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The highlights of president obama's visit to india.

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Naredra Modi have tea in the garden gazebo at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India. January 25, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

"Chalein saath saath; forward together we go."

-- India-U.S. Delhi Declaration of Friendship

President Obama and the First Lady traveled to India this week -- their first time visting the South Asian nation since Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in on May 26, 2014. America and India are true global partners in the work of strengthening economies and strong democracies. That is why the President is the first to have visited India twice while in office. 

President Barack Obama participates in a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi, India. January 25, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

As Prime Minister Modi said, "This is a natural global partnership. It has become even more relevant in the digital age. It is needed even more in our world for far-reaching changes and widespread turmoil. The success of this partnership is important for our progress and for advancing peace, stability and prosperity around the world."

On Board with Kal Penn: "A Trip of Firsts" 

Actor and former Obama administration official Kal Penn gives us a rundown on what brought President Obama to India this time around. 

"Abide with Me" :  A State Dinner 

President Barack Obama toasts Prime Minister Naredra Modi during a State Dinner hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi, India. January 25, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In his remarks at a reception with President Mukherjee, the President quoted a hymn that was dear to Mahatma Gandhi's heart: 

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide; The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me. 

"Here in the eventide, Indians and Americans, let us know, in the darkness or day, in good times or bad, whenever one of us looks to the other, we will surely say, abide with me," he said. 

Motorcycles, Military Parades, and More: The 66th Republic of India Day Celebrations

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama view the Republic Day Parade with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Rajpath saluting base in New Delhi, India. January 26, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

The President and the Prime Minister of India welcomed President Obama as the chief guest at India's 66th Republic Day celebrations -- a day that honors when India's constitution officially went into effect. President Obama is the first U.S. president to attend this historic event. 

President Barack Obama speaks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Republic Day Parade at the Rajpath saluting base in New Delhi, India. January 26, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama view the Republic Day Parade with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Rajpath saluting base in New Delhi, India. January 26, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Creating Progress: Cooperating in the Fight Against Climate Change

President Barack Obama participates in a traditional greeting with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi following a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi, India. January 25, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The President and Prime Minister Modi pledged to enhance U.S.-Indian cooperation on our mutual climate and clean energy goals. From our highly successful U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) umbrella program to technical work on emerging technologies, the U.S. and India made important progress on combating climate change. 

The agreements include: 

• Enhancing bilateral climate change cooperation to achieve a successful and ambition agreement in Paris this year.
• Cooperating on Hydroflurocarbons to make concrete progress in the Montreal Protocol this year
• Expanding PACE-R, the U.S.-India Joint Clean Energy Reserach and Development Center, to extend funding for research on solar energy, energy efficiency, and advanced biofuels. 
• Launching air quality cooperation to help urban residents reduce their exposure to harmful levels of air pollution. 

See a full list of what the U.S. and India agreed on to combat climate change here .

True Global Partners: Incentivizing Trade and Investment

Under President Obama, trade between the two countries has increased by about 60 percent to nearly $100 billion a year -- a record high. But that's still hundreds of billions less than the trade we do with China. "We've got to do better," the President said, speaking at a U.S.-India Business Council Summit in New Delhi. So today, the President announced a series of additional steps that will generate more than $4 billion in trade and investment with India while supporting thousands of jobs in both countries:

• The Export-Import Bank will commit up to $1 billion in financing to support "Made-in-America" exports to India.
• OPIC will support lending to small and medium businesses across India that will result in more than $1 billion in loans in underserved rural and urban markets.
• The U.S. Trade and Development Agency will aim to leverage nearly $2 billion in investments in renewable energy in India.  

Read the President's full remarks here . 

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama wave to the crowd at the Rajpath saluting base following the Republic Day Parade in New Delhi, India. January 26, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Timeline of US presidential visits to India

Before Donald Trump, six US presidents have visited India, with Barack Obama the only one to make two official trips.

New Delhi, India – Donald Trump has embarked on his maiden visit to India becoming the seventh US president to visit the South Asian country.

He is accompanied by a high-level delegation, as well as his wife First Lady Melania Trump, daughter Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Keep reading

‘political spectatorship’: modi rolls out red carpet for trump, as trump heads to india, a trade deal appears elusive, at us rally, modi backs trump, takes aim at pakistan.

