What Is America’s Real Issue with Iran?

By Ibrahim Alkatibi Daurawa

Since the Islamic Revolution that took place in Iran in 1979, the United States has continuously plotted against the Islamic Republic of Iran using different methods and strategies. Sometimes these actions are overt, at other times covert. On some occasions, the U.S. acts alone; at other times, it operates collectively with its allies. In certain instances, even Muslim countries have been drawn into these schemes—as happened during the eight-year Iran–Iraq War.

One may ask: what exactly has driven the United States to persist in this relentless hostility, without rest or fatigue?

A Brief Overview: The Iran–U.S. Conflict.

The conflict between Iran and the United States is one of the most consequential rivalries shaping the Middle East. It is not merely a bilateral dispute; rather, it is a multifaceted confrontation that fuels proxy wars, covert operations, alliances, sanctions, and chronic instability across the region.

The roots of this conflict date back to 1953, when the United States and Britain overthrew Iran’s Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, after he nationalized Iran’s oil industry and reclaimed it from Western control for the Iranian people. This move deeply angered Western powers, prompting the CIA and MI6 to orchestrate a coup that reinstated Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, granting him absolute authority.

With the backing of the United States and Israel, the Shah established SAVAK, one of the most notorious intelligence agencies in the region, infamous for torture, repression, and the assassination of anyone who opposed the Shah’s authoritarian and oppressive rule.

Under the Shah, America and European powers continued to exploit Iran’s wealth until the Islamic Revolution brought this era to an end.

The 1979 Islamic Revolution: A Decisive Break

The turning point came in 1979 when the Shah was overthrown and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini established an Islamic Republic founded on three core principles:

Resistance to imperialism and foreign interference

Rejection of U.S. dominance and hegemony

Political Islam as an alternative to the Western liberal-democratic order

In October 1979, Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran after uncovering documents proving American espionage activities inside Iran. The detention of U.S. diplomatic staff for 444 days (1979–1981) led to the complete severance of diplomatic relations and marked the beginning of a prolonged covert war waged by the United States against Iran.

Sanctions as a Weapon of War

The United States imposed successive waves of sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s economy, freezing Iranian assets held in U.S. banks, and confiscating Iranian property.

Washington justifies these sanctions by claiming they are intended to:

Prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons

Curtail Iranian support for resistance movements such as Hezbollah and Hamas

Restrict Iran’s ballistic missile program

Deny Iran access to advanced technologies necessary for economic growth and development.

In reality, sanctions became a substitute for direct military confrontation—designed to collapse Iran’s economy and undermine the living standards of its population.

These sanctions resulted in:

1-Economic recession

2-Inflation and widespread poverty

3-Shortages of medicine and advanced industrial equipment, including oil refining technology.

How Iran Circumvents Sanctions

Iran has developed multiple strategies to bypass sanctions, including:

A-Covert oil exports

B-Shadow  companies operating abroad

C-Secret banking and currency-exchange networks

D-Barter trade (goods-for-goods exchanges)

E-Use of cryptocurrencies, which are difficult to track.

These pressures forced Iran to pursue self-reliance, innovation, and domestic manufacturing, harnessing the skills and ingenuity of its people.

The Strategic Objective of U.S. Sanctions.

The primary goal of U.S. sanctions has been to impoverish the Iranian population creating hunger, deprivation, and social collapse. Sanctions have affected every aspect of life, including healthcare and education. Every avenue through which Iranians could sustain themselves has been deliberately blocked, with the intent of breaking their morale and resilience so that economic pressure would spark mass uprisings to overthrow the government.

The narrative promoted was that the suffering was caused by Iran’s Islamic system, which the West claims is incompatible with the modern world.

However, when the United States realized that this strategy was failing due to Iran’s adaptive measures, it shifted toward proxy warfare and internal destabilization, aiming to weaken the government from within before delivering a final blow.

War by Proxy and Direct Aggression

The United States encouraged Saddam Hussein to invade Iran in 1980 in an attempt to overthrow the newly established Islamic government. Washington and its allies supplied Saddam with weapons and instructed Arab states to finance the war. The U.S. also provided chemical materials used to manufacture chemical weapons, including mustard gas, which Saddam deployed against Iran, killing over 500,000 Iranians.

The war lasted eight years. Despite full Western and Arab backing, Saddam failed. Eventually, the same powers that supported him later turned against him and executed him after dismantling the weapons they had provided.

Assassinations and Acts of Terror

The United States and Israel have been involved in the assassination of Iranian clerics, government officials, and scientists in an effort to cripple the Iranian state. In 1989, they shot down an Iranian passenger plane, killing all 290 civilians onboard.

In 2022, the United States assassinated General Qassem Soleimani, prompting Iran to retaliate by attacking U.S. military bases in Iraq.

More recently, in 2025, the United States alongside Israel carried out airstrikes against Iran, aimed at triggering regime change and installing a Western-aligned proxy government.

The 2025 Regime-Change Project

In the same year, the U.S. and Israel launched a comprehensive plan to dismantle Iran’s governing system a project finalized in September 2025, though its groundwork had been laid years earlier. Even sanctions were part of this gradual, step-by-step strategy to eliminate Iran’s decades-old political system.

The plan involved systematic destabilization through multiple channels:

1. Using Iranians against Iran—the classic strategy of “destroying a city from within.”

2. Supporting the MKO (Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization), a group responsible for assassinating Iranian clerics, parliamentarians, and scientists. Although based outside Iran, the group was removed from the U.S. terrorist list and trained in neighboring countries.

3. Smuggling armed elements into Iran, including Kurdish militants along the Iran–Iraq border, reportedly moved through Turkey with CIA involvement and deployed in Tehran and other key cities.

4. Utilizing armed groups from Baluchistan and Azerbaijan, some trained abroad and others inside Iran.

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To be continued, Insha’Allah.