Iran and the United States: Reconcilable Differences?

Abstract

Hostility between Iran and the United States has intensified since the mid-2000s. America's allegations regarding Iran's nuclear program and its association with terrorist organizations are the main drive for this rising tension. This study focuses on the latter. Specifically, it examines Tehran's ties to militant groups in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in the Palestinian Territories. I argue that although American and Iranian interests in the region are very different, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Notes

¹Karen De Young, “U.S. Keeps Pressure on Iran but Decreases Saber Rattling,” Washington Post, 11 February, 2007.

²Helene Cooper and Mark Mazzetti, “To Counter Iran's Role in Iraq, Bush Moves Beyond Diplomacy,” New York Times, 11 January, 2007.

³National Intelligence Estimate, Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/20071203_release.pdf (accessed 3 December 2007).

⁴Department of State Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Country Reports on Terrorism 2005, (Washington, DC, April 2006), 173.

⁵James A. Bill, “The Cultural Underpinnings of Polities: Iran and the United States,” Mediterranean Quarterly 17, no.1 (Winter 2006): 23–33, 32.

⁶Michael McFaul, Abbas Milani, and Larry Diamond, “A Win-Win Strategy for Dealing with Iran,” Washington Quarterly 30, no.1 (Winter 2006–07): 121–138, 122.

⁷William Wallis, Andrew England, and Gareth Smyth, “Arab States Seize on Call for Peace Drive,” Financial Times, 8 December 2006, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/50517400-865e-11db-86d5-0000779e2340,dwp_uuid = f98b03ba.

⁸Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, “Questioning the Shiite Crescent,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa = print&id = 19117 (accessed 25 April 2007).

⁹Vali Nasr and Ray Takeyh contend that Iran “abandoned the goal of exporting its revolution to its Persian Gulf neighbors at the end of 1980s and seeks influence within the existing regional power structure.” Vali Nasr and Ray Takeyh, “What We Can Learn from Britain about Iran,” New York Times, 5 April 2007, available on line at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/opinion/05NasrTakeyh.html?pagewanted = print (accessed 5 April 2007).

¹⁰Ray Takeyh, “Understanding the Iran Crisis,” Prepared Testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations, http://www.cfr.org (accessed 2 February 2007).

¹¹“Withdrawal of Occupiers First Step to Establish Security in Iraq,” Tehran Times, 29 November, 2006.

¹²“U.S. Shows Iranian Arms Found in Iraq,” Reuters, 11 February, 2007.

¹³Vali Nasr, “When the Shiites Rise,” Foreign Affairs 85, no.4 (July–August 2006): 58–74, 66.

¹⁴“Iran Has Always Sought to Expand Ties with Turkey: Leader,” Mehr News, 3 December 2007, http://www.mehrnews.com/en/newsdetail.aspx?NewsID = 415910 (accessed 11 June 2007).

¹⁵Ray Takeyh, “Time for Détente with Iran,” Foreign Affairs 86, no. 2 (March/April 2007): 29.

¹⁶R. K. Ramazani, “Wider Conflict Threatens,” Payvand, http://www.payvand.com/news/07/feb/1142.html (accessed 12 February 2007).

¹⁷David E. Sanger, “With Korea as Model, U.S. Ponders Long Role in Iraq,” New York Times, 3 June, 2007.

¹⁸U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Terrorism 2005, 197.

¹⁹Barbara Harff, “Minorities, Rebellion, and Repression in North Africa and the Middle East,” in Minorities at Risk: A Global View of Ethno-Political Conflicts, ed. Ted Robert Gurr (Washington, DC, 1993), 216–251, 239.

²⁰Graham E. Fuller, “The Hezbollah-Iran Connection: Model for Sunni Resistance,” Washington Quarterly 30, no. 1 (Winter 2006–07): 139–150, 144.

²¹Helena Cobban, “The Growth of Shiite Power in Lebanon and Its Implications for the Future,” in Shi'ism and Social Protest, ed. Juan R.I. Cole and Nikki R. Keddie (New Haven, 1986), 137–155, 144.

²²Augustus Richard Norton, Hezbollah: A Short History (Princeton, 2007), 34.

²³Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Raymond A. Hinnebusch, Syria and Iran: Middle Powers in a Penetrated Regional System (London, 1997), 123.

²⁴“Hezbollah through the Fog of the Lebanon War: An Interview with Augustus Richard Norton,” Journal of Palestine Studies 36, no.1 (Autumn 2006), 54–70, 64.

²⁵Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, “In Their Own Words: Hezbollah's Strategy in the Current Confrontation,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, http://www.CarnegieEndowment.org (accessed 30 January 2007).

²⁶“Middle East: A Look at Who Gained, Who Lost,” Payvand, http://www.payvand.com/news/06/aug/1166.html (accessed 16 August 2006).

²⁷“Iran Leader Praises Hezbollah Resistance,” Associated Press, 16 August, 2006.

²⁸Herb Keinon, Gil Hoffman, and Mark Weiss, “Winograd Report: PM Was Unprepared,” Jerusalem Post, 30 April, 2007.

²⁹Bill Samii, “Iran: Is Tehran Protecting Its Investment in Hezbollah?” Payvand, http://www.payvand.com (accessed 14 August 2006).