Trump arrived on Monday in Ahmedabad, the largest city in the western state of Gujarat, where he addressed a crowd of more than 100,000 Indians at a cricket stadium.

The event was called “Namaste Trump” (Hello Trump), in reciprocation to the “Howdy Modi” extravaganza Trump hosted last year for the Indian PM in the US city of Houston.

Ties between the two countries have improved greatly after the end of the Cold War, during which Washington leaned towards India’s rival, Pakistan, but has embraced India as a strategic partner against China in recent decades.

Barack Obama, Trump’s predecessor, is the only US president to have made two official visits to India.

We take a look at previous visits by the US presidents:

Dwight D Eisenhower – 1959

Dwight D Eisenhower in 1959 was the first US president to visit India. His visit was during the tenure of the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Eisenhower received a warm welcome and was greeted with a 21-gun salute when he landed in the capital, New Delhi. Huge crowds lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the 34th US president in his open-top car.

Besides delivering a public speech at New Delhi’s Ramlila ground, Eisenhower addressed members of both Houses of Parliament. The four-day trip included a stopover in his “dream place”, the Taj Mahal, which was built by Mughal ruler Shah Jahan in the 16th century.

The trip was billed a success and considered a landmark event in US-India relations as it came early in the Cold War, during which the US and Pakistan had become close allies.

Richard M Nixon – 1969

Richard M Nixon visited India on July 31, 1969. Unlike Eisenhower, Nixon spent less than a day in India as the trip was largely meant to reduce tensions between him and then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Two years later, during the India and Pakistan war of 1971, which lead to the creation of Bangladesh, the US sided with its Cold War ally, Pakistan.

According to tapes declassified by the US State Department, Nixon had reportedly told the White House that Indians were “slippery, treacherous people”.

Jimmy Carter – 1978

Jimmy Carter came to India in January 1978, when the Janata Party’s Morarji Desai was the prime minister.

During his three-day visit, Carter addressed India’s parliament and held several meetings with Indian politicians. Carter visited a village near New Delhi, bringing a television set as a gift.

His visit was meant to break the ice between New Delhi and Washington, especially against the backdrop of the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence and India’s nuclear test of 1974.

However, he was not able to convince Prime Minister Desai to give up India’s nuclear ambitions, a development that irritated the US.

Bill Clinton – 2000

Bill Clinton, the 42nd US president, visited India in March 2000, more than two decades after the last visit by a US president.

His trip during the prime ministership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee came after a prolonged lull in the relations between the two countries. It also came after India opened its economy for foreign investors in the 1990s.

Clinton’s visit signified the beginning of closer US-India strategic and economic ties. During the 1999 war between Pakistan and India, the US under Clinton sided with India, the first time it had supported India against Pakistan.

New Delhi-based foreign policy expert Pramit Pal Chaudhuri said it was President Clinton who restarted India-US relations.

“Before Clinton, no US president had visited India for 20 years. Clinton in many ways re-engaged with India after two decades, signalling that America was taking India seriously one more time for number of reasons; nuclear test, economic growth and so on,” he said.

“Bush took it to the highest possible levels with a nuclear deal and Obama consolidated on the strategic side,” said Chaudhuri, who is also the foreign editor at Hindustan Times newspaper.

George W Bush – 2006

George W Bush visited New Delhi in 2006 when the US was being condemned worldwide for its 2003 invasion of Iraq. His trip was met with countrywide protests, with left-wing parliamentarians boycotting his address.

However, the three-day trip boosted the strategic relationship between the two countries, especially in matters of trade and nuclear technology. Bush and then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finalised the framework of the nuclear deal that ended New Delhi’s isolation from the nuclear equipment suppliers market.

Michael Kugelman, South Asia senior associate at The Wilson Center, said the US-India relationship improved exponentially since the early 1990s, and especially since the early 2000s.

“The civil nuclear accord [under President Bush] was a milestone and, from that point, the relationship has really taken off -though it has also been saddled by outsize and unmet expectations.”

Barack Obama – 2010 and 2015

Barack Obama is the only US president to make two official visits to India. On his first visit, Obama landed in Mumbai instead of New Delhi as a show of solidarity following the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008, which killed 166 people.

