Tension has reached its peak in the Middle East. Iran fired more than 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday, including hypersonic weapons. Now Israel has also vowed that Iran will pay the price of this attack. However, relations between the two countries were not always bad. It may sound unimaginable but Israel and Iran had joined hands with the help of America to fight a common enemy. In the 1960s, both Israel and Iran had a common enemy, Iraq. While Israel was engaged in conflict against the Arab countries, Iraq was a direct threat to Iran under the Shah’s leadership given its security and regional ambitions. This laid the groundwork for the most secret partnership of all time.
This partnership included Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad and Iran’s secret police SAVAK. Both played a key role in strengthening Kurdish rebels against Iraqi rule. These Kurdish groups, seen as a weakness of Iraq’s Arab leadership, were necessary to weaken the Iraqi government from within. Relations between Israel and Iran reached new heights after the formation of the intelligence alliance code-named Trident in which Türkiye was also involved. These three groups exchanged much intelligence with the help of Trident in early 1958. Israel and Iran became closer as relations matured.
Shah’s ambitions and Israel’s influence
Iran’s Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was motivated not only by shared geopolitical interests but also by Israel’s influence in the US. The Shah saw Israel as a means to improve relations with the United States. This became especially necessary after the Kennedy administration expressed concerns about his rule. Israeli–Iranian relations became part of Iran’s strategy to align itself with the West. As a result, by the mid-1960s a permanent Israeli delegation was established in Tehran, functioning as an embassy. However, there were some complications in this regard also. The Shah was aware of widespread anti-Israel sentiment in the Arab world. He publicly denied Iran’s ties to Israel.
Benefit of both countries in working together against Iraq
The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran drastically changed the country’s political landscape and transformed it into an anti-Israel Islamic republic. Yet even after Ayatollah Khomeini came to power, the new regime continued covert cooperation with Israel. As the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988) progressed, both countries saw the benefit of working together against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Israel also saw a good opportunity in helping Iran. Both the US and the Soviet Union supplied the Iraqi army and this was a risk. Israel’s arms shipments to Iran were a deliberate decision to weaken Iraq’s power, especially after Prime Minister Menachem Begin approved the sale of military equipment in 1980. These secret arms deals were made despite US policy prohibiting military aid to Iran until the release of American hostages held in Tehran. In exchange for Israeli military aid, Khomeini’s regime allowed large numbers of Iranian Jews to immigrate to Israel or the United States.
operation flower
The Israeli-Iranian partnership reached beyond traditional arms deals. One of the most ambitious plans was Operation Flower, a secret multimillion-dollar plan that began in 1977 during the Shah’s rule. Under this deal, Iran made a large advance payment by sending $260 million of oil to Israel in 1978, as claimed in a 1986 New York Times report. Work on the missile program continued until the Islamic Revolution in 1979, after which Khomeini’s regime abruptly halted cooperation. In October 1980, when Iran waged war against Iraq, Israel also secretly gave Iran 250 spare tires for American-made F-4 fighter planes.
beginning of hostilities
By the 1990s the era of cooperation between Israel and Iran was almost over. The geopolitical factors that once united them, such as Arab socialism, Soviet influence, and the threat of Iraq, had disappeared, leaving no reason for cooperation. After this Iran adopted anti-Israel ideology. Iran has supported groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas in their conflict with Israel. The election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the early 2000s, genocide denial, and aggressive rhetoric against Israel further increased tensions. After this, Iran became Israel’s most prominent opponent in the region. Now these two countries of the Middle East are on the verge of full-scale war.