00:00Hello and welcome to the special edition of India Today Global. I'm Geeta Mohan.
00:04The U.S. President continues to thunder that there would be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender.
00:10The death toll of this war has crossed thousands in the first week and it surely doesn't seem anywhere close
00:17to an end.
00:19Seven decades ago, the United States of America and Iran were once close partners in West Asia.
00:25It's a fact hard to digest with the ongoing war.
00:29The two countries descended into full-scale war this time, marking the explosive culmination of decades of mistrust, sanctions, proxy
00:37conflicts and failed diplomacy.
00:40What began as a strategic alliance in the 1950s was shattered with the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
00:47Here's a report that traces the turbulent history from 1950 to the present conflict.
00:59USA and Iran became close allies after the 1953 CIA-backed coup that ousted popular Iranian Prime Minister Mohamed Mossadegh.
01:10Mossadegh was the man who had nationalized Iran's oil industry.
01:15America helped in reinstalling Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlvi as a pro-Western monarch in Tehran.
01:28The U.S. provided military aid and nuclear technology under the 1957 Atoms for Peace program.
01:36Laying groundwork for Iran's atomic ambitions and in return, it secured access to Iranian oil.
01:43Through the 1960s and 70s, American presidents Eisenhower, Nixon and others treated the Shah as a bulwark against Soviet influence,
01:55selling advanced weapons and overlooking his repressive rule.
02:00U.S. President Nixon's Tehran visit in 1972 promised unlimited non-nuclear arms sale,
02:08cementing the unfettered U.S. support.
02:12Iran's role in OPEC boosted its economy.
02:21But the Shah's white revolution, modernizing reforms, sparked domestic unrest from clerics and leftists.
02:30This, over the next two decades, sowed the seeds of revolution.
02:50The 1979 Iranian revolution toppled the self-crowned monarch, Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlvi.
02:57He and his family left Iran to live in exile.
03:01Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who branded America the great Satan, returned from exile and was elevated as the supreme leader of
03:10Iran.
03:26The revolutionaries stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979,
03:32seizing 52 Americans in retaliation for the Shah's U.S. medical treatment.
03:40The 444-day crisis humiliated President Jimmy Carter, whose failed rescue mission killed eight servicemen.
03:50By April 1980, U.S. President Jimmy Carter broke off diplomatic ties with Iran over the hostage crisis.
04:15The hostages released coincided with Ronald Reagan's 1981 inauguration under the Algiers Accords,
04:23which froze ties and imposed oil sanctions.
04:29Khamenei's theocratic rule changed the dynamics of the relation of the two nations forever.
04:40Jimmy Carter's successor listed Iran as a state sponsor of terror in 1984.
04:47Iran was in the middle of a bitter war with Iraq.
04:54America seemed tilted towards Saddam Hussein, with intelligence and dual-use technology, despite his chemical attacks on Iranians.
05:04Iran's backing of Hezbollah led to the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing,
05:11killing 241 U.S. troops, the deadliest day for Americans since Vietnam.
05:22But what came next was the most controversial twist in the relationship.
05:27The infamous political scandal of Iran-Contra that exposed Reagan officials secretly selling arms to Iran for hostage releases,
05:38diverting funds, diverting funds to Nicaraguan Contras, violating embargoes and eroding U.S. credibility.
05:47And then in 1988, a U.S. warship mistakenly shot down an Iranian passenger plane over the Gulf,
05:55killing all 290 aboard.
05:57The proxy war between Iran and the U.S.A. continued unabated.
06:08Post-Cold War, successive U.S. presidents laired sanctions on Iran.
06:14The 1992 Iran-Iraq Arms Non-Proliferation Act and 1996 Iran-Libya Sanctions Act targeted oil investments and technology transfers.
06:26George W. Bush's 2002 Axis of Evil Speech shattered detent amid revelations of Iran's secret, Natanz nuclear site.
06:40States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an Axis of Evil arming to threaten the peace of the world.
06:50By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger.