During the trip, he backed India’s bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. Obama and Singh, prime minister at the time, also signed trade deals worth $10bn and agreed to boost defence and national security ties.

Obama visited India again in 2015 as the chief guest on Republic Day under the administration of Prime Minister Modi.

During the trip, the Democratic president made comments on religious freedom in the country, saying “India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along the lines of religious faith”.

Donald Trump – 2020

Donald Trump is the seventh US president to visit India, where he was given a warm welcome.

A personal rapport has developed between Indian Prime Minister Modi and Trump, both of whom have used the theatrics of diplomacy to strike a chord with their respective domestic audiences.

Both right-wing leaders have been criticized for pursuing an Islamophobic agenda – Trump for his Muslim ban and Modi for blocking naturalisation for Muslim immigrants and asylum seekers.

The US is India’s second-largest trading partner after China, with annual bilateral trade going from $11bn in 1995 to $142bn in 2018, according to official US data. But the two countries have been wrangling over a trade deal as Trump pushed for more concessions from New Delhi. 

The main focus of this trip will be on all the spectacle and on all the strong chemistry between Trump and Modi. But there's a strategic dimension to it as well by  Michael Kugelman, South Asia senior associate at The Wilson Center

“To be sure, the main focus of this trip will be on all the spectacle and on all the strong chemistry between Trump and Modi. But there’s a strategic dimension to it as well,” said Kugelman from The Wilson Center.

Foreign policy expert Chaudhuri said “Trump’s visit has been a missing piece in Modi’s foreign policy” and this visit has “fulfilled that space”.

He said that by coming to India despite the fact that there is not going to be a trade deal, Trump signals to the rest of the US government that “he takes the US-India relationship seriously and he expects them to move forward on the other issues be it defence and diplomacy.”

Safiya Ghori Ahmad, South Asia director at Washington, DC-based McLarty Associates said it would interesting to see “the deliverables” from the trip.

“I do hope that we see more than a rally, and actually see solutions to long-standing economic issues that impact US companies,” Ahmad said.

President Trump Can Expect a Warm Welcome on His India Trip. Other U.S. Leaders Saw Chillier Relations

W hen Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the U.S. last year, he was greeted by a massive crowd at a Texas rally, billed as one of the biggest-ever receptions for a foreign leader. India is now preparing to return the favor ahead of President Donald Trump’s first official visit to the country on Feb. 24 and 25.

About 100,000 people are expected to attend the “Namaste Trump” event planned in the Indian city of Ahmedabad in Modi’s home state of Gujarat. Modi and Trump will also lead a parade through the city on Trump’s two-day trip, which is expected to focus on trade relations between the two countries and their shared concern about China’s growing influence in the region.

This won’t be the first time massive crowds have turned out in India to receive a visiting U.S. leader. President Bill Clinton also received a large, cheering reception during his trip to India in 2000. But not every U.S. president has been received so warmly, and the history of official visits tracks the ups and downs in the relationship between the world’s two largest democracies over the last 70 years.

Trump’s state visit also comes at a difficult time for Modi. Anti-government protests against a controversial citizenship law have engulfed the country since December. India’s move to revoke Kashmir’s autonomy in August also drew sharp criticism from many in the international community, including members of the U.S. Congress. But experts believe Trump is not likely to raise these issues during his trip, much to the Indian government’s relief.

“There is a lot of pressure on India over its socially divisive policy moves,” Richard M. Rossow, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, tells TIME. “A presidential visit is a sign that the U.S. will continue developing the relationship despite these issues.”

Ahead of Trump’s trip to the South Asian nation, here is a look at previous U.S. presidential visits to India.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1959

The first state visit by a U.S. president to independent India came in the throes of the Cold War, in which India decided to remain neutral. India’s presence at the head of the Non-Aligned Movement, which committed the country not to take sides between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, had kept the two countries estranged until then.

During his trip, Eisenhower addressed both houses of the Indian Parliament and visited the Taj Mahal with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The trip marked a significant shift in the perspective of many in Washington, who had thought of India as being close to the communist Soviet Union .

Richard Nixon, 1969

Nixon’s one-day trip to India was primarily aimed at de-escalating tensions with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The two leaders had a frosty relationship because of India’s decision not to take sides in the Cold War and and the U.S. decision in the early 1960s to deepen its partnership with India’s archrival, Pakistan.

