

[222] The visit by Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, viewed in the West as a moderate figure,[223] to New York City to address the United Nations General Assembly in September 2013, shortly after he assumed office, was hailed as progress in the countries′ relationship.

[230] On 28 September 2015, an unplanned and "accidental" encounter between US President Barack Obama and Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Javad Zarif occurred on the sidelines of a luncheon at the United Nations General Assembly, with the two men reportedly shaking hands.

The Trump administration was seen as having embarked on the path of strengthening an informal coalition with Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and other Sunni Gulf states, with a view to rolling back Iran's influence in the region.

[275] Kaveh L. Afrasiabi, a former consultant to the UN's program of Dialogue Among Civilizations,[276] stated in Asia Times Online that the move has possible legal implications: "Under international law, it could be challenged as illegal, and untenable, by isolating a branch of the Iranian government for selective targeting.

[282][283][284] On 5 May, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton announced that the U.S. was deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and four B-52 bombers to the Middle East to "send a clear and unmistakable message" to Iran following Israeli intelligence reports of an alleged Iranian plot to attack U.S. forces in the region.

On the same day, The New York Times reported that Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented a military plan to send as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East if Iran attacks American forces or makes steps toward developing nuclear weapons.

[302] U.S. Navy vice admiral and Director of the Joint Staff Michael Gilday said the U.S. had a high degree of confidence that Iran's Revolutionary Guard was responsible for the 12 May explosions on four tankers and that it was Iranian proxies in Iraq that fired rockets into Baghdad's Green Zone.

Also on June 22, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a warning to U.S. industries that Iran is stepping up cyber attacks of critical industries—particularly oil, gas and other energy sectors—and government agencies, and has the potential to disrupt or destroy systems.

During a speech in Israel, then-US National Security Advisor John Bolton said Iran should not "mistake U.S. prudence and discretion for weakness," emphasizing that future military options are not ruled out and that Trump had only "stopped the strike from going forward at this time".

[320][321] Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the Persian Gulf region for talks with Saudi Arabia and the UAE in a bid to build a coalition to combat perceived Iranian nuclear and "terror" ambitions.

[325] In classified briefings, Mike Pompeo and other U.S. State Department and Pentagon officials reportedly advised members of the U.S. Congress on what they described as alarming ties between Iran and al-Qaeda—including giving the terrorist organization safe haven in the country.

Declaring three days of public mourning for the general's death, Khamenei stated that "harsh retaliation" waited for the U.S.[346] In the aftermath of Soleimani's killing, the U.S. announced to move over 3,000 additional troops to the Middle East from the 82nd Airborne Division as a precautionary measure amid rising threats from Iran.

[351][352][353] Later, at approximately 5:30 pm (EST), Iran carried out "Operation Martyr Soleimani"[354] launching 12 to 15 missiles[355] to strike multiple US targets located throughout Iraq, including Al-Assad Airbase where about 1,500 soldiers are housed near Erbil.

[373] Despite recent setbacks with high-ranking assassinations and pandemic resistance, the 2020 launch sends a clear message to all Middle Eastern and transoceanic powers: Iran continues to make progress in its quest for regional supremacy and advanced domestic and military technology.

The tankers' voyage came after Venezuela's president Nicolás Maduro had already turned to Iran for help flying in chemicals needed at an aging refinery amid a petrol shortage, a symptom of the wider economic and political chaos gripping Latin America's one-time largest oil producer.

[377] Following the US threat, in a letter to United Nations chief António Guterres, Mohammad Javad Zarif warned against "America's movements in deploying its navy to the Caribbean in order to intervene and create disruption in [the] transfer of Iran's fuel to Venezuela".

[390] In April 2021, over 220 US Congress leaders endorsed HR 118, a resolution expressing support for "the Iranian people’s desire for a democratic, secular, and non-nuclear republic of Iran" and condemning "violations of human rights and state-sponsored terrorism".

Clandestinely, the United States convened military officers from Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE in the same month to discuss and tackle Iran's drone and missile capabilities.

[401] On March 31, 2022, despite assertions to the contrary, the US continues to violate a United Nations resolution that enshrines a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, stated the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh.

[403] On April 9, 2022, Iran announced penalties on 15 more US officials, including former Army Chief of Staff George Casey and former President Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani, as efforts to resurrect a 2015 nuclear deal have stagnated for months.

[408] On April 21, 2022, despite "frequent proposals" from Washington to relax sanctions and grant other concessions in exchange, Iran will not abandon plans to avenge the execution of Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani by the US in 2020, a top Iranian official warned.

[464]On 22 April 2019, under the Trump administration, the U.S. demanded that buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases or face economic penalties, announcing that the six-month sanction exemptions for China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey instated a year prior would not be renewed and would end by 1 May.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said President Trump's decision not to renew the waivers showed his administration was "dramatically accelerating our pressure campaign in a calibrated way that meets our national security objectives while maintaining well supplied global oil markets".

[Address by Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, to students at Shahid Beheshti University, May 12, 2003]To give up this trump card—the non-relationship with the United States, the easy evocation of an external bogeyman—would be costly for the Iranian leadership.