The Rift Continues 1990 - 2004

The Iran-U.S. rift from the 1980's continued into the 1990's and the new millennium. The United States' followed policy to isolate Iran from the Western world, listed it as a terrorist state, and all three presidents during this time period have advocated a regime change in Iran. Iran's geopolitical code during this time as represented in Time Magazine consists of the following objectives: to use its oil assets to drive a wedge between the United States and its allies in Europe, to aid terrorists and promote terrorism throughout the world, but particularly against the United States, to try to build up its conventional military so that it can pose a threat to Israel, and to develop nuclear weapons to use as tools of terrorism and to deter the United States from acting aggressively towards them.

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The Iran-U.S. rift from the 1980's continued into the 1990's and the new millennium. The United States' followed policy to isolate Iran from the Western world, listed it as a terrorist state, and all three presidents during this time period have advocated a regime change in Iran. Iran's geopolitical code during this time as represented in Time Magazine consists of the following objectives: to use its oil assets to drive a wedge between the United States and its allies in Europe, to aid terrorists and promote terrorism throughout the world, but particularly against the United States, to try to build up its conventional military so that it can pose a threat to Israel, and to develop nuclear weapons to use as tools of terrorism and to deter the United States from acting aggressively towards them. It is important to realize that the Iranians see the United States as a terrorist state and that it poses the real threat to peace in the Middle East and to the state of Iran (Gaines, Prager, 1993). They feel that the United States has undermined Iran through false accusations and the freezing of its assets (Gaines, Prager 1993).
In 1995 a Houston based oil company, Conoco Oil, received a $1 billion dollar drilling contract from the Iranian government, but President Clinton blocked this deal. One month later a European company, the Royal Dutch Shell Group, came in and took the deal despite U.S. protests (Karon, 1995). In 1997 the French oil company, TOTAL, accepted a $2 billion dollar drilling contract from the Iranian government (Karon, 1997). President Clinton and the U.S. Congress heatedly opposed this contract as well, but the French government and the French oil company never considered declining the deal. This situation has occurred numerous times throughout the 1990's much to the annoyance of the U.S. government.
Though many European nations do business with the Iranian government they still acknowledge that it is a terrorist state. Western officials realize that the Iranian government sees terrorism as a valid tool to accomplish the regime's political objectives. In 1993 the Kurdish Democratic President and three of his top associates were killed in Berlin by terrorists backed by Iran (Dorrell, Nelan, 1993). The government had also put a bounty on the head of Salman Rushdie, an author who spoke out against the regime. In 2001 members of the Iran backed Hezbollah guerrilla movement bombed the Khobar Towers. Nineteen U.S. servicemen were killed in this attack (Karon, 2001). From these attacks it is clear that the Iranian government is a promoter of terrorist acts.
Throughout the 1990's Iran not only advocated terrorism, but also sought to build up its conventional military by purchasing arms from other countries. They bought tanks, missiles, jets fighters, and submarines from China, Russia, and the Ukraine in return for oil (Time, 1992). Iran states that these weapons were for defensive purposes only and that they have no desire to become a dominant military presence in the region (Gaines, Prager, 1993). However, they have always considered Israel an enemy and part of the intense strain on Iran-U.S. relations is the United States' close ties with Israel. Iran has developed and purchased missiles that can reach Israel and they have been verbally hostile to the Israeli government.
In addition to these long range missiles, recently the Iranians have been trying to develop nuclear weapons. They have been doing this under the guise of the pursuance of nuclear energy capabilities. However, Russia has sold them the materials to create nuclear weapons and when the U.S. and Iran tried to complete a nuclear arms treaty the Iranians would not promise to dispose of certain materials that are essential to building a nuclear weapon (Karon, 2004). As a rogue state, it in all probability would give these nuclear capabilities to terrorist groups and use them to defend themselves from outside threats.
This is how the Iranian geopolitical code from 1990 to today appeared through Time magazine. This magazine is read by thousands and influences their opinions and thoughts of the world. Time and other media helps frame geopolitical events like the ones mentioned above by displaying them from a certain perspective. The Time being an American magazine showed its American readers that Iran was to blame for the tension between the two countries. It also showed the importance of the United States handling of Iranian relations because oil is involved in the region, which is the primary reason that Iran and the entire region is significant to U.S. foreign policy and is worthy of being written about in Time. A local geopolitical event in the Middle East jumps scales and becomes a global one because of the effect on oil prices and thus the world economy. Clearly, the Iranian state plays an important role in the geopolitics of this region, but it also receives help from non-state actors such as networks of terrorist groups, which have been brought closely together by technological innovations in communications. It can be seen that the geopolitics of the Middle East and in particular Iran have become vary complex because of the intertwining of many key global issues like oil and terrorism.

Works Cited
Dorrell, William, Nelan, Bruce W. "Diplomacy of Terror." Time Magazine. 31 May 1993: 56-60.
Gaines, James R., Prager, Karsten. "Rafsanjani's Advice to the 'Great Satan'." Time Magazine. 31 May 1993: 46-50.
Karon, Tony. "Khobar Bombing Indictment Highlights Bush Iran Dilemma." Time Magazine. 21 June 2001. <www.time.com/time>.
Karon, Tony. "Iran's Shell Game" Time Magazine. 28 April 1995. <www.time.com/time>.
Karon, Tony. "Trading with Iran." Time Magazine. 13 October 1997. <www.time.com/time>.
Karon, Tony. "Iran, Still Defiant." Time Magazine. 22 November 2004. <www.time.com/time>.
"The New Gulf Arsenal." Time Magazine. 7 December 1992: 26.