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TIMELINE OF EVENTS:

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• March, 1951: Nationalist Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh attempts to nationalize the British-owned oil industry. The shah opposes Mossadegh and accepts the CIA's (Central Intelligence Agency) offers of US assistance in a coup to make him leader and overthrow the elected leader at the time.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• August 19, 1953: The CIA staged a coup to overthrow the democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh because his policies threatened the profits of BP. Mossedagh was returning Iran's oil wealth to the rightful owners: the Iranian people. In Mossedagh's place, we put a brutal puppet dictator: the shah. The Shah's brutal policies gave rise to extreme right wing Islamic-Persian nationalism, culminating to the rise of Iran's current theocratic plutocracy. Much like the bungling of both Iraq & Afghanistan, they did not stabilize the region, creating the hotbed for violence you see today. Western firms had controlled the region’s oil wealth. When the U.S. firm in Saudi Arabia bowed to pressure in late 1950 and agreed to share oil revenues evenly with Riyadh, the British concession in Iran came under intense pressure to follow suit, but refused. In 1951, Mossadegh nationalized Iran’s oil industry. A fuming United Kingdom began conspiring with U.S. intelligence services to overthrow Mossadegh and restore the monarchy under the shah. This coup caused resentment and distrust against the US, and set Iran from the path toward democracy to that of a dictatorship. This has ALWAYS been about oil, not "keeping us safe".

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• June 5, 1957: The US (under Republican Eisenhower) and Iran sign the Cooperation Concerning Civil Uses of Atoms, a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement. The program shared nuclear technology and education with states around the world — including Israel, Pakistan and Iran. The program provided Iran with the foundation for its current, highly nuclear program.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• 1957: According to the Federation of American Scientists, U.S. and Israeli intelligence officers work with Iran to set up SAVAK, an Iranian intelligence organization later blamed for the torture and execution of thousands of political prisoners and violent suppression of dissent.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• 1963: The shah implements “The White Revolution,” an aggressive campaign of social and economic Westernization that is met with intense popular opposition. Popular nationalist Ayatollah Khomeini is arrested in one of many crackdowns on the shah’s opponents. By the late 1960s the shah relies regularly on SAVAK to quell dissidence.

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• 1976: In one of a series of reforms that alienate his people, the shah replaces the Islamic calendar with an “imperial” calendar, beginning with the founding of the Persian Empire. Many of the shah’s growing number of critics see this as anti-Islamic.

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• 1978: Iranians resort to rioting, mass demonstrations and strikes to protest the shah’s authoritarian rule. In response, he enforces martial law.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• January, 1979: The shah flees Iran amid intensifying unrest.

       (Click Link) (Click Link)

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• February, 1979: Islamic nationalist Ayatollah Khomeini returns from France, where he was exiled for his opposition to the shah’s regime. For the first time, Iran became independent from foreign powers and regained its sovereignty. Instead of engaging Khomeini, the USA began working to undermine him by attempting to launch a counterrevolution, supporting the Iraqi invasion and strengthening an alliance with Iran's regional rival, Saudi Arabia

       (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• April, 1979: Under Ayatollah Khomeini’s guidance, Iran declares itself a theocratic republic guided by Islamic principles, and a referendum is held to name it the Islamic Republic of Iran.

       (Click Link)

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• November, 1979: Islamic students storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking hostage 52 American employees and demand that the shah return from receiving medical treatment in the United States to face trial in Iran. The hostage situation ignites a crisis between the United States and Iran.

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• April, 1980: Iran and the United States sever diplomatic ties over the hostage crisis, and the U.S. Embassy becomes a training ground for the Revolutionary Guards Corps.

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• July, 1980: The shah dies in exile in Egypt.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• 1980: Hoping to capitalize on chaos in Iran, Iraq starts a war in 1980. The US fears Iranians will be able to defeat Iraq and continue a takeover of the region. The Reagan administration provides Baghdad with intelligence and resources. When Iraq uses chemical weapons against Iran, the US continues to support Saddam Hussein. 

