US-Iran relations remain sour decades after coup and hostage crisis

Antagonism is rooted in overlapping historical experiences that continue to shape how each country views the other, writes Colin Sheridan

To understand how the relationship deteriorated so dramatically, it is necessary to go back well before the revolution that transformed Iran in 1979. Picture: iStock

For more than four decades, relations between the United States and Iran have been defined by hostility, suspicion, and periodic confrontation.

From sanctions and nuclear negotiations to proxy conflicts across the Middle East, the two countries have remained locked in one of the most complex power struggles in modern geopolitics.