The US and Iran has had a rocky relationship from around 1953 – when the CIA orchestrated a coup to overthrow Iran’s prime minister – till now and most likely will continue.
Recently, Iran conducted missile tests. This, obviously, sparked outrage and weariness among surrounding states and most importantly the United States. My guess is that it was a test. Donald Trump is not known for his diplomatic skills, especially concerning foreign governments with a long history of untrustworthiness. Iran probably felt that if there was any time to test their weapons, now was a good time as the major players in the UN are dealing with conflicts at home. Trump is dealing with his newly fitted presidency and civil outrage; the UK is still attempting to conspire a divided government over Brexit; both China and Russia are held up with the United States. Iran had a window of opportunity, and they took it.
While they probably wished it had gone under the radar more, the UN still found time to condemn Iran’s actions and announced the firing of ballistic missiles was “absolutely unacceptable.” Iran continues to INSIST it’s wasn’t in violation of the recently conjured 2231 resolution which “calls upon” Iran not to “undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology”. My opinion is that while the thought of another country, particularly Iran, carrying out missile tests, it seems that they were not in violation of the resolution. There’s little evidence that the missiles fired were capable of delivering nuclear weapons, the therefore “safe”. Also I feel that Iran has too much to lose if they were to anger the UN, and it’s in their best interest to not violate their agreements. Much like recent Europe and the United States, Iran seems to have jumped on the nationalistic boat that prioritizes national interests and defense. Trump denouncing Iran’s nationalism while also banning immigrants from 7 countries seems ironic and hypocritical.
It’s going to be interesting, not only with Iran, but with other countries that we have historically had tensions with. I would think that the perfect time to test out their own subscription of nationalism would be now, when major powers have the eyes turned away.