Iran II: types and Levels of Competition
3/14/12
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2003: June - White House refuses to rule out the "military option" in dealing with Iran after IAEA says Iran "failed to report certain nuclear materials and activities", but does not declare Iran in breach of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
2003: October-November - Tehran agrees to suspend its uranium enrichment program and allow tougher UN inspections of its nuclear facilities. An IAEA report says there is no evidence that Iran is trying to build an atomic bomb. The US dismisses the report as "impossible to believe".
2004: November - Secretary of State Colin Powell meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi in Sharm el-Sheikh. No significant progress occurred; Iran reportedly viewed Powell as a lame duck with no real power.
2005: February - Iranian President Mohammed Khatami says his country will never give up nuclear technology, but stresses it is for peaceful purposes. Russia backs Tehran, and signs a deal to supply fuel to Iran's Bushehr reactor. New US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says attacking Iran is not on the US agenda "at this point in time".
2005: March - The US backs the EU3 offer of economic incentives if Iran gives up its nuclear ambitions, including a block on Iran's membership to the WTO.
2005: August - President Bush makes the first of several statements in which he refuses to rule out using force against Iran.
2005: August-September - Tehran says it has resumed uranium conversion at its Isfahan plant and insists the program is for peaceful purposes. The IAEA finds Iran in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
2006: January - Iran completes major military exercise that tests Tehran’s ability to attack Gulf shipping and Arab oil facilities.
2006: March - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the US faces "no greater challenge" than Iran's nuclear program.
2006: Tehran offers to hold direct talks with Washington on the situation in Iraq – later withdrawing the offer.
2006: May - Ahmadinejad sends President Bush an eighteen-page letter accusing the US of atrocities in Iraq and invoking his Christian heritage to change course there. It also addresses double standards in US foreign policy over Iran’s nuclear program, treatment of Palestinians, support for Israel, and conspiracies theories about 9/11.
The US rules out possibility of direct negotiation with Tehran that were being considered under the thenUS Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad.
2006: November - Iran’s Revolutionary Guards begins exercises days after a US-led naval exercise began in the Gulf.
2006: December - The UN Security Council unanimously passes a resolution imposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
2007: January - The US arrests members of the IRGC in Iraq for "engaging in sectarian warfare". President Bush states, "It has also become clear that we face an escalating danger from Shia extremists who...take direction from the regime in Iran…The Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat."
2007: February - US officials say they have proof that Iran has provided sophisticated weapons which have been used to kill American soldiers in Iraq. Ahmadinejad dismisses the claims as an "excuses to prolong the stay" of US forces.
2007: March - The US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, holds a meeting with an Iranian team at a conference in Baghdad, the first such talks in more than two years.