From its unification in 678 BC as The Empire of Persia, to 1979, as The Kingdom of Iran (name changed from Persia to Iran in 1935), Iran was always a monarchy until the late 1970’s.
In1978-1979, an Islamic Revolution occurred against the Kingdom, wishing to overthrow it, and replace it with a theocratic, totalitarian republic. Their last King, Mohammad Peza Pahlvali, was exiled after the radicals’ victory, transforming the nation into The Islamic Republic of Iran.
Before his death in Egypt of splenectomy in 1980, King Mohammad, seeking medical assistance for cancer, went to New York in October 1979 for surgery. This enraged much of the Iranian public, to which many Tehranian college students raided the US Embassy in Tehran (Iran’s capital), and held 52 Americans hostage from November 1979- January 1981. Needless to say, the hostage crisis ultimately crippled American-Iranian relations.
Shortly after, advancements between America’s rivals and Iran ensued.
In 2015, Iran was speculated to have been secretly building a nuclear stockpile. In an effort to regulate Iran, America, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China let Iran launch its nuclear program, with the 6 assisting and regulating them. However, Iran violated regulations. They established 20,000 Uranium centrifuges (they were only supposed to have 5,000 at max until 2026-2031), and gave Russia their lesser-quality Uranium in 2016.
US President Donald Trump, in 2018, disgruntled with Iran’s abuse, withdrew from the deal, and launched sanctions against Iran. Britain, France, and Germany followed suit. Iran’s biggest foreign investors withdrew from business there, and their inflation rate quadrupled, both as result of the sanctions.
Tensions continued to boil.
Last week, on June 13th, 2019, two oil tankers- one Japanese, one Norwegian- were attacked in the Gulf of Oman/Strait of Hormuz area. Iran is the prime suspect of these attacks, whose motive was to (most likely) raise the price of oil around the world.
It did not stop there.
Yesterday, June 20th, 2019, Iran’s military shot down a US Drone in the Strait of Hormuz, which was viewing the area of the tanker attacks. Iran’s foreign and defense ministries claimed that America had violated their national airspace. However, it was revealed by US Intelligence that the drone was 21 miles away from Iranian waters, making this an international violation.
American forces, under command of Donald Trump, were ready to launch air strikes on Iran late-Thursday night and early-Friday morning, but he called off the attacks. President Trump stated that he is looking to de-escalate tensions, and that the downing of an unmanned plane would not be worth the estimated 150 dead by air strikes.
With all of the tensions rising, the US Military is planning on sending 1,000 more troops to be stationed in the Middle East as a precaution to any acts of aggression in the near future.
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