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The U.S. attacks on Iran over the weekend, in conjunction with the Israeli military, marked a stunning new phase in relations between the two countries.
But it is hardly the first time Washington and Tehran have clashed politically and militarily.
Here are some key historical moments between the U.S. and Iran.
1953: U.S. helps orchestrate coup that overthrows Mohammad Mosaddegh
Great Britain had controlled Iran’s oil industry for decades, but in 1953 Iran’s elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, nationalizes the country’s oil sector.
That move prompts Great Britain to appeal to the U.S. for help, and what results is a CIA-led campaign to topple Mosaddegh’s government. The coup allows Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah (or king) of Iran, to consolidate power around himself. (The CIA, long suspected of having a hand in the revolt, officially acknowledged its role in 2013.)
Mosaddegh is imprisoned and later placed under house arrest until his death in 1967. Pahlavi goes on to lead Iran for the next two and a half decades, becoming a strong U.S. ally.
1979: Iranian Revolution and U.S. hostage crisis
But in early 1979, following months of protests by secularists, Islamists and leftists against his autocratic rule, Pahlavi flees Iran and enters the U.S.
The revolution had been led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shia cleric who was living in exile near Paris after being expelled by Pahlavi in 1964. Khomeini returns to Iran and oversees the country’s transition to an Islamic republic, becoming Iran’s supreme leader. Khomeini establishes a hard-line theocracy and labels America the “Great Satan.”
In November of that year, a group of Iranian students storms the U.S. embassy in Tehran and captures 66 Americans.
A U.S. rescue attempt in the spring of 1980 codenamed Operation Eagle Claw, which is approved by President Jimmy Carter, is hampered by mechanical problems, a severe dust storm and a crash that kills eight service members. It fails to secure the release of the hostages.
After 444 days in captivity, the remaining 52 hostages are released on Jan. 20, 1981 — the day President Ronald Reagan is inaugurated.
Early 1980s: The Iran-Contra affair
But Reagan’s tenure is also marked by a now-infamous transaction with Iran.
Officials in his administration are discovered to have sold weapons to the country in the hope that it would help secure the release of American hostages held in Lebanon by Hezbollah, a militant group allied with Iran.
The Reagan administration used the proceeds of the arms sales to fund the paramilitary Contra rebel group fighting against the socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
Reagan confirms the story in a 1986 White House press conference and takes public responsibility for what’s become known as the Iran-Contra affair.
Late 1980s: Tensions in the Persian Gulf
Iran and Iraq have been engaged in a war since 1980, and toward the end of that decade, Iran begins attacking oil tankers belonging to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Iraq’s financial supporters.
In 1987 the U.S. begins a military campaign known as Operation Earnest Will to protect Kuwaiti tankers.
During that operation in 1988, the U.S. frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts struck an Iranian mine, which punched a 15-foot hole in the hull but did not kill any American sailors.
Still, that incident touched off another military operation called Operation Praying Mantis, in which U.S. forces retaliated for the explosion by attacking several Iranian oil platforms.
Also in 1988, the U.S. Navy shot down the civilian Iran Air Flight 655, killing all 290 people on board. U.S. forces mistook the plane for an Iranian fighter jet.
2015: Obama inks the Iranian nuclear deal
The U.S. reaches a deal with Iran and five other world powers to curb Iran’s nuclear capabilities in exchange for the removal of some punishing United Nations sanctions.
The deal allows Iran to continue enriching uranium for civilian energy purposes, but President Barack Obama argues that it will curb the country’s ability to create a nuclear bomb. Iran also agrees to increased inspections of its nuclear facilities.
In 2018, President Trump during his first term pulls the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal and reimposes sanctions on Iran.
The Biden administration holds indirect talks with Iran, and when Trump returns to office in 2025 he signs an executive order with the goal of exerting “maximum” pressure on Iran to end its nuclear weapons ambitions.
2020: U.S. drone strike kills Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani
A major recent development in U.S.-Iran relations occurs not in Iran itself but in neighboring Iraq.
Just a few days into 2020, U.S. forces launch a drone strike near the Baghdad International Airport and kill Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, among others.
Soleimani, who led an elite branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps known as the Quds Force, was seen as one of the country’s most influential officials.
Khamenei responds at the time that “harsh retaliation is waiting” for the U.S. Several days later, Iran fires at least a dozen ballistic missiles at two military bases in Iraq that house U.S. troops. The Pentagon says the following month that 109 U.S. troops suffered brain injuries in the strikes.
2025: U.S. and Israel strike Iranian nuclear sites
In June, the U.S. and Israeli militaries launch a dramatic assault on several Iranian nuclear sites. For the U.S., the military escalation follows what had largely been a diplomatic effort to deter Tehran from pursuing a nuclear weapon.
President Trump says in a speech from the White House that the goal of the operation was to scuttle Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities.
“Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,” Trump says, though there are questions about exactly how much damage was dealt.
The attacks come roughly two months after the U.S. and Iran begin a new round of talks to renegotiate a deal concerning Iran’s nuclear program.
In March, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had said that U.S. intelligence believes Iran “is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.”
