US-Iran tensions refer to the decades-long geopolitical and military standoff between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, centred on nuclear am…
On 4 November 1979, a group of Iranian student militants, emboldened by the Islamic Revolution that had ousted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi nine months earlier, seized the…
On 18 April 1988, the US Navy launched Operation Praying Mantis in retaliation for Iran mining international waters and damaging the USS Samuel B. Roberts. In a single d…
In his State of the Union address on 29 January 2002, President George W. Bush grouped Iran alongside Iraq and North Korea as an 'Axis of Evil' — states that he accused…
On 10 January 2006, Iran broke IAEA seals at its Natanz nuclear facility and resumed uranium enrichment research, ending a voluntary suspension it had observed since 200…
In late December 2011, as the European Union prepared a full embargo on Iranian crude oil in response to the nuclear programme, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahi…
On 14 July 2015, Iran and the P5+1 group — the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany — finalised the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna after 20 m…
On 8 May 2018, President Donald Trump announced the United States' withdrawal from the JCPOA, describing it as 'defective at its core' for not addressing Iran's ballisti…
On 13 June 2019, two oil tankers — the Norwegian-owned Front Altair and the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous — were attacked with limpet mines in the Gulf of Oman while…
In the early hours of 3 January 2020, a US MQ-9 Reaper drone fired missiles at a convoy leaving Baghdad International Airport, killing General Qasem Soleimani, commander…
The Biden administration entered office in January 2021 offering to return to the JCPOA if Iran reversed its nuclear violations. Seven rounds of talks in Vienna through…
On the night of 13–14 April 2024, Iran launched over 300 drones and ballistic missiles directly at Israeli territory — a historic first that marked the Islamic Republic'…
Returning to the White House in January 2025, Donald Trump immediately reinstated and intensified his maximum pressure campaign, signing executive orders targeting Irani…
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