Surprise attacked by Hamas.

by Hamas.

By land by air and by sea.

October 7th, 2023 was a day that changed the world.

Terrorist attack by Hamas.

A brutal surprise attack by Hamas in Israel.

Israel is firing back.

Was followed by a horrific retaliation in Gaza.

Now there are fears of a wider war and America has a target on its back.

The Iran-backed rebels struck a U.S-owned ship.

At the center of the fears of a wider conflict is Iran.

It is linked to Hamas, to Hezbollah, to the Hutis, all part of its axis of resistance.

Why is Iran at the center of this conflict in so many ways? And why this relentless hostility to America?

To answer those questions, we need to go back decades and try to understand why Iran hates America.

Good evening, I'm Farid Zakaria.

Iran and the United States share deep psychic and emotional scars going back years,

but none is remembered more by Americans than the hostage crisis of 1979. We watched what appeared to be an irrational, furious

attack and wondered why or how anyone would act this way. But to Iran, taking the hostages was completely rational, given the history

that led up to that moment. In November 1979, Iranian students stormed the U.S. the U.S. In November 1979, Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, turning it into a prison for American embassy staff.

The young revolutionary spent months in the embassy's basement trying to piece together evidence of past American misdeeds.

Why? Because decades earlier, that basement was where American and British spies had plotted a coup against what had long been a close ally.

Iran and the US from 1850 to 1950 had the best relations.

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