Abstract:

The Islamic Republic of Iran is a sovereign state strategically sitting astride the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf in the Middle East. In the late 1950s, the United States was of great assistance to Iran in starting its nuclear programme for peaceful purposes. But in the 1990s, Iran secretly began to build nuclear facilities which an exiled opposition group disclosed to the world in 2002. The revelation added to the fear of the United States and some European and Middle Eastern countries that Iran intends to have nuclear weapons or at least the capability to make them. Hence, the United States under President George W. Bush Jnr pursued a foreign policy aimed at reining Iran’s uranium enrichment. This goal, to a large extent, was achieved following the conclusion of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) during President Barack Obama’s administration. Unfortunately, his successor, President Donald Trump, pulled the United States out of the said nuclear deal in 2018. This paper examines United States foreign policy on Iran’s nuclear programme from January 2002 to January 2021. For the study, the historical approach was adopted, and data were collected from secondary sources. The paper concludes that the United States is back to square one vis-à-vis its foreign policy on Iran’s nuclear programme.