Explained: A short history of Iran-Israel ties and why they soured after 1979

BY-Rajeev Choudhary

After these latest attacks on Israel by Iran, one thing came to light again that how two friends turned into enemies. What was the friendship between Israel and Iran and how today the friendship turned into deep enmity that Iran suddenly launched large-scale drone attacks on Israel surrounded in the Gaza war. And attacked with missiles… which can lead to very dangerous and different consequences, war can also start.

In fact, the region of the Middle East is like a hive of bees that throw a pebble and everyone starts running here and there to bite. The same thing happened this time too. Earlier this month, Israel attacked Iran’s Consulate in Syria. Seven senior Iranian commanders and military personnel were killed in those attacks. In response to which Iran has given the codename ‘Operation True Promise’ to the attack on Israel. Iran says that it has given the codename ‘Operation True Promise’ so that it can tell its friends and enemies that it follows whatever it says.

But there is a whole story behind this practice which has become history and the most wonderful thing about history is that even while living in the present, a person can become a spectator of the events of decades, hundreds or thousands of millions of years ago and can experience them. ..

The year was 1948, in the Middle East in place of Palestine, a new Jewish country named Israel was formed, which most of the Arab Muslim countries refused to recognize. At that time, Iran was the second Muslim country after Turkey, which recognized it in 1948 itself. Was accepted as. It is said that Iran had never openly expressed friendship with Israel. Everything happened behind the scenes. The closeness between the two increased even more when an American intelligence operation established its own puppet government in Iran.

In fact, on 15 August 1953, when India was celebrating its sixth Independence Day, the American intelligence agency was trying to topple an elected government in Iran. This work was being carried out by General Fazlullah Zahedi of the Iranian Army.

As soon as information about this coup was received from the intelligence agency, Iranian President Mohammad Mossadegh became alert. He ordered the arrest of dozens of people who were preparing to agitate against the government. As soon as the Iranian army started arresting the protesters, General Fazlollah Zahedi fled the country. Three days after this incident, on August 18, 1953, a message was sent by the American intelligence agency CIA to its officers in Iran. It was written in it- ‘Our operation against the President of Iran failed. Now we should avoid any such operation.

The CIA officers present in Iran were now left with two options, one to return after saving their lives or to prepare for the next operation to topple the Iranian government. But the CIA could not tolerate its defeat. And the biggest CIA officer present in Iran named Kermit Roosevelt ignored the orders of the American government and started preparing for the next Operation Ajax. What happened was that between August 15 and 19, the CIA wove a new trap and on August 19, the American intelligence agency gathered a huge crowd of hired people in Tehran. These fierce agitators were demanding the restoration of monarchy in the country once again. He had the support of the royal family there. The result was that Mohammad Mossadegh had to resign from the post of President of Iran and the elected government fell. The power of Iran came into the hands of Shah Reza Pahlavi. This was the first time that America had toppled an elected government in any country.

America’s puppet government in Iran had good relations with Israel. There was a time when Iran was the main oil supplier to Israel during the Shah’s rule. Whereas, during this period, other Arab countries had no relations with Israel. After Israel and Turkey, Iran was the third country in the Middle East where the number of Jews was highest. About one lakh Jews lived in Iran.

For this reason, relations between the two were so good that Iran’s intelligence agency SAVAK received training from Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. Now the question is how the enmity happened

Actually now come to India, the year was 1790. A child was born in Kintoor, a small village of Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh. Name was- Syed Ahmed Moosvi. Then hardly anyone would know that the coming descendants of this child would change the fate or rather the condition and direction of Iran located 25 hundred kilometers away from India. This name was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the person who not only made Iran forever. Changed it, in fact, without his consent not even a leaf could move in this country. The boy born in Barabanki, UP, whom we talked about in the beginning, was the grandfather of Ruhollah Khomeini. Syed Ahmed Moosavi had gone to perform Haj and settled in Iran midway. His grandson was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who lit the fire of religion in Iran by reading Quran and Hadith in which Iranian women are burning even today.

Coming back to the story, with the help of America, power in Iran came into the hands of Shah Reza Pahlavi. In the year 1978, King of Iran Shah Reza Pahlavi organized a grand party in his palace. Apart from America’s Vice President Sipro Agnew, big leaders of many countries including the Soviet Union came to this party. Iran’s religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini had criticized it by calling it a party of devils.

Khomeini started uniting the people against this party of the royal family. He believed that the Shah family takes decisions in the interest of America. At the behest of Khomeini, a movement against the Shah started in Iran. Soon the common people of Iran started joining this movement and it took the form of Islamic Revolution.