Two years later, the relationship soured further when Nixon supported Pakistan in the India-Pakistan War of 1971, which led to the creation of Bangladesh. In the run-up to the war, India had signed a treaty with the Soviet Union shifting from its original position of Cold War neutrality.

Jimmy Carter, 1978

When Carter visited India, the intention was to thaw tensions that remained after the 1971 war and India’s first nuclear test in 1974. He addressed the Indian Parliament and left a lasting impact on a small town near New Delhi, which was later renamed Carterpuri after him.

However the trip couldn’t convince Prime Minister Morarji Desai to give up India’s nuclear ambitions, a move that irritated the Americans .

Bill Clinton, 2000

Clinton’s India trip, the first by a U.S. President for more than 20 years, was a landmark one that came after a prolonged lull in the relations between the two countries. Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, alliances had shifted. During the 1999 war between Pakistan and India, the U.S. under Clinton sided with India, the first time the country had supported India against Pakistan. In 1991, India initiated a policy of economic liberalization that opened doors to foreign investment. This was also a major boost to trade relations between the U.S. and India.

Clinton visited with his daughter, Chelsea Clinton. His speech in the Indian Parliament received rapturous applause and he toured several Indian cities, leaving many in the country star-struck . “President Clinton was wildly popular in India,” said Bruce Riedel, a senior adviser at Brookings Institute who helped organize Clinton’s trip to India. “It was like traveling with the Beatles or the Rolling Stones in the 1960s.”

George W. Bush, 2006

The highlight of George W. Bush’s trip was the finalization of a landmark nuclear deal, which was agreed upon in 2005. Under the agreement, India separated its civil and military nuclear programs and opened its civilian facilities including nuclear power plants for international inspection. In return, the U.S. ended a ban on nuclear trade with India. The significant move was also accompanied by other measures that boosted economic and security ties.

In an administration defined by the post-9/11 war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq, experts think developing relations with India was one of Bush’s significant foreign affairs achievements. Ahead of his trip to India, TIME had described his relationship with the country as “something of a bright spot.”

“He definitely deserves credit for recognizing India as a security partner,” Riedel says. “He walked a fine line that allowed for the development of stronger relations with India as well as with Pakistan.”

Barack Obama, 2010 and 2015

Obama visited India twice. During his first trip in 2010 during the administration of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he backed India’s bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. In addition to $10 billion in trade deals, the two leaders also agreed to boost defense and national security ties, which led to the easing of export regulations on high-technology goods to India.

The second time around, Obama came to India on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to be the chief guest at the country’s Republic Day celebration, which marks India’s constitution going into effect. The trip went smoothly until Obama made comments on religious freedom in the country, saying “India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along the lines of religious faith.” On his return to Washington, he cited concern about “acts of intolerance” on religious lines in India. His comments didn’t go down so well with some members of Modi’s Hindu nationalist government and triggered backlash in the national media.

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Countering China, Obama Backs India for U.N. Council

By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Jim Yardley

• Nov. 8, 2010

NEW DELHI — By endorsing India for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, President Obama on Monday signaled the United States’ intention to create a deeper partnership of the world’s two largest democracies that would expand commercial ties and check the influence of an increasingly assertive China.

Mr. Obama’s announcement, made during a nationally televised address to the Indian Parliament, came at the end of a three-day visit to India that won high marks from an Indian political establishment once uncertain of the president’s commitment to the relationship. Even as stark differences remained between the countries on a range of tough issues, including Pakistan, trade policy, climate change and, to some degree, Iran, Mr. Obama spoke of India as an “indispensable” partner for the coming century.

“In Asia and around the world, India is not simply emerging,” he said during his speech in Parliament. “India has emerged.”

Mr. Obama’s closer embrace of India prompted a sharp warning from Pakistan, India’s rival and an uncertain ally of the United States in the war in Afghanistan, which criticized the two countries for engaging in “power politics” that lacked a moral foundation.

It is also likely to set off fresh concerns in Beijing, which has had a contentious relationship with India and has expressed alarm at American efforts to tighten alliances with Asian nations wary of China’s rising power.

