top of page

The US and Iran Conflict, How did it start?

Writer's picture: Emerging MediaEmerging Media

By Riley Ehlermann '21

For some people, this confrontation between the United States and Iran might come as a surprise, but it has been years in the making. To understand the deep-rooted problems between the two countries, it is imperative to understand how they began.


For years, many powerful countries including the US, Russia, and the United Nations feared that Iran was building a nuclear weapon. Iran denied that their weapon was being built for destruction, but the relationships between Iran and other countries were still severely affected. This nuclear scare grew to such a threat that those countries enacted sanctions, or restrictions, on Iran in order to weaken their economy and to stop their nuclear expansion. One of the most effective sanctions included the prohibition of selling oil and gas to countries, a main source of profit for the country causing them to lose billions of dollars. Due to this loss and many other extreme consequences from the sanctions, President Rouhani, who is the second most powerful person behind the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, struck a deal with many countries to try to put an end to the regulations. The countries included the US, UK, Russia, France, Germany and China and all agreed to remove the sanctions in return for Iran to decrease their nuclear construction. However, it was not that easy. President Donald Trump later took the US out of this deal, thus causing Iran’s economy to tank again. This was followed by on going tensions between the two countries including the US blaming an oil attack on Iran, a US drone being shot down by Iran, some provocative tweets by President Donald Trump, and the most prevalent of all the US assignation of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and the bombings of US military bases by Iran.


As of now, tensions between both countries are extremely high and the debate of taking forces out of Iran has sprung up in Washington D.C.. Both country’s intentions are not to start a war, however only time can tell.

Comments


© 2024 by The Vivette Times

bottom of page