The interesting thing was that Khomeini, who started such a big movement against the Shah family, was not in Iran himself. When Ayatollah’s attitude became more aggressive, he also got strong support from the people of Iran. After which the frightened Emperor exiled the Ayatollah. After which, Ayatollah Khomeini’s opposition to the Iranian Pahlavi regime continued even during his exile in Turkey, Iraq and France. It was here that his India connection once again came to the fore. The then ruler of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, addressed him as Indian Mullah.

But in December 1978, about two million people gathered at Shahyad Square in Tehran to protest against King Shah. Seeing so many people gathered together, the army refused to take action against them. The result was that Shah Reza Pahlavi was forced to flee the country and in April 1979, Khomeini returned to the country and declared Iran an Islamic country. The skirts worn by women became extinct, hijab and niqab started to be worn, that is, Islamic state was established in Iran under the leadership of Khomeini and Sharia law was implemented. The new government of Iran led by Ayatollah Rohollah Khomeini broke all relations with Israel.

And gave his first speech that Iran needs to fight against America and its allies. People of both the countries, who were friends, could no longer travel to each other’s country. The air route between the two was closed. The Israeli embassy in Tehran was converted into the Palestinian embassy.

But then it happened that in the eighties, a war broke out between Iran and Iraq. On September 22, 1980, the army of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein suddenly attacks Iran. The initial attack is on Iran’s Air Force. After this, 6 units of the Iraqi battalion enter the Khuzestan area of Iran. Iran, which emerged from the Islamic Revolution, was not ready for this war. The result was that more than 2 lakh Iranian soldiers were killed in just 2 months. Seeing the situation worsening, pressure started building on Iran to collect American weapons as soon as possible.

Caught in the middle of the war, Mullah Khomeini suddenly turned around and sent another delegation to Israel. Where a secret deal was made. The result was that on October 24, 1980, Iran received 250 tires for Scorpion tanks and Th-4 fighter jets.

During this period, many ships from Europe came to Chabahar, Bandar Abbas and Beshehar ports of Iran. It is believed that these ships had helicopters and missile systems. These ships were sent by Israeli arms companies. America soon got wind of this deal going on behind the scenes between enemy countries. At that time, Democrat Jimmy Carter was in power in America. The Carter Administration ordered Israel to stop supplying weapons to Iran, however, within a few months the government in America changed. Ronald Reagan became the President of America.

America had freed its citizens held hostage in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Meanwhile, Israel prepared the Reagan administration to help Iran. However, no one was allowed to have even a clue about this deal between Israel, America and Iran.

It was decided that America would not send weapons directly to Iran but would send them through Israel. The responsibility for this was handed over to an American officer named Robert McFarlane. Israel was helping Iran along with America, but was not very satisfied with it.

The reason was that the weapons that America had approved to sell to Iran were not such that they could change the course of the war. Then Israel put its spies to work. On March 8, 1982, a news was published in the American newspaper New York Times. It was claimed that Israel’s intelligence agency was secretly collecting weapons for Iran without informing the Americans.

The Times found $100 to $200 billion worth of arms bills spanning 18 months. More than half of these were arranged on behalf of Israel. Israel’s intelligence agency had opened a company in Wall Street. More than 50 people worked in it. Their job was to buy American weapons and sell them to Iran through fake companies. As soon as the news was published, the company was shifted from New York to London in 1983. Israel not only provided arms to Iran but also attacked Iraq, for which even America criticized it.

This incident happened on June 7, 1981. The war between Iran and Iraq had intensified. Then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sent several planes to bomb Iraq. Within moments of the bombing starting, a building in Baghdad was reduced to rubble.

According to a BBC report, this building housed Iraq’s nuclear research center. At that time the Israeli army had said that the bombing had put Iraq’s ‘nuclear genie’ back in the bottle, but this attack was criticized at the international level. A resolution was brought against Israel’s attack in the United Nations. Even Israel’s friend America supported this proposal.

Now the question may be that if Israel had not supported Iran at that time, Saddam would have destroyed Iran at the behest of America, but Israel saved Iran. What did Israel get in return? Actually, behind this help, Israel was for its weapons industry. Was making a market. Secondly, Israel once again wanted to improve relations with Iran by supplying weapons during the war.

Thirdly, Iraq was an open enemy of Israel in which Israel suspected that Iraq was making nuclear weapons, in such a situation Israel took the help of Iran to counter Saddam. However, after the war with Iraq, Iran also started working on acquiring nuclear weapons. This was revealed in 2002. America opposed this. By now Israel had also started seeing Iran as a threat. Israel does not at any cost want any country in the Middle East to have nuclear weapons. Since then, relations between the two countries continued to deteriorate and gradually turned into enmity. Even in Israel’s neighboring countries, Iran has created Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthi in Yemen, militia groups in Syria and Iraq, Hamas in Gaza and Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which are becoming a headache for Israel today. It is certain that the first Many times Iran openly attacked Israel, but it is also being speculated that if Iran moves ahead from here, a big war may break out.