But warmer ties between the United States and India, in the making for many years, come at a crucial time for Mr. Obama. He and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are headed to South Korea later this week for a meeting of the Group of 20, apparently in agreement on what is expected to be a significant clash between the world’s big powers over the United States Federal Reserve’s plan to boost the American economy by pumping $600 billion into it.

China, Brazil and Germany have sharply criticized the move by the independent Fed, which they see as intended to push down the value of the dollar to boost American exports. Germany’s finance minister equated the move to currency manipulation “with the help of their central bank’s printing presses.”

But at a Monday news conference, Mr. Obama defended the Fed’s move and won backing from Mr. Singh , who spoke about the United States’ critical importance to the global economy.

“Anything that would stimulate the underlying growth and policies of entrepreneurship in the United States would help the cause of global prosperity,” he said.

The good will between Mr. Obama and Mr. Singh, as well as the almost giddy reaction to the president and his wife, Michelle, in the Indian press, lent a glossy sheen to a United States-India relationship that is still evolving.

India remains deeply protective of its sovereignty, while the United States is accustomed to having the upper hand with its foreign partners. On Monday, Mr. Singh emphasized the need for the two countries “to work as equal partners in a strategic relationship.”

“For India, going back to the earliest days since independence, there has always been a very strong attachment to strategic autonomy,” said Teresita C. Schaffer, director of the South Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Americans throw around the word ‘ally’ with gay abandon.”

Mr. Obama arrived in India on Saturday bearing a big gift: his decision to lift longstanding export controls on sensitive technologies, albeit with some of the specifics still unclear. And the president also made several small-bore announcements about new collaborations between the nations on everything from homeland security to education, agriculture and open government.

Many Indian analysts said Mr. Obama had big shoes to fill, given the popularity here of his two predecessors. President George W. Bush is viewed with admiration, largely for his work securing a civil nuclear cooperation pact. And former President Bill Clinton, who in 2000 became the first American president to visit India in two decades, is fondly remembered for his gregarious personality and his own speech in Parliament, credited for reviving the relationship.

The headline moment of the trip was Mr. Obama’s announcement on the United Nations seat, even though the endorsement is seemingly as much symbolic as substantive, given the serious political obstacles that have long stalled efforts to reform membership of the Security Council.

All the major powers have said the post-World War II structure of the Security Council, in which the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China have permanent seats with veto power, should be changed to reflect a different balance of power. But it could take years for any changes to be made, partly because there is no agreement on which countries should be promoted to an enlarged Security Council.

The United States has promised to support a promotion for Japan and now India. China is viewed as far less eager for its Asian neighbors to acquire permanent membership in the Council.

But administration officials and independent analysts emphasized the significance of the president’s political message.

The Obamas in India

View Slide Show ›

Ben Rhodes, a top foreign policy adviser to Mr. Obama, said the endorsement was intended to send a strong message “in terms of how we see India on the world stage.” Meanwhile, in Washington, even critics who had blamed Mr. Obama for letting the relationship with India drift reacted with praise — and surprise.

“It’s a bold move — no president has said that before,” said Richard Fontaine, a former adviser to Senator John McCain who wrote a critical report of Mr. Obama’s India policy last month for the Center for New American Security . “It’s a recognition of India’s emergence as a global power and the United States’ desire to be close to India.”

But any outreach to India is bound to cause problems for Mr. Obama in Pakistan. In Islamabad, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry warned that Mr. Obama’s decision would further complicate the process of reforming the Security Council. Pakistan, the ministry said in a statement, hopes the United States “will take a moral view and not base itself on any temporary expediency or exigencies of power politics.”

For Mr. Obama, the Pakistan-India-United States nexus creates a delicate dance. The Obama administration is selling warplanes to Pakistan, a move viewed with suspicion here.

During his three-day visit, the president faced criticism for being too soft on Pakistan; during a question and answer session with college students , one demanded to know why he had not declared Pakistan a “terrorist state.” And even Mr. Singh, standing by the president’s side at a joint news conference Monday, reiterated India’s position that it could not have meaningful talks with Pakistan until it shut down the “terror machine” inside its borders.

But if Mr. Obama’s cautious language on Pakistan provoked initial unease, his speech at Parliament seemed to put the matter to rest when he called on the Pakistani government to eradicate “safe havens” for terrorism groups and prosecute the perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed at least 168 people.

