Why might US have a hard time trusting Iran's government?

Answer 1

The mistrust with Iran goes back about 40 years. When the king was overthrown the revolution took place and religious radicals took over. The US had supported the king. In the late 1970's the American embassy was attacked and 54 Americans were taken hostage by the Iranian government. Carter was president at the time and talks didn't go well. He also had a failed attempt by special forces to rescue the hostages. When Reagan took office he took over where Carter left off in negotiations and managed to free the hostages. He took credit for this, but it seems Carter had all ready done the hard work. From that point on our relationship with Iran has not been good. When they fought a war with Iraq the US supported Iraq. That war lasted 7 years and at the end both parties were in the same spots where they started. In the mean time Iran also developed abilities in gas warfare and atomic research. Their stance with Israel and threats also added pressure to the US / Iran relationship and all along they have pushed to develop nuclear bombs. They have done things to hide their research and the missiles as well as broken agreements concerning how far along they are in development. Since the fall of Russia out of work scientists have gone to Iran to work on their program. Iran has done very little to make themselves trustworthy and have been sneaky about what they are doing. Yet, we can NOT afford a war with them and need to take a chance that diplomacy will work.

Answer 2

It is a long story and too complicated to be covered in full detail here. Iran was once a valuable ally to the US. The leader of Iran, called the Shah, was most repressive and ruled with the help of a security force known as SAVAK which was trained and organized by the US and Israel. The Shah was overthrown, the US Embassy in Tehran was stormed, US hostages were taken, and Iran proceeded with a bloody revolution in which many Iranians were executed. The new Iranian government was an Islamic theocracy which was extremely strict and repressive, as much as the Shah had been, and they even kept SAVAK in existence to work for them. Over the years the government of Iran has softened somewhat and has made overtures of friendship toward the US, but the US is not much interested.

Answer 3

Can't really see you getting much a response to that question here. There are literally hundreds of books on the subject so I don't think wiki answers is the best place to look :)