Iran’s relationship with the United States: An estranged friend to an ‘arrogant’ power Premium

As recently as November 2025, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary, Ali Larijiani, stated that Iran is open to “real negotiations” with the United States but not “fake talks” with “pre-determined outcomes”.

In November 3, 2025, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered his annual address on the eve of what Iran terms the ‘National Day of Fighting Global Arrogance’, which marks three important junctures in Iran’s history – Ayatollah Khomeini’s exile by Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1964, the Pahlavi forces’ killing of student protestors at the University of Tehran in 1978, and (most importantly) the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by students proclaiming loyalty to Khomeini in 1979. Mr. Khamenei’s address focused on an old effort — to consistently re-legitimise the Embassy takeover and reinforce a revisionist history of the event in the Iranian popular imagination. However, a key feature of Mr. Khamenei’s 2025 address is his description of arrogance or ‘istikbar’ in government. He put forth a two-pillared description:

“‘Istikbar’ (is) self-perceived superiority is of two kinds. One is when a person or a government considers itself to be superior to others but doesn’t interfere with them. This still isn’t a good characteristic. Conceit isn’t a good thing, but it doesn’t create enmity or hostility. It’s simply a bad trait to have. However, there may be a time when a government, a person, a group, or an aggressor considers itself to be superior to others and grants itself the right to push others around, to encroach upon the vital interests of others, and to dictate terms to others. Arrogance in this form is bad.

A government — for instance, it was the British government in one era, and it’s the U.S. today — grants itself the right to establish, for example, ten military bases in a certain country that lacks a strong government or an aware populace, to create facilities for itself, to take their oil, to seize their interests, and to plunder their underground resources. This is ‘Istikbar’. This is the Arrogance we object to, the Arrogance we speak about, and the Arrogance we chant slogans against.”

This article is from The Hindu e-book. Iran: Revolution in retreat

Mr. Khamenei’s immediate intent is arguably to ensure national unity in a nation still reeling from an unprecedented joint U.S.-Israeli bombardment for 12 days in June. However, his description of ‘istikbar’ can be appropriated for a more objective reading of Iran’s rivalry with the United States and one that is far less convenient for a Supreme Leader to admit from the pulpit. This pertains to the fact Iran’s real grievance with the U.S. is not Iran’s aversion to the U.S.’s inherent arrogance (in Tehran’s view), but rather Washington’s stark inconsistency in its approach to Tehran, swinging between cooperation and engagement to hostility and confrontation.

For an Islamic Republic that publicly lambasts the U.S. as the ‘Great Satan’, whenever the U.S. pendulum has swung towards engagement, Tehran has never categorically refused but cautiously reciprocated. Arguably, for Iran, periods of U.S. engagement reflect Tehran’s success in making an arrogant power step down from a disrespectful pedestal. Hence, engagement is part of (and not an exception to) Tehran’s efforts at preventing the United States from threatening the regime.