Changes

After the war, Iran continued to support [[Hezbollah]], the most powerful [[Shiite]] militia in [[Lebanon]], which had waged war against the United States during the latter's intervention to end the [[1982 Israeli invasion]].  With Iran's assistance, Hezbollah launched [[terrorist]] attacks even against such clearly inoffensive countries as [[Argentina]], which seems to have been attacked because there were [[Jews]] there.  The head of Iranian intelligence during the early 1990s, [[Ali Fallahian]], was indicted along with various Hezbollah operatives and an international arrest warrant was issued for him in March 2007, which the Iranians immediately appealed.  This and the Iranian role in the 1996 [[Khobar Towers bombing]] prevented any normalization of relations, even after [[Mohammed Khatami]] became President of Iran in 1997 and made this one of the principal goals of his administration.

After the war, Iran continued to support [[Hezbollah]], the most powerful [[Shiite]] militia in [[Lebanon]], which had waged war against the United States during the latter's intervention to end the [[1982 Israeli invasion]].  With Iran's assistance, Hezbollah launched [[terrorist]] attacks even against such clearly inoffensive countries as [[Argentina]], which seems to have been attacked because there were [[Jews]] there.  The head of Iranian intelligence during the early 1990s, [[Ali Fallahian]], was indicted along with various Hezbollah operatives and an international arrest warrant was issued for him in March 2007, which the Iranians immediately appealed.  This and the Iranian role in the 1996 [[Khobar Towers bombing]] prevented any normalization of relations, even after [[Mohammed Khatami]] became President of Iran in 1997 and made this one of the principal goals of his administration.

Khatami was seen by some in the West as a possible Iranian version of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]].  The [[United Kingdom]] reestablished relations with Iran in 1999.  His coalition was dominated by persons who clearly wished to make Iran a normal country.  However, the limitations of the President in the Iranian system allowed Iranian conservatives to marginalize his supporters and close media outlets friendly to his policies.  Although he won reelection in 2001 and cooperated with the United States to some extent against their mutual enemy the [[Taliban]], his supporters were not able to take the next logical step that [[Boris Yeltsin]] and other anti-communist [[Russians]] did under Gorbachev, that is, unite to completely replace the existing political system.  Because they had been able to outmaneuver him politically, Iranian conservatives also did not oblige with a corresponding [[coup d'etat]] against Khatami.  Normal relations with the United States probably will require just this sort of replacement of the existing Iranian constitution, but the popularity of Khatami and congruent popular distaste for his successor indicates that may be possible without war.

Khatami was seen by some in the West as a possible Iranian version of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]].  The [[United Kingdom]] reestablished relations with Iran in 1999.  His coalition was dominated by persons who clearly wished to make Iran a normal country.  However, the limitations of the President in the Iranian system allowed Iranian conservatives to marginalize his supporters and close media outlets friendly to his policies.  Although he won reelection in 2001 and cooperated with the United States to some extent against their mutual enemy the [[Taliban]], his supporters were not able to take the next logical step that [[Boris Yeltsin]] and other anti-communist [[Russians]] did under Gorbachev, that is, unite to completely replace the existing political system.  Because they had been able to outmaneuver him politically, Iranian conservatives also did not oblige with a corresponding [[coup d'état]] against Khatami.  Normal relations with the United States probably will require just this sort of replacement of the existing Iranian constitution, but the popularity of Khatami and congruent popular distaste for his successor indicates that may be possible without war.

====2001-present====

====2001-present====