President Trump’s announcement on May 8 — to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions — began to isolate Iran again. “We’re going to deny them the benefit of the economic wealth that has been created and put real pressure, so that they’ll stop the full scale of the sponsorship of terrorism with which they’ve been engaged in these past years,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on May 13.
As neighbors with a 585-mile frontier, Iran and Afghanistan have connections spanning centuries. Relations were formally established in 1935 when both countries were ruled by monarchies. Since 1979—the year of Iran’s revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan—relations between Tehran and Kabul have gyrated.
Contributors to the 2010 book: Geneive Abdo • Michael Adler • David Albright • Ali Alfoneh • Shaul Bakhash • Henri J. Barkey• Mehrzad Boroujerdi • Rachel Brandenburg • Daniel Brumberg • Shahram Chubin • Patrick Clawson • Juan Cole • Michael Connell • Anthony H. Cordesman • Suzanne DiMaggio • James Dobbins • Michael Eisenstadt• Michael Elleman • Haleh Esfandiari • Farideh Farhi • Hadi Ghaemi • Jubin Goodarzi • Richard N. Haass • Stephen J. Hadley • Kevan Harris • Steven Heydemann • Emile Hokayem • Mark N.
Israel has long been wary of Iran’s power projection in the Levant, particularly in Syria. Ties between Tehran and Damascus have been close since the 1979 revolution, but the relationship deepened after Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011. With the regime’s survival at stake, Tehran doubled down on its support, providing critical military assistance—fighters and strategists—and economic aid estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
On May 8, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. "The fact is this was a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made. It didn’t bring calm, it didn’t bring peace, and it never will," Trump said in his address. "The agreement was so poorly negotiated that even if Iran fully complies, the regime can still be on the verge of a nuclear breakout in just a short period of time," he claimed.
Since 2003, Iranian influence has deepened in Iraq through a wide array of Shiite militias. Several militia leaders and politicians spent years in exile in Tehran during Saddam Hussein’s reign in the 1980s and 1990s. One of Iraq’s most powerful armed groups, the Badr Organization, was formed in 1982 by Iraqi exiles to fight Hussein with the support of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
On March 13, President Donald Trump announced that he was replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo. CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel will take Pompeo’s place, the first woman to hold that position if confirmed.
On November 4, Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. Saudi forces said they intercepted the missile but the Houthis hailed the launch as a success. A Houthi spokesman told Al Jazeera that the Burkan 2-H, a type of Scud missile, traveled more than 800 kilometers to its target. It was the first time the Houthis had attacked the Saudi capital.
The Trump administration has cited North Korea’s attainment of nuclear weapons and increasingly advanced missiles as a key reason for reexamining the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. “What we're saying now with Iran is don't let it become the next North Korea,” U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said on October 15.
