An Overview of U.S-Iran Relations Past and Present w/ Dr. Assal Rad

On this edition of Parallax Views, U.S.-Iran relations have been fraught with tensions over the course of many years. he JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), or Iran nuclear deal, initiated during the Obama, however, seemed to mark a turning point towards potentially better diplomatic relations between the two countries. That all changed when Donald J. Trump took the White House in 2016 and effectively withdrew the U.S. from the deal. With the transition to a new administration with President Joe Biden many who supported the JPCOA had high hopes for the U.S. reentering the deal and U.S.-Iran relations improving. These hopes were buttressed by the fact that Biden, when he was on the campaign trail, was very critical of Donald Trump's handling of U.S.-Iran relations. However, those hopes have been diminishing in the time since Biden has transitioned from Candidate to Commander-in-Chief and continued some of the Trump era "maximum pressure" policies on Iran.

Joining us to discuss U.S-Iran relations and the potential for a more diplomatic approach to them is Dr. Assal Rad of the National Iranian American Council. Dr. Rad recently co-authored, alongside Negar Mortazavi, a piece for Foreign Policy entitled "President Biden Must Follow the Advice of Candidate Biden on Iran".

In addition to discussing some of the point made in said article, Dr. Rad offers an overview of U.S.-Iran relations in the 20th and 21st century including the Iran hostage crisis, the U.S.-backed coup of Iran's democratically elected President Mossadegh in 1953, U.S.-Iran relations during the Bush-era War on Terror, the Obama years and the JCPOA, and much, much more. We also discuss the nature of diplomacy, why it is important to apply pressure to U.S. elected officials on the matter of fostering more diplomatic relations with Iran, the effect of U.S. sanctions on Iran, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's recent praise of Biden's approach to Iran so far, the potential of war, and much, much more in this wide-ranging conversation.