THE UNITED STATES AND IRAN
PRI's The World
There are a number of countries at the top of America's list of foreign policy concerns. Iraq is obviously one of them. Another one is Iraq's next-door neighbor, Iran. Right now the United States is worried about the possibility that Iran might develop nuclear weapons. But President Bush is just the latest US president to worry about Iran.
On November 4, 1979, during the Carter administration, Iranian revolutionaries stormed the American embassy in Tehran and took dozens of US diplomats and marines captive. They held them for more than a year. Relations between the two countries were destroyed.
To many Americans it seemed as if the confrontation came out of nowhere. That's not the way Iranians saw it. They remembered 1953, the year the CIA organized a coup in their country. It resulted in the overthrow of Iran's prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh. Iran has never forgotten that injustice, just as the United States has never forgiven Iran for taking Americans hostage. In our four-part series The World's Jeb Sharp takes an in depth look at the history of US policy towards Iran.
The US and Iran Part I - the 1953 Coup
In Part One, The World's Jeb Sharp has a look at how Washington changed the destiny of another country.
Audio 1 parteTrascrizione 1 parte
The US and Iran Part II - the Shah and the revolution
In part II of our series on US policy toward Iran, Jeb Sharp examines America's relationship with Tehran during the reign of Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi.
Audio 2 parteTrascrizione 2 parte
The US and Iran part III - the hostage crisis
The United States has charged that Iran is enriching uranium as a step toward developing nuclear weapons. That's a worrisome scenario for Washington, given its history of bad relations with Tehran. The United States lost Iran as a regional ally when the Shah was overthrown in 1979. The same year, students took dozens of Americans hostage at the US Embassy in Tehran. In Part III of her series on US policy toward Iran, Jeb Sharp looks back at the hostage crisis and its legacy.
Audio 3 parteTrascrizione 3 parte
The US and Iran part IV - hostile relations
US relations with Iran have never completely recovered from the seizure of American hostages at the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 as Jeb Sharp reports in the last part of her series on the history of a trying relationship.
Audio 4 parteTrascrizione 4 parte
Edited by Ruitor2 - 25/3/2011, 16:06
