US-Iranian Relations After The Assassination of Suliemani.

The assassination of Major-General of the Quds Force Qasem Soliemani by the United States military jets on 2 January 2020 put relations between America and Iran on a knife-edge. The assassination has opened a new and possibly more devastating and deadly chapter in the relationship between a super-power and an emerging regional. While relations have long been characterized as bad between the United States and Iran, since just after 1978 when the Islamic Revolution forced the Shah to abdicate and when young revolutionaries took over the US Embassy in Tehran with 52 American hostages, today rapport between the two states is poised for a major war. However, Donald Trump, who ordered the assassination, has subsequently sought to de-escalate, saying the United States is not seeking military conflict with Iran, and merely wants it to renegotiate the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action it signed with the different world powers. In this analysis, the author examines the factors that lead to the rising international tensions examining the different actors that have come into play including Iran and its political leadership starting from the country‟s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Prime Minister Hassan Rouhani, and Jawad Zarif, the country‟s Foreign Minister. As well, as the international dimension that includes Russia and all members of the UN Security Council, Iran‟s regional role in the Arab world is examined with analysis centering on its implications and its interlocking aspects with world powers. United States relations with Iran had been long and checkered. In this respect, this paper focuses on the historical aspects of diplomacy between Tehran and Washington that started in the early 1950s and developed smoothly till 1978. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]