The 2020 Presidential Election Will Decide the Future of U.S.-Iranian Relations

One event, more than any other, has shaped the contemporary U.S. political attitude on Iran: the U.S. embassy seizure by Iranian students on November 4, 1979. Images of Americans blindfolded, with their hands tied, were seared into the American psyche. This event continues to color how some Americans see Iran, as evidenced by a tweet earlier this year from President Donald Trump, in which he threatened to attack fifty-two Iranian cultural sites, one for every American held hostage all those years ago. Often missing from the story is the actual fear Iranians felt that the United States would lead a coup from that very embassy—like the one carried out by America and UK in 1953 that ousted Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq and reinstated the Shah—and return the country to the dictatorship of Iran’s toppled king.

Almost forty-one years to the day of that watershed moment, the future of U.S.-Iran relations will be determined in another historical event. The entire world is closely watching and anticipating U.S. elections on November 3. By breaking international norms, agreements, and standards, the Trump administration has threatened to upend the world order that the United States helped create. Nuclear proliferation, climate change and, most recently, the global pandemic, have reminded us just how much impact the leader of the world’s most powerful country has on international relations and the experiences of ordinary people.

For Iranian-Americans this election is especially critical. We have watched in horror while our community has been vilified, treated as second-class citizens, and our families in Iran have experienced shortages of basic goods and medicines in a pandemic due to cruel U.S. sanctions. From the Muslim Ban that prevents us from seeing our families and questions of dual loyalty at our borders, to the persistent threat of war, and feelings of denigration in an atmosphere of rising xenophobia and hostility, Iranian-Americans, as well as other immigrant communities, have a great many reasons for taking to the polls.

However, the myriad problems and upheavals we are currently witnessing in the United States and worldwide indicate a global inflection point. This election will be a defining moment in American history and will indeed have enormous international consequences. In this respect, all Americans bear a responsibility to take part in the most important election of our lifetime. But as an Iranian-American, I feel an extra need to not only vote, but encourage others to do the same, support local candidates, and become more involved to ensure civil liberties for all Americans, including my own. Furthermore, for any Iranian-American that advocates for democracy in Iran, it is imperative to participate in democracy at home.

While the significance of U.S.-Iran relations may seem like a greater concern for Iranians or Iranian-Americans, the Trump administration’s policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran has already brought this nation to the brink of war. Again, a Trump tweet from Monday night threatened Iran with an attack “1,000 times greater,” as retribution for any possible future attack by Iran, reminiscent of his tweet from January that promised war crimes like striking Iranian cultural sites.

The Iranian government has cautiously bided its time, avoiding a full confrontation, also awaiting the results of the U.S. elections. The reelection of Trump would likely keep us on a path to war, a conflict that neither Iranians nor Americans want. If the endless wars we are already fighting in the Middle East are any indication, a war with Iran will have unpredictable and catastrophic ramifications on a global scale, brutalize an Iranian populace already suffering, and needlessly risk the lives of American servicepeople.

Despite the mutual grievances of Iranians and Americans against a historical backdrop of political turmoil, the United States and Iran were able to sit at a negotiating table and find a peaceful path forward with the Iran nuclear deal. That path still exists, but whether or not we choose it will likely be based on the outcome of another fateful day in November. This election will certainly determine the future of U.S.-Iran relations, undoubtedly shape the outlook of the United States, and influence the future of the world.

Assal Rad is a Senior Research Fellow at the National Iranian American Council. She received her PhD. in history at the University of California, Irvine. Follow her on Twitter @assalrad.

Image: Reuters.