The Complex History of US-Iran Relations: A Visual Timeline

The US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites marks a nadir in the strained relationship between the two countries. But their fraught relations aren’t new. US involvement in, and conflict with, Iran is complicated and can be traced back decades.

1951

Discord between the two countries is rooted in the US backing of the 1953 coup that ousted Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iran’s nationalist prime minister, and reinstalled the monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was sympathetic to the West.

The move came after Iran’s parliament voted to nationalize the oil industry in 1951 to reclaim sovereignty over the country’s petroleum wealth. These ...