06:57They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred.
07:03They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States.
07:09U.S. officials accused Tehran of operating a secret nuclear weapons program.
07:14The new millennium only ushered in greater fissures in the relationship between Tehran and Washington, D.C.
07:20Other than Natanz, in 2009, Britain, France and the United States announced that Iran is building a secret uranium enrichment
07:29site at Fordham.
07:34I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear.
07:37I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear.
07:40Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
07:44Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
07:47So help you God?
07:48So help me God.
07:49Congratulations, Mr. President.
07:52All the best wishes.
07:53USA-elects President Barack Obama to the Oval Office.
08:05In 2012, he delivered a sanction ultimatum on foreign banks if they fail to significantly reduce imports of Iranian oil.
08:15Iranian oil sales drop, sparking an economic downturn.
08:20U.S. and Iranian officials began secret talks, which intensified in 2013 on the nuclear issue.
08:29That year, Hassan Rouhani gets elected as Iran's President on the promise to improve Iran's relations with the world and
08:39its economy.
08:44Barack Obama's 2013 call to Hassan Rouhani yielded the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
08:54Iran curbed enrichment for sanctions relief, extending breakout time to a year.
09:00Today is a great honor for us to announce that we have reached an agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue.
09:11With courage, political will, mutual respect and leadership, we delivered on what the world was hoping for, a shared commitment
09:23to peace and to join hands in order to make our world safer.
09:29I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me
09:47God.
09:49But then three years later, when Donald Trump came to power in his first presidency, he withdrew from the nuclear
09:55deal in 2018, citing missile threats and regional meddling, reimposing maximum pressure sanctions.
10:12On 3rd January 2020, a U.S. strike killed Iran Quds Force Chief Qasem Soleimani, near Baghdad.
10:22The Pentagon said Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack Americans in Iraq and the Middle East.
10:32This prompted missile retaliation on the U.S. basis in Iraq, along with proxy attacks via Houthis and Hezbollah.
10:56With a regime change in the Oval Office, Democrat President Joe Biden tried to improve U.S.-Iran relations.
11:05In 2021, U.S. and Iranian officials started to hold rounds of indirect nuclear talks.
11:12Joe Biden's joint comprehensive plan of action revival stalled after Ibrahim Raisi's 2021 election and 2022 Mahasameenny protest.
11:36Where women, life, freedom chants challenged the regime.
11:51Iran aided Russia's Ukraine war and Hamas' 2023 Israel attack, drawing U.S. ire.
12:02Finally, in August 2023, Iran and the United States agreed to a prisoner swap and the unfreezing of $6 billion
12:12of Iranian assets in South Korea.
12:34Trump's 2025 re-election mixed threats and talks with envoy Steve Witkoff.
12:40While White House tried to rule Iran in, things started to spiral out of control fast.
12:49Well, they won't be enriching. If they enrich, then we're going to have to do it the other way.
12:53And I don't really want to do it the other way, but we're going to have to do it.
12:56What's your latest? There's not going to be enrichment.
12:59God willing, it won't come to that. And the talks will yield results.
13:02But if they don't, and conflict is imposed on us, the enemy's losses will undoubtedly be greater than ours.
13:09In that case, America will have to leave the region because all its bases are within our reach.
13:14We have access to them, and without hesitation, we will target all of them in the host countries.
13:25Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites on June 13, 2025.
13:30U.S. B-2 bombers hit Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan on June 21.
13:46A ceasefire was reached only to be breached, soon after pushing the U.S. president to the brink.
14:08Iran was once again cornered.
14:11External pressure, sanctions spiked, inflation in Iran.
14:20Mass protests erupted in December 2025 over economic collapse, with regime crackdown killing thousands.
14:39The American president issued a warning to the Iranian regime to stop escalation of violence against protesters.
14:49If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they're going to get hit very hard
14:55by the United States.
14:57Nearly two months later, finally on February 28, 2026, U.S.-Israeli epic fury targeted scores of sites, killing Khamenei, ending
15:10his 37-year rule.
