Iran and the US have been at war for decades – and there’s no end in sight

Iranians mourn those who died on Iran Air Flight 655, a civilian plane downed by the United States Navy on July 3 1988. IRNA/Wikimedia Commons

It may seem that the US and the Middle East are currently embarking on yet another forever war. But the truth is that this is just the latest instalment of an undeclared military conflict between the two nations that has been ongoing since the 1980s.

For Americans, the war began in 1979, when Iranian students seized the US embassy in Tehran and held 52 diplomats hostage for 444 days. For Iranians, it began with US support for the Shah and its subsequent backing of Iraq throughout the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.