³⁰“Bolton Admits Lebanon Truce Block,” British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6479377.stm (accessed 23 May 2007).

³¹Cited in Kaveh L. Afrasiabi, “Tehran Teeters on the Path to War,” Asia Times, http://www.atimes.com (accessed 2 August 2006).

³²Augustus Richard Norton, “Why Hezbollah is Winning,” Middle East Journal 61, no.1 (Winter 2007): 145–150, 147.

³³Graham E. Fuller, “The Hezbollah-Iran Connection: Model for Sunni Resistance,” Washington Quarterly 30, no. 1 (Winter 2006–07), 139–150, 150.

³⁴U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Terrorism 2005, 195–196.

³⁵“Palestinian State Will Definitely Be Established: Leader,” Tehran Times, 10 December, 2006, http://www.Tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da = 12/11/2006&Cat = 2&Num = 017 (accessed 10 December 2006).

³⁶Shahram Chubin, Iran's Nuclear Ambitions (Washington, DC, 2006), 130–133.

³⁷Glenn Kessler, “2003 Memo Says Iranian Leaders Backed Talks,” Washington Post, 14 February, 2007.

³⁸Cited in Ray Takeyh, “Iran, Israel and the Politics of Terrorism,” Survival 48, no. 4 (Winter 2006–07), 83–96, 92.

³⁹Ethan Bronner, “Iran's Leader and Israel: What Did He Say, and What Did He Mean?” International Herald Tribune, 11 June 2006, http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file = /articles/2006/06/11/news/iran/php (accessed 11 June 2006).

⁴⁰Juan Cole, http://www.juancole.com/2006/05/hitchens-hacker-and-hitchens.html (accessed 9 June 2007).

⁴¹Anoushiravan Ehteshami, “The Future of Iran's Defense and Nuclear Policy,” in Iranian Challenges, ed. Walter Posch (Paris, 2006), 73.

⁴²International Institute for Strategic Studies, Military Balance (London, 2007), 224, 227.

⁴³Donna Miles, “Gates Calls for Continued International Pressure on Iran,” U.S. Department of Defense http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id = 48364 (accessed 8 December 2007).

⁴⁴Javad Zarif, “How Not to Inflame Iraq,” New York Times, 8 February, 2007.

⁴⁵“Rafsanjani, al-Qaradawi Call for Unity among Muslims,” Tehran Times, 15 February, 2007, http://www.Tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da = 2/15/2007&Cat = 2&Num = 022 (accessed 15 February 2007).

⁴⁶“Ahmadinejad Makes Landmark Visit to UAE,” Tehran Times, 14 May, 2007, http://www.Tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da = 5/14/2007&Cat = 2&Num = 009 (accessed 14 May 2007).

⁴⁷Maggie Farley, “U.S. and Iran Have Been Talking Quietly,” Los Angeles Times, 9 March, 2007.

⁴⁸For example, see Ewen MacAskill, “Target Iran: U.S. Able to Strike in the Spring,” Guardian, 10 February 2007. See also, Seymour M. Hersh who wrote several articles in the New Yorker claiming that American Special Forces are already operating in Iran and have identified several targets for a military strike.

⁴⁹Karen De Young “U.S. Keeps Pressure on Iran but Decreases Saber Rattling,” Washington Post, 11 February, 2007.

⁵⁰See for example, Michael McFaul, Abbas Milani, Larry Diamond, A Win-Win U.S. Strategy for Dealing with Iran,” Washington Quarterly 30, no. 1 (Winter 2006–07), 121–138, 125.

⁵¹Andrew Higgins and Jay Solomon, “Strange Bedfellows: Iranian Imbroglio Gives New Boost to Odd Exile Group,” Wall Street Journal, 29 November, 2006.

⁵²Ali Ansari, “Continuous Regime Change from Within,” Washington Quarterly 26, no. 4 (Fall 2003), 53–67, 65.

⁵³Claims of this meeting were widely reported in the Israeli media. See Shmuel Rosner and Aluf Benn, “A Time for Peace?” Haaretz, 6 October, 2006, and Jerusalem Post, “Editorial: Talking with the Saudis,” 27 September, 2006.

⁵⁴These sanctions were invoked under Executive Order 13382, which President Bush signed in June 2005.

⁵⁵James A. Baker and Lee H. Hamilton, The Iraq Study Group Report (New York, 2006), 51.

⁵⁶Gary Sick, “A Selective Partnership: Getting U.S.-Iranian Relations Rights,” Foreign Affairs 85, no. 6 (November-December 2006): 142–146, 145.

⁵⁷“Iran, U.S. Reach Iraq Policy Consensus,” Tehran Times, 29 May, 2007, http://www.Tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da = 5/29/2007&Cat = 2&Num = 014 (accessed 29 May 2007).

⁵⁸ BBC News report, “U.S. military aid for Middle East,” 30 July, 2007, BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6922664.stm (accessed 3 August 2007).

⁵⁹Gary Sick, “A Selective Partnership: Getting U.S.-Iranian Relations Right,” 142–146, 146.

⁶⁰Hooshang Amirahmadi, “U.S.-Iran Relations: Perils and Promises,” Payvand, http://www.payvand.com/news/06/sep/1254.html (accessed 22 September 2006).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gawdat Bahgat

Gawdat Bahgat is Director of Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Political Science, Indiana University of Pennsylvania.