For nearly 45 years, the United States and Iran have lurched from crisis to confrontation and back again and every single time, both sides found a way to pull back from the brink. Diplomacy, deterrence, exhaustion or the simple shared desire to avoid all-out war provided the off-ramp.

The current conflict, now in its second week, is different in almost every structural way that made those off-ramps possible. Here is a look at how past US-Iran confrontations ended and why the factors that contained them are largely absent today:

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1979–1981: The Hostage Crisis Ended With A Deal

The defining early confrontation between Washington and Tehran began when Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. At the height of the crisis, with public pressure in the US at fever pitch, the two countries were as hostile as they had ever been yet they found a way out. The Algiers Accords, brokered through Algerian mediation, secured the hostages’ release in January 1981.

1980s: The Tanker War Ended Through Military Exhaustion

During the Iran-Iraq War, Iranian forces began targeting oil tankers in the Gulf, threatening global energy supplies. The United States intervened to protect shipping and launched Operation Praying Mantis in 1988- a military engagement that inflicted heavy losses on Iran’s naval capabilities. The confrontation ended not through diplomacy but through exhaustion. Iran was economically drained and militarily weakened by eight years of war with Iraq and agreed to a ceasefire in 1988.

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2020: The Soleimani Crisis De-Escalated Within Days

The killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020 brought the two countries closer to direct war than at any point since 1979. Iran responded by launching missiles at US bases in Iraq but calibrated the strikes to avoid mass casualties. Both sides then signalled restraint. The crisis, which had seemed for days as though it might spiral into open conflict, was effectively over within a week.

Source: World News in news18.com, World Latest News, World News