U.S. policy approaches and additional options.(Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses)

The February 11, 1979, fall of the Shah of Iran, a key U.S. ally, opened a long and deep rift in U.S.-Iranian relations. As noted in the section on Iran's foreign policy and support of terrorism, U.S.-Iran differences significantly transcend the concerns over Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. policy focus on Iran predates the emergence of the nuclear program as a major issue, although the nuclear issue has, according to many, made a U.S. policy focus on Iran more urgent. Some experts maintain that the United States has always lacked a comprehensive and consistent strategy to limit the Islamic regime's regional influence and its weapons programs.

The Carter Administration sought a degree of engagement with the Islamic regime during 1979, but it agreed to allow in the ex-Shah for medical treatment, and Iranian officials of the new regime who engaged the United States were singled out as insufficiently loyal or revolutionary. As a result, the U.S.-Iran estrangement began in earnest on November 4, 1979, when radical pro-Khomeini "students in the line of the Imam (Khomeini)"seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held its diplomats hostage until minutes after …