Operation Staunch was launched in the spring of 1983 by the

United States State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nat ...

to stop the flow of U.S. arms to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Background

The Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979 and the hostage crisis in Tehran frustrated American policymakers whose response came as an

embargo Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual. Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they m ...

on the new government of Iran. On January 20, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, the hostages in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

were released. In turn, the embargo was relaxed, but relations with Iran did not improve diplomatically. In fact, the newly elected Reagan refused to sell arms directly to Iran. Even so, arms manufactured in the US that were sold to foreign nations continued to find their way to the Iranian military arsenal. The

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations S ...

raised the demand for arms and "created opportunities that arms merchants around the world simply could not afford to miss. Indeed, the lure of windfall profits was so great that few countries had any scruples about selling weapons to Iran or Iraq—or both at the same time."Fanning the Flames: Guns, Greed & Geopolitics in the Gulf War by Kenneth R. Timmerman.
Retrieved on 5 April 2007. In response, The State Department dispatched special envoy Richard Fairbanks, who "spoke with diplomats, intelligence officers and arms industry officials" in targeted Arab countries as well as

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. The State Department successfully dissuaded American allies from selling American arms to Iran on the tenet, created by Iran's association with Hezbollah, that Iran sponsors terrorism.

Iran-Contra affair

Between 1981 and 1986, the US was secretly facilitating the sale of arms to Iran, in direct contradiction of Operation Staunch. Known as the

Iran–Contra affair The Iran–Contra affair ( fa, ماجرای ایران-کنترا, es, Caso Irán–Contra), often referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the McFarlane affair (in Iran), or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States ...

it proved humiliating for the United States when the story first broke in November 1986 that the US itself was selling arms to Iran.

References

{{Iran-United States relations History of the Islamic Republic of Iran History of the foreign relations of the United States Iran–United States military relations 1983 in the United States 1983 in international relations Foreign relations during the Iran–Iraq War Presidency of Ronald Reagan