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• 1985: Despite an arms embargo, President Reagan administration officials keep selling weapons to Iran, The revenue from the weapons sales circumvent US Congress to fund Contra guerrillas fighting against the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua. This scandal has become know as the Iran-Contra Affair. Reagan administration officials are charged with lying to Congress about the backdoor efforts to sell weapons to Iran. 

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• July 3, 1988: During a conflict with Iranian ships in the Persian Gulf, US Navy Vincennes warship shoots down Iran Air Flight 655. The Airbus A300 is a passenger plane carrying many pilgrims on their way to Mecca. All 290 people on board are killed. Americans claim the large plane was mistaken for an F-14 fighter jet.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• 1996: US passes th H.R.3107 - Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996, known as the Iran Sanctions Act, penalizing investments in Iran's petroleum industry. US President Bill Clinton issues executive orders that expand sanctions and generally ban the exchange of goods and services between the US and Iran. 

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) 

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• October, 2001: After the terrorist attacks in the US, Iran offers the Bush administration a back channel with Iran against a mutual enemy: the Taliban. Soleimani aided the US to help defeat the terrorists. In 2002, US President George W. Bush betrayed Iran by includes Iran as part of the “Axis of Evil” in his State of the Union.

       (Click link) or (Click Link)

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• August, 2005: Qassam Soleimani was the face of armed resistance against ISIS in Iraq and Syria and contributed in a big way in defeating ISIS

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• July 31, 2012: US law goes into effect giving Obama the power to sanction foreign banks, including the central banks of US allies, if they fail to significantly reduce their imports of Iranian oil. The result is a drastic reduction in Iranian oil sales and a sharp downturn in the Iranian economy. Hassan Rouhani is elected Iran’s president on a platform of improving Iran’s relations with the world and its economy, something that can only be achieved by easing sanctions. On Sept. 28, Obama and Rouhani speak by telephone in the highest-level contact between the two countries in three decades.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• July 14, 2015: Iran and the six powers strike an agreement, under which Iran agreed to take a series of steps, including slashing its number of centrifuges and disabling a key part of its Arak nuclear reactor — in return for significant easing of US, UN and EU sanctions.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• June 15, 2017: Bernie Sanders is the ONLY person (besides Rand Paul) to vote against the sanctions on Iran. While the Russian sanctions were the focus of corporate media outlets, it was the Iran sanctions that posed the biggest threat by undermining our mutual agreement with Iran (see Iran Nuclear Deal). We essentially gave Trump permission to go back on our country's promise in that agreement.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• May 9, 2018: Trump pulls out of the agreement with Iran regarding nuclear weapons. Trump abandoned a 2015 pact between Iran and world powers under which Tehran accepted curbs to its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions. Iran had been complying with the deal when Trump decided to pull out. The deal included the following provisions for Iran: 

1. Reducing Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium by 97 percent, and banning them from possessing any uranium potent enough that it could be used to fuel a bomb

2. Capping its number of nuclear centrifuges, devices used to enrich uranium, at roughly 5,000 — and only permitting it to use old, outdated, and slow centrifuges

3. Stopping Iran from operating its Arak facility used to make plutonium that could fuel a bomb

4. Permitting wide-ranging and intrusive IAEA inspections designed to verify that Iran isn’t cheating on any portion of the deal

       (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• May 10, 2018: The Democratic Party pretended to be outraged that Trump has pulled out of the Iran deal, but the Democrats’ previous support for sanctions already violated the Iran deal, whose benefits for the Iranian people were almost entirely premised on relief from devastating sanctions. Bernie Sanders was the ONLY democrat to vote against the Iran sanctions.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• August, 2018: Total S.A. (a French oil & gas company) officially withdrew from the Iranian South Pars gas field because of sanctions pressure from the US, leaving CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation) to take up their 50.1% stake in the natural gas field, of which it had already 30% and putting the country in more economic turmoil.

