Quote Originally Posted by Crandar View Post
I think you meant to say Lebanon, not Jordan. The interests of Iran and the US are contradictory and they cannot be conciliated.
The discord stems from the nationalisation of Western companies which exploited the human and natural resources of Iran without paying almost anything and also concerns the geopolitics of the Middle East.
Sorry - Lebanon, not Jordan.

The first boils down to money and often can therefore be sorted out with money. We have no current innate hostility - as long as we leave each other alone then that's fine and if we can trade that will enable us to spend money on our long term enemies. We managed to reconcile with China after a shared history of humiliation and a side order of slaughter. They don't like us but tolerate us - especially if we don't interfere.

The latter is definitely a large issue. But again, geopolitics - especially in the Middle East - is fluid, much more so than North Korea for example and we continue to hope that this will sort itself out. Whether they'd believe that all of a sudden we've stopped trying to throttle their economy and it is not a prelude to invasion. But since they are viewed as Infidels by Sunnis (as mostly are we).

So the rhetoric on both sides is contradictory - rather like the UK and the USSR. But the two joined as allies after a far longer period of conflict as it suited both parties.