15:15Iran retaliated with missiles on Israel and Gulf allies, closing the Strait of Hormuz and spiking oil prices, threatening the
15:29world order for decades to come.
15:41Iran and Israel once shared a strategic alliance under the Shah, marked by oil trade, military cooperation and mutual enemies
15:50like Arab nationalists.
15:52The 1979 Islamic Revolution dramatically reversed this, turning Iran into Israel's fiercest ideological foe through proxy wars, nuclear tensions and
16:02direct clashes, culminating in recent open conflict, or what we're looking at as war.
16:14Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel after it was formed in 1948.
16:23Under Shah Muhammad Reza Pahalvi, Iran recognized Israel after Turkey, despite initial UN votes against the creation of Israel.
16:34Both nations allied against common threats, including Egypt's Nasser and Soviet influence, with Israel viewing Iran as part of its
16:44periphery doctrine to counter Arab states.
16:50That was the period when economic ties flourished.
16:54Iran supplied oil to Israel via the Eilat Ashkelon pipeline, bypassing Arab boycotts, while Israeli firms built infrastructure in Iran.
17:06El Al flew direct Tel Aviv-Tehran routes, and trade included arms and intelligence sharing.
17:19Military collaboration peaked in projects like Project Flower for missile development.
17:26Israel owed Iran nearly $1 billion by 1979 for oil and ventures.
17:33This remained unpaid amid later hostilities.
17:46Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's Islamic revolution in 1979 ousted the Shah, and established a theocratic rule in Iran.
17:58It also severed all ties with Israel.
18:06The Tehran embassy became the Palestinian Liberation Organization's outpost.
18:12And Khomeini branded Israel the little Satan, an enemy of Islam, rejecting its legitimacy.
18:26This shift stemmed from ideological opposition to Zionism, as imperialism, support for Palestinians, and anti-Western sentiment.
18:41Pre-Revolution Islamists like Talighani had criticized Shah-Israel ties, but Khomeini institutionalized this hostility.
18:53Between 1980 to 1988, during the Iran-Iraq war, covert dealings persisted briefly with Israel selling Iran $500 million in
19:06arms via Operation Seashell to counter Iraq, including TOW missiles and F-4 parts.
19:25Once the Gulf War was over, overt enmity between the two countries grew.
19:33Iran funded Hezbollah's formation in 1982 against Israel's Lebanon invasion, leading to the 2006 war where the IRGC aided rocket
19:43attacks on Israel.
19:49Iran backed Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Houthis, in the axis of resistance.
19:59Smuggling arms via Sudan and Syria, Israel intercepted them regularly.
20:09Events like the Buenos Aires embassy bombing revealed Iran-Hezbollah understanding.
20:16Israel responded with covert operations as well.
20:23Assassinations of nuclear scientists from Iran, stuxnet cyber attack damaging Natanz, centrifuges, and air strikes on convoys in Syria were
20:34Tel Aviv's response to Tehran's action.
20:49In the second decade of the new millennium, nuclear tensions escalated as Iran's nuclear program became existential for Israel.
21:00Khamenei called Israel a cancerous tumor, while Ahmadinejad's rhetoric-fueled fears.
21:09In 2013, Israel struck Syrian sites and Iranian assets, including Parchin explosions.
21:21Iran plotted attacks on Israeli diplomats in India and Thailand.
21:36The decade-long overt operations prepared the ground for direct confrontations.
21:43By 2024, Gaza war spillover intensified as Israel hit Iran's Damascus consulate, killing IRGC generals.
21:57Iran launched 300-plus drones and missiles.
22:05Israel assassinated Hamas's Haniyeh in Tehran.
22:36The war continues and this time it threatens to spill over.
22:40Reaching India's backyard.
22:42Once allies, now arch-rivals, have for sure changed the world order for decades to come.
22:48With that, it's a wrap on this special edition.
22:51Keep watching India Today.
22:53Goodbye and take care.
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