1953: Eisenhower delivers his Atoms for Peace speech to the UN General Assembly in New York City on December 8. Atoms for Peace is an initiative designed to provide countries with peaceful civilian nuclear technologies. The intent is that this will prevent the pursuit of military nuclear programs. Beneficiaries include Israel, India, Pakistan, and Iran.
1957: The US begins working with Iran to launch its nuclear program.
1959: President Eisenhower visits Iran’s Shah Reza Pahlavi in Tehran.
1967: The US builds a nuclear reactor on the campus of Tehran University and provides Iran with fuel for the reactor — weapons-grade enriched uranium. This occurs under the umbrella of America’s “Atoms for Peace” program.
1970s: As a consequence of the oil boom, Iran’s nuclear program morphs into a full-fledged civilian nuclear program.
Mid 1970s: The shah’s government pays for dozens of Iranian students to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study nuclear engineering. The majority of these students return to Iran and start running the nuclear program. The MIT trainees have been central to Iran’s nuclear program ever since.
1970s: US diplomats begin negotiating to limit Iran’s nuclear program; Iran under the shah insists it has the same right to nuclear power as any nation.
Iran buys nuclear plants from West Germany and France. The research reactor at Tehran University keeps working.
1979: The shah flees Iran as protests against him surge. A new Islamist government led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini takes power. The clerics in authority do not initially embrace the country’s existing nuclear infrastructure. To them, “Iran’s nuclear program encapsulates Iran’s struggle with modernity.”
After the revolution, the program “came to symbolize the kind of rapid modernization that was riddled with corruption and ‘Westtoxification.’”
“Ayatollah Khomeini famously said the unfinished nuclear power plants in Bushehr should be used as silos to store wheat . . . they were abandoned as a costly Western imposition on an oil-rich nation.”
(Quotes courtesy of Ali Vaez. NPR: Born in The USA: How America Created Iran’s Nuclear Program. September 18, 2015).
1980s: As part of the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein’s forces repeatedly bomb the Bushehr nuclear facility which is not operational at the time.
1980-1988: The Iran- Iraq War creates severe power shortages in Iran. The country’s leadership decides to revive the nuclear program. Their motivation is unclear.
Early 2000s: Iran offers to discuss the future of its nuclear program, even reaching a deal with European powers. The US under Bush does not sign on. Efforts to reach a deal fall apart, and Iran begins building thousands of centrifuges that can be used to enrich uranium.
Iran under Khomeini had rejected the program as a symbol of the corrupt West. Now, more than a decade after his death, the nuclear program is becoming a symbol of Iran’s defiance of the West. A new sense of nationalism is created.
2001: Israel has been warning that Iran is making dangerous nuclear progress. American concerns intensify in the years following September 11, 2001.
August 2002: Western intelligence services and an Iranian opposition group reveal Iran’s secret Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.
June 2003: Britain, France, and Germany engage Iran in nuclear negotiations.
October 2003: Iran suspends uranium enrichment.
2007: American President George W. Bush says: “The message to the Iranian people is that your government is going to cause you deprivation. . . . If your government continues to insist upon a nuclear weapon, there will be lost opportunity for the Iranian people. They won’t be able to realize their full potential.”
2005: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes Iran’s president. He’s a populist leader who questions the Holocaust and defies President Bush.
February 2006: Iran announces it will restart uranium enrichment. Britain, France, and Germany walk out of stalled negotiations.
2008: In an interview with NPR, Ahmadinejad insists that Iran has a right to a nuclear program.
2009: Ahmadinejad is re-elected in a disputed vote. Green Movement protests erupt and the government cracks down. The economy is in steep decline.
October 2009: President Obama’s administration tries to negotiate a nuclear deal. The US and Iran open a secret backchannel for messages in Oman.
July 2012: US and Iranian officials hold face-to-face secret talks in Oman.
2013: Amid growing unrest, Hassan Rouhani is elected president. He pledges to improve relations with world powers. Meanwhile, Iranian diplomats are already quietly meeting with the US.
