Obviously, any questions about tourism in Iran are insignificant compared to the life and death questions that are being discussed now. According to Pres. Trump, the United States came within a few minutes of bombing Iran and starting a “hot” war between our two countries.
How did we get ourselves into such a dangerous situation? According to just about every country in the world, the Iranians have been fulfilling their part of the nuclear treaty negotiated by John Kerry during the Obama presidency.
Trump called this deal a “disaster” although it is not clear exactly why. One criticism is that the deal only called for Iran to hold off on any nuclear activities until 2030. Apparently, this was not good enough for Trump. Is it possible that his main objection to the deal was that it was negotiated by Obama and Kerry and not himself? If he had been able to negotiate the very same deal with North Korea he would have called it a great success.
But perhaps the greater question is – why is Iran our enemy? What have they done to us? Did they force the United States CIA to carry out a coup against the democratically elected Mossadegh government in 1953?
Did they force the United States to help support Iraq under Saddam Hussein in the 1980s to wage war against Iran?
(This, of course, was when Saddam Hussein was “good” and before he became “bad”).
Did they make the United States shoot down a scheduled Iranian passenger flight in 1988, killing 290 people? No one was ever punished for that and the crew eventually received service medals. (If you have forgotten about this, then look for the Vincennes Incident article in Wikipedia).
The Iranians did take American hostages in 1979 and hold them for over 400 days. There was no excuse for that action, although many people believe it was in fear of another American coup attempt after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
It is of course true that the Iranians support people in the Middle East who we don’t like – the Syrians, Hezbollah, the Houthis. But compared to the Saudis the Iranians may be considered great humanitarians.
After all, it was not the Iranians who made up 15 out of 19 hijackers who were responsible for 9/11. There were NO Iranians involved, but 15 Saudis.
In fact, if you were to visit Iran, even today, you would find most people like Americans very much on a personal basis and are able to distinguish between American individuals and their government.
We urge people not to give up on Iran, but, rather, go to Iran and see it for itself. Iran is still one of the safest countries in the world for Americans to visit and, believe it or not, there are no restrictions on Americans who wish to visit Iran.