“Indians were keen to listen to two ‘p’ words,” said Rajiv Nayan, a strategic affairs analyst in New Delhi. “Permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council and, second, on Pakistan.”

Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting from the United Nations.

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Obama remarks on India’s treatment of Muslims ‘hypocritical’ – minister

Indian finance minister hits out after former US president said Modi government should protect rights of Muslims

India’s finance minister has derided comments by the former US president Barack Obama that Narendra Modi’s government should protect the rights of minority Muslims, accusing Obama of being hypocritical.

During the Indian prime minister’s state visit to the US last week, Obama told CNN that the issue of the “ protection of the Muslim minority in a majority-Hindu India” would be worth raising in Modi’s meeting with the US president, Joe Biden.

Obama said that without such protection there was “a strong possibility that India at some point starts pulling apart“.

The Indian finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, said she was shocked Obama had made such remarks when Modi was visiting the US aiming to deepen relations.

“He was commenting on Indian Muslims … having bombed Muslim-majority countries from Syria to Yemen … during his presidency,” Sitharaman told a press conference on Sunday. “Why would anyone listen to any allegations from such people?“

The US state department has raised concerns over treatment of Muslims and other religious minorities in India under Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party. The Indian government says it treats all citizens equally.

Biden said he discussed human rights and other democratic values with Modi during their talks in the White House.

Modi, at a press conference with Biden last week, denied any discrimination against minorities under his government.

• Barack Obama
• Narendra Modi
• South and central Asia

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U.S. Fixation on Nuclear Deal Let Iran Loose on the Middle East

Washington’s shortsighted policies enabled tehran and its proxies to destabilize the region., israel-hamas war.

News, analysis, and background on the ongoing conflict

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The United States has dropped the ball on Iran. Had Washington come up with a comprehensive strategy to address Tehran’s destabilizing role in the Middle East, the spreading conflict between Iran and its proxies on the one side and Israel and its allies on the other might have been prevented. Today’s escalating conflict in the Middle East—which on April 13 saw the first-ever direct attack on Israel by Iran—is not least the result of an inconsistent, shortsighted, and overly compartmentalized U.S. policy toward Iran for more than a decade.

Since the first administration of President Barack Obama, Washington has focused its attention almost entirely on Iran’s nuclear program, all but overlooking its other activities—including its interventions across the region. Already during Obama’s campaign for his first term in 2008, he promised to make a nuclear deal with Iran his top priority for the Middle East, which he duly sought to implement once in office.

Early in the process, there was a clear imbalance between Washington’s perception and Tehran’s. Washington thought that engaging Iran on the nuclear file would curb the latter’s destabilizing potential in the region, and this assumption motivated the signing of an initial nuclear agreement with Iran in 2013. But Iran celebrated the agreement as a political victory and otherwise carried on. Despite this, the Obama administration pressed on in pursuit of a wider nuclear deal, and in 2015 managed to secure the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

As the Obama administration was negotiating its deals, two significant developments took place in Iran that failed to set off any kind of rethink in Washington. The first was the Green Movement , a nationwide wave of protests against the manipulated 2009 election that gave Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term. The Iranian authorities crushed the movement with sheer violence. In 2011, popular protests also erupted in Syria as part of the Arab Spring. Iran was quick to deploy its advisors to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad crush the protests , turning a peaceful uprising into a long and bloody war that continues to this day .

During this time, Iran was also developing its ballistic missile program. But none of these developments shifted Washington’s focus away from the objective of the nuclear deal. Once again, U.S. and Iranian perceptions varied greatly.

Washington’s logic was that nuclear enrichment was the greatest threat that Iran was posing in the Middle East—and the U.S. side theorized that cooperation on this issue, in return for lifting sanctions, would build trust. This trust, according to Washington, would then be the basis upon which Iran could be engaged on other issues such as its missile program and its interventions in the Middle East. This misplaced hope not only failed to account for Iranian political realities, but it was also shortsighted in allowing Iran to expand both its missile program and regional interventions.

This myopic fixation of the Obama years is today repeated by the Biden administration, which has been similarly focused on the nuclear deal while largely ignoring Iran’s other destabilizing activities.