Economic problems intensify. Iran’s oil exports have dropped by 50%. The value of Iran’s currency has also dropped by 50%.
Iran’s new foreign minister, Javad Zarif, argues that a deal is possible if Iran is allowed some level of uranium enrichment. He says: “If you say that Iran should abandon its enrichment program, you cannot abandon science. You cannot abandon technology. We have learned this. So the best way is to make sure that this technology is used in a transparent fashion for a peaceful program.”
2015: The Obama administration eventually accepts this argument. The emerging deal ensures that Iran’s nuclear activity will be limited, inspections will verify, and economic sanctions will be lifted.
May 2018: Trump unilaterally withdraws the US from the nuclear agreement, calling it the “worst deal ever.”
May 8, 2019: Iran announces it will be backing away from the accord.
January 3, 2020: A US drone strike in Baghdad kills General Qassem Solemani, the architect of Iran’s proxy wars in the Middle East.
Jan. 8, 2020: In retaliation for Soleimani’s killing, Iran launches a barrage of missiles at military bases in Iraq that are home to thousands of American and Iraqi troops.
July 2020: A centrifuge production plant at Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility explodes. Iran blames the attack on Israel.
April 6, 2021: Iran and the Biden administration begin indirect negotiations in Vienna over how to restore the nuclear deal. The talks fail to reach any agreement.
April 11, 2021: Iran’s Natanz nuclear site is attacked again, likely by Israel.
April 16, 2021: Iran begins enriching uranium up to 60% — its highest purity so far. Weapons-grade level is 90%.
Feb. 24, 2022: Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Moscow will eventually rely on Iranian bomb-carrying drones (as well as Iranian missiles) in the conflict.
July 17, 2022: Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, says that Iran is technically capable of making a nuclear bomb but has not decided whether to build one.
October 7, 2023: Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip storm into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. Regional tensions rise as war erupts between Israel and Hamas. Iran offers support to the militants.
November 19, 2023: Yemen’s Houthi rebels, long supported by Iran, begin a campaign of attacks on shipping through the Red Sea corridor.
April 14, 2024: Iran launches a direct attack on Israel, firing over 300 missiles and attack drones. A US-led international coalition intercepts much of the incoming fire.
April 19, 2024: A suspected Israeli strike hits an air defense system near an airport in Isfahan, Iran.
July 31, 2024: Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, is assassinated by Israel during a visit to Tehran for the inauguration of reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian.
September 27, 2024: An Israeli airstrike kills Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
October 1, 2024: Iran launches its second direct attack on Israel. Once again, a US-led coalition, along with Israel, shoot down most of the missiles.
October 16, 2024: Israel kills Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the Gaza Strip.
October 26, 2024: Israel openly attacks Iran for the first time, striking air defense systems and sites associated with its missile program.
January 20, 2025: Donald J. Trump is inaugurated for his second term as US president.
February 7, 2025: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says proposed talks with the US are “not intelligent, wise or honorable.”
March 7, 2025: Trump says he sent a letter to Khamenei seeking a new nuclear deal with Tehran.
March 15, 2025: Trump launches intense airstrikes targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Houthis are members of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance.”
April 7, 2025: Trump announces the US and Iran will hold direct talks in Oman. Iran confirms the meeting but says Iran’s participation will be indirect — through a mediator,
April 12, 2025: The First round of talks between Iran and the US is scheduled to take place in Oman.
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The above timeline was updated on April 10, 2025 using information from the Associated Press for the period after 2015. However, critics have pointed out that there are gaps in the AP’s timeline. For example, “there’s no mention of how Iran formally announced the completion of its uranium conversion facility in 2000, long before the supposed disclosure of Iran’s enrichment program in Aug 2002 by ‘dissidents’. ” Keep this in mind and do your own due diligence when warranted.
Photograph by Karl-Ludwig Poggemann (Flickr)
