The history of US imperialist hostility against Iran spans over a century. Whether through coups, supporting a US-friendly dictator, or pummeling Iran with sanctions and war, the American ruling class has continually attempted to exert its control over Iran’s people and resources.

The 1953 coup

In 1951, Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, nationalized the country’s oil industry. In response, the CIA orchestrated a coup d’état, backing gangs that deposed him in 1953.

The coup strengthened the king of Iran, known as the Shah, who was a useful American puppet during the Cold War conflict with the Soviet Union. The US trained much of the Shah’s military leadership, as well as the notorious SAVAK—the brutal secret police responsible for the torture and murder of thousands of dissidents—and even gave Iran weapons-grade uranium in the 1960s!

The Iranian Revolution

This regime came crashing down when the masses of Iran overthrew the Shah in 1979. Unfortunately, Iran’s reformist communist parties saw the Ayatollah Khomeini as a “progressive” bourgeois, allowing the Islamic fundamentalists to hijack the social revolution and fill the political vacuum. Jimmy Carter’s Democratic administration helped facilitate the transfer of power to the Ayatollah, thinking this would prevent the communists from taking power.

Things didn’t play out as Carter expected. Under enormous pressure from the anti-imperialist masses, the Ayatollah’s new Islamic Republic regime fully nationalized the country’s oil, kicking out Western corporations which had been making enormous profits exploiting Iran’s resources.

Tensions with the West snapped during the 1979–81 hostage crisis, when US embassy staff were captured and held by Islamic fundamentalist students. The US broke off relations with Iran in 1980 and proceeded with a new plan: to destroy anything even remotely revolutionary and depose the new regime.

This regime came crashing down when the masses of Iran overthrew the Shah in 1979. But Iran’s reformist communist parties saw Khomeini as a “progressive” bourgeois, allowing the Islamic fundamentalists to hijack the social revolution. / Image: Unknown, Wikimedia Commons

The Iran-Iraq War

With American backing, Iraq under Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980. The Iranian masses rallied to defend their homeland. A bloody, eight-year-long war of attrition followed. By the end, as many as two million were dead with neither side scoring a real victory.

During the Iran-Iraq War, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) became a major pillar of the regime. Originally a loose network of “revolutionary” Islamic committees connected to the clerics, it was consolidated as a military force loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. They pledged to extend the so-called “Islamic Revolution” across the Middle East, promising to kick the US out of the region and liberate Palestine from the Zionists.

The IRGC formed a separate military force, alongside the regular Iranian Army. They also helped form Hezbollah in Lebanon as a proxy force against US and Israeli imperialism. After the war, the IRGC became a major economic player, controlling important parts of the Iranian economy.

“Axis of Evil”

In the 1990s, the regime tried to pivot back to friendly relations with the West. In the period of “hyperglobalization,” after the fall of the USSR and the emergence of the US as the main imperialist power, the Iranian regime sought to ingratiate itself into the new “liberal world order.” Under Presidents Rafsanjani and Khatami, the government began privatizing state-owned assets and deregulating the economy, opening up the country to the exploitation of the imperialists.

But relations took a downward turn during the “War on Terror,” when the US sought to take out any potential rivals and establish full control over the Middle East. The Iranian regime offered to help the US in its efforts. They were rejected. Instead, Republican President George W. Bush included Iran in the “Axis of Evil” and heavily sanctioned the country’s economy.

In 2015, the US and Iran agreed to a deal. Iran would limit its enrichment of uranium to the level needed for civilian purposes only. Trump scrapped this deal during his first term, and Biden never attempted to restore it. / Image: SecretName101, Wikimedia Commons

“Axis of Resistance” 

American military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as their support for proxies in Syria, massively destabilized the region. These imperialist wars proved enormously costly and unpopular among the American public.

Iran stepped into the breach, supporting Shia militias in Iraq, propping up the Assad regime in Syria, pouring resources into Hezbollah in Lebanon, aiding Hamas in Palestine, and providing support to the Houthis in Yemen. Iran, now a regional power, called this network the “Axis of Resistance” against US and Israeli imperialism.

Two reasons Iran was able to play this increasingly independent role were the weakening of Iraq, once a strong regional rival, by the 2003 American invasion, and the rise of Russia and China as imperialist powers. Russia and Iran developed economic ties and coordinated mutually beneficial exchanges of armaments and technology. China became a major consumer of Iranian oil and a key investor in oil production. As Iran built up its industrial base, China worked to bring Iran under its own imperialist sphere of influence.

Nuclear deals

However, a wing of the Iranian ruling class still wanted to come to terms and restore relations with the West. They hoped to accomplish this through leverage over its nuclear program. In 2015, the US and Iran agreed to a deal. Iran would limit its enrichment of uranium to the level needed for civilian purposes only, and in return, the US lifted many of its sanctions.

Trump scrapped this deal during his first term, and Biden never attempted to restore it. Meanwhile, Iran began enriching uranium slightly higher than was allowed under the old agreement. The regime also turned further towards Russia and China, signing a 25-year Cooperation Agreement with China in 2021.

The ongoing US-Israeli attack on Iran aims to reassert control over the Middle East and knock out a key strategic ally of China and Russia. While the imperialists start new wars abroad, the Revolutionary Communist International is working to end all wars of conquest and imperial domination, forever.