January 3, the United States ordered an airstrike into Iraq targeting and killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the second most powerful man in Iran next to the Supreme Leader. The airstrike, however, was not entirely unprovoked as the two countries have held tense relations since the late 1900s.

Prior to 1979, the Iranian government was a constitutional monarchy, containing a parliament, prime minister, and Shah, who acted as a monarch. During this time, the United States and Iran held peaceful relations as the U.S. was one of the few western powers to not exploit Iran for its primary natural resource: oil.

Following the election of a new Iranian Prime Minister in 1951, who opposed the British extraction of Iranian oil, the Iranians attempted to cut off western access to their oil reserves. As a result, the British intelligence agency, MI6, planned a coup against the Iranian government. The coup was also supported by the United States due to the fear of the Iranian government turning to Russia and becoming a communist nation in the midst of the Cold War.

Following the coup, Britain and the United States established a new Shah that, with the help of the U.S., took away many forms of democracy within the Iranian government.

This fall of democracy within Iran, along with the growing protest movements in the Middle East, caused tensions to rise among the Iranian people until in 1979 revolution broke and the Iranian government was successfully overthrown by Islamic conservatives.

Following the revolution, the Iranian people established a new form of government called an Islamic Republic in which a Supreme Leader rules the country. This new government ardently opposed the United States due to the U.S.’s prior involvement in Iran’s government and the strict Islamic law adopted by Iran forbidding any involvement with western culture.

The newly tense relationship between Iran and the United States caused a situation to arise shortly after the revolution when November 4, 1979, Iranians stormed the U.S. embassy in Iran and held 52 American citizens hostage for 444 days before being released.

Each U.S. president since the hostage crisis has had varying amounts of success and failure when attempting to defuse the Iranian situation. Some have escalated the conflict, while others have been able to create a temporary truce that often only lasts for the term of their presidency.

The most successful attempt at peace in recent history resulted from the Iran nuclear deal during the Obama administration. The deal allowed for trade embargoes that crippled the Iranian economy to be dropped in return for Iran stopping any development of their nuclear weapons program. The Trump administration later pulled out, however, believing that Iran did not deserve the economic freedom it received from the deal and that they had not completely abandoned their nuclear ambitions.

Tensions further heightened during the Trump administration due to the U.S.’s increased military presence in the region surrounding Iran and the alleged Iranian attack on U.S. oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman in 2019. Later in 2019, the Iran shot down a U.S. drone they claimed was flying over Iranian airspace. The U.S. denied this claim stating the drone was over international waters.

These events all led to the recent U.S. airstrike that killed Qasem Sleimani, resulting in the highest tension between the two nations since the 1979 hostage crisis. In retaliation to the air strike, the Iranian government sent missiles targeting a U.S. military base in Iraq. Although the attack took no lives, it pushed the two nations closer to a potential war.

President Trump, however, seems confident no more violence will result from this conflict stating in a tweet January 8, “All is well.” While some believe that the violence and heightened tension will result in war, others think it is likely that Iran will back down following their retaliatory attack.

As tensions rise, the United States is wary of any further provocation in the Middle East that could cause cause wars similar to those of the 1990s and early 2000s.

In developing news, Iran is being accused of shooting down (mistakenly) a Ukrainian passenger airliner flying over Iranian airspace, killing all 176 on board. The plane crashed shortly after the Iranian attack on the two U.S. bases in Iraq. Iran initially denied any responsibility, but then admitted their grave mistake leaving tensions high in the international community as investigation into the incident commences.