But even the administration of former President Donald Trump did not deviate much from the path set by Obama and now followed by President Joe Biden. In 2018, Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA and announced the start of a so-called maximum pressure campaign toward Iran. Yet his administration did not come up with any plan for dealing with the ballistic missile program or regional interventions—despite Iran’s activities in Syria having become more extensive than they were during Obama’s time in office.

Iran never fully abided by the terms of the JCPOA, but the U.S. withdrawal from the deal gave Tehran the opportunity to publicly blame Washington, increasing Iran’s political capital among its supporters. And although Trump used the term “maximum pressure” to describe his Iran strategy, the reality was that the measures taken by Washington were actually not very maximal. They amounted to the designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—a branch of the Iranian military—as a terrorist organization in 2019, the assassination of IRGC elite commander Qassem Suleimani in 2020, and the imposition of additional sanctions.

The Trump administration’s measures did not cause Iran to modify its behavior. If anything, Iran became more emboldened. The terrorist designation did little to curb the IRGC’s financial transactions because the group does not rely on international banking networks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration that the United States implemented the designation at his “request” only served to support Iran’s narrative that it was defying victimization by its enemies. Suleimani’s assassination did not cause the IRGC to crumble, and it carried on its destabilizing activities. And while Iran did suffer financially from sanctions, they have not been sufficient to cause a change in the regime’s behavior.

Iran also benefited from the lukewarm reaction of the Trump administration to the attacks orchestrated by Iran and its proxies against U.S. targets in the Middle East. Washington blamed Tehran for the 2019 attack by Yemen’s Houthis on a critical Aramco oil facility in Saudi Arabia—but it never came up with a robust policy toward Yemen itself. That failure is now vividly playing out in the context of the Israel-Hamas war.

In the eyes of Tehran, Washington also lost credibility due to its lack of political and military pushback. When IRGC speedboats harassed U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf in 2020, the United States chose not to respond. Later that year, the Trump administration failed in its bid to extend a U.N. arms embargo on Iran, which expired in October 2020; instead, Washington ended up imposing this embargo unilaterally .

Iran saw this scenario as confirming the United States’ diplomatic isolation. When Washington imposed more sanctions on Tehran that same year, the latter’s response was to increase nuclear enrichment.

Iran also benefited from U.S. inattention to the former’s ongoing regional interventions, which continued across the administrations of Obama, Trump, and Biden. This inattention allowed the Houthis to consolidate their position in Yemen, helped the Assad regime stay in power, and enabled Hezbollah to become the most powerful political actor in Lebanon. Other Iran-backed armed groups in the Middle East, including Hamas, also profited from this situation, acquiring more weapons, funding, and training from Iran.

After 15 years of half-baked, myopic U.S. policies toward Iran, it should not come as a surprise that the Middle East is now at war—started on Oct. 7, 2023, by an Iran-backed armed group, Hamas, whose escalatory aggressiveness is, to no small extent, the result of a failed U.S. strategy toward Iran.

Iran’s apparent resilience is not simply the product of its own strength, but also largely a consequence of U.S. strategic ineptitude. In other words, U.S. behavior has aided Iran’s ability to act as a destabilizing force in the Middle East.

If there is a silver lining to the events since October, it is that the conflict has shown Iran to be isolated and vulnerable. When Iran attacked Israel, the latter’s Western allies and Arab partners actively aided in its defense. Iran, for all its network of proxies , lacks such a robust defense network.

This could be a golden opportunity for the United States to shift gears in its handling of Iran. A new strategy should include stronger engagement with Washington’s regional allies to create a viable security framework for the Middle East, taking the lead on the Syrian and Yemeni peace processes, and resurrecting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in a way that includes and addresses Iran’s role.

Unfortunately, there are still no signs that the United States is prepared to craft a comprehensive Iran policy that seriously addresses Tehran’s threat to regional stability. U.S. policy on Iran has echoes of its Syria policy, through which the Obama administration’s inaction led to horrific consequences.

As long as the United States maintains a similarly passive stance on Iran, the Middle East will continue to reel from Tehran’s destabilizing actions.

Lina Khatib is the director of the University of London’s SOAS Middle East Institute and an associate fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa program, where she was previously a director. Twitter:  @LinaKhatibUK

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