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• October, 2018: When ISIS took control of large parts of Iraq and held Indians hostage, Tehran helped Delhi in securing the release of nurses and locating other group comprising Indian workers

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• November 2018: The United States officially reinstated all sanctions against Iran that were previously lifted before the U.S. withdrew from the Iran deal.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• February 18, 2019: House democrats sign off on huge military defense budget for trump. Nancy Pelosi’s office sent an email to House Democrats proclaiming that, “In our negotiations, Congressional Democrats have been fighting for increases in funding for defense.” Chuck Schumer’s office announced that, “We fully support President Trump’s Defense Department’s request.” 

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• February, 2019: A car laden with explosives hit a bus of Revolutionary Guard soldiers on Zahedan-Khash road in Iran’s border province of Sistan-Balouchestan, killing 27 and injuring 13. Pakistan-based Jaish ul-Adl Takfiri terrorist group, which has ties to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack. Days after the attack, Soleimani said Iran does not want mere condolences, but concrete action from Pakistan. “Can’t you, as a nuclear-armed state, deal with a hundreds-strong terrorist group in the region?" Soleimani said.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• April 8, 2019: The US inflicted economic and travel sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and organizations, companies and individuals affiliated with it. He also declared them a "Foreign Terrorist Group", in a pathetic attempt to create fear of Iran. 

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link) 

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• April 2019: The U.S. threatened to sanction countries continuing to buy oil from Iran after an initial six-month waiver announced in November expired.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• June 7, 2019: The US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions to Iran's petrochemical industry for financial supporting to IRGC (Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps)

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• June 24, 2019: Trump imposed additional sanctions, this time on Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his office and those closely affiliated with his access to key financial resources. Trump targeted eight senior commanders of the navy, aerospace and ground forces components of IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) with sanctions.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• July 12, 2019: House democrats unite to give Trump a HUGE military budget of 733 billion, without ANY stipulation for how that money is to be used.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• July 31, 2019: The United States placed sanctions on Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• November 10, 2019: Iran finds field with 53 billion barrels of oil, increasing Iran's reserve by one third. 

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) 

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• December 12, 2019: Pelosi and house democrats pass $738 billion military spending authorization package, ignoring progressive Democrats angered by the loss of provisions that would have curtailed endless wars and put President Trump’s most violent foreign policy ambitions in check. Provisions to prevent Pentagon money from funding President Trump’s border wall, ending U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s bloody campaign in Yemen, and requiring Trump to seek congressional permission before attacking Iran were dropped in negotiations by Pelosi. The 2020 NDAA is larger than the authorization approved by Congress the year prior, boosting Pentagon spending by an additional $22 billion.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• January 2, 2019: The US assassinates Irans top General, Qassim Soleimani in an unprovoked attack and an act of war.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• January 2, 2020: The price of oil skyrockets after the assassination of Iran's top General, Qassim Soleimani by the Trump administration.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) 

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• January 3, 2020: Countries around the world publicly condemn the assassination by the USA, calling it 'An extremely dangerous escalation' and an 'urgent need for de-escalation'. These countries include France, Germany, United Kingdom, Turkey, Canada, Russia, China,

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)

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• January 4, 2020: The Department of Homeland Security confirms there's 'no specific, credible threat' from Iran against the USA, further proving this assassination was an unprovoked attack against a country we are not at war with.

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link) 

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• January 4, 2020: Ignoring the fact that he is the one who attacked Iran, Trump said that if Iran strikes any Americans or American assets, the United States has targeted 52 Iranian sites,  "some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture. They attacked us, & we hit back. If they attack again, which I would strongly advise them not to do, we will hit them harder than they have ever been hit before!". This statement is a lie, as you will see in the timeline provided. We have always been the ones provoking them. 

       (Click Link) or (Click Link) or (Click Link)​ or (Click Link)

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• January 5, 2020: Iran raises their red war flag after the assassination of their top ranking general, Soleimani. Red flags in Shiite tradition symbolize both the blood spilled unjustly and serve as a call to avenge a person who is slain.

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January 7, 2020: 

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