Investigating the Reasons for the Divergence in Relations between Iran and America after the Islamic Revolution in Iran

Abstract

America's policy toward Iran was dramatically changed after the Islamic revolution in this country which was previously considered as a regional gendarme; in other words, the country protecting America's interests in the Middle East was converted into the main base of opposition to America’s policies. In fact, Islamic revolution of Iran led America to choose another country to protect its interests in the Middle East; that country was Iraq. Before Iranian revolution, Iraq was willing to have relations with the Soviet Union and purchased most of its weapons from the Eastern Bloc, but after Iranian revolution, Iraq expanded its relations with the West and received a lot of support from America, especially in the field of arms. However, these supports caused Iraq to be provoked to attack to Iran and create the Persian Gulf War. Actually, America tried to suppress and destroy or at least weaken Iran (which in those years had been converted into a model for Muslims’ democratic and freedom-loving uprisings around the world, particularly in the Middle East, and had proposed the strategies of issuing the Islamic revolution) by Iraq and Saddam's expansionist policies and aggressive temper. In fact, Iran was involved in an unwanted war to prevent the growth of fundamentalism in the region and the world that had been initiated following Iran. Also, America proposing the reasons such as hostage, opposition to the Iranian regime, and so forth obviously continued to support Iraq during the Persian Gulf War. The present paper attempts to briefly describe the main challenging causes of relations between Iran and America. In addition, Iran's nuclear activities in recent years have caused more strained relations between the two countries. On the other hand, the factors such as America's support for Israel, Iran support for Islamic groups, America's arms sales, and so forth have caused the tensions between the two countries to increase.