Iran-Israel conflict: How secret friends turned bitter enemies

Time of India

18 hours ago

After nearly two decades of hostilities, Israel has finally attacked Iran's nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders during the start of a prolonged operation to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapons. Last year, Israel had struck Iran's defence facilities and Iran's launched retaliatory strikes on Israel but that was a limited conflict.
"We are at a decisive moment in Israel's history," Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
said in a recorded video message yesterday. "Moments ago Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat."
The relationship between Iran and Israel stands today as one of the most hostile and fraught rivalries in international politics. However, this animosity belies a complex history of covert cooperation, strategic alliances and shared interests that lasted for several decades. They used to be friends once, then became secret allies, and finally turned bitter enemies.
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Following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, most Muslim-majority countries refused to recognise it. Iran, a predominantly Shia country with a long imperial history and uneasy relations with Arab states, was an exception. While Iran did not officially recognise Israel, the two countries developed discreet and pragmatic relations rooted in shared strategic concerns.
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Under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran followed a Western-aligned foreign policy during the Cold
War
and was a key regional ally of the United States. Israel, since it was dependent on American support, found a natural partner in Iran.
Israel's strategic doctrine in the 1950s and 1960s, known as the Periphery Doctrine or sought to build alliances with non-Arab states in the Middle East that were hostile to pan-Arab nationalism. Iran, along with Turkey and Ethiopia, became a central partner in this strategy. In a secret meeting in 1958, Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion and Turkish prime minister Adnan Menderes formed the so-called "alliance of the periphery" following which Iran, Turkey and Israel established a pact known as the "Trident". The relationship included intelligence sharing, economic cooperation, and arms trade. Notably, the Mossad and Iran's spy agency SAVAK collaborated closely. Israel also provided military advisors and technical support to Iran, especially during the development of the Iranian military-industrial complex.
The Israel-Iran relationship was significant economically too. Iran supplied Israel with crude oil, particularly after the 1967 Six-Day War when many Arab nations imposed boycotts. In return, Israel provided Iran with advanced agricultural and technological assistance. Israeli companies were active in infrastructure development projects across Iran.
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As per a declassified CIA document, "Israel's ties to Iran developed from a broader Israeli effort to forge links to strategically-located non-Arab states, also including Turkey and Ethiopia, after the 1956 Suez Crisis. Israel figured that it had much in common with these states, each of which nurtured its own set of grievances with neighboring Arab countries. All had reasons to fear the emergence of Arab power and to resent Soviet military support for their enemies, Ali maintained a close relationship with the US, and all bordered on strategically important international waterways."
"Building on these commonalities," the CIA document says, "Israel eventually developed nearly full diplomatic relations with Turkey and Ethiopia. Relations with Iran developed more slowly and cautiously, due mainly to the Shah's concern for the Islamic sensibilities of his subjects. Nevertheless, Israel and Iran eventually exchanged missions which enjoyed diplomatic privileges and built up close economic and security relations in the 1960s and 1970s. Iran became Israel's chief supplier of crude oil until Israel began operating the Sinai oil fields following its conquest of the territory in the Six Day War. After Israel returned the fields to Egypt under the Sinai II Agreements in 1975, Iran once again became the chief source of oil, supplying about 70 percent of Israel's requirement until the overthrow of the Shah in 1979."
The CIA document also claimed that Israel regularly sold armaments to Iran during the Shah's reign, "The arms sales gave a significant boost to Israel's fledgling defense industries, and barter arrangements secured much-needed oil in return for arms and technical assistance." As per the CIA, Israel also was interested in assisting Iran in its support of Kurdish separatists in Iraq, and Iran, in turn, may have provided Mossad with intelligence concerning the Iraqi military. The document says that Israel also sought to ensure welfare of the 90,000 Jews who lived in Iran.
Despite Khomeini's open animosity, secret Iran-Israel ties flourished
The Iranian Revolution of 1979 marked a fundamental break in Iran-Israel bilateral relations. The overthrow of the Shah and the establishment of the Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini radically altered Iran's foreign policy. The new Islamic regime viewed Israel not only as a political adversary but also as an illegitimate state. Khomeini's rhetoric portrayed Israel as a Zionist regime and a tool of Western imperialism. Iran's new Islamic ideology prioritised support for oppressed Muslims, particularly Palestinians, and declared unwavering opposition to Israel's existence. Iran severed all diplomatic ties with Israel, expelled Israeli personnel, and handed over the Israeli embassy in Tehran to the Palestine Liberation Organization. Anti-Israel sentiment became a core tenet of the Islamic Republic's foreign and domestic discourse.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Iran emerged as a key sponsor of militant groups opposed to Israel, Hezbollah in Lebanon and later Hamas in the Palestinian territories. This support extended to training, funding and the provision of weapons. Effectively, Iran was positioning itself as Israel's biggest enemy in the Middle East.
However, interestingly, even after Iran and Israel had turned into enemies, secret bilateral ties persisted. During the Iran–Iraq War, which began in 1980 and lasted eight years, Israel viewed Saddam Hussein's Iraq as a greater threat than Khomeini's Islamic Iran. Israel, along with the US, became involved in covert transfer of arms to Iran.
This episode, later exposed as part of the Iran–Contra affair, revealed that Israeli intermediaries had facilitated the shipment of weapons to Iran in exchange for help securing the release of American hostages in Lebanon and funding anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua. The revelation shocked many, given the public hostility between Iran and Israel. Such was the covert cooperation between Iran and Israel that the US was worried that Israel could be supplying US-origin parts or weapons to Iran, Interestingly, the CIA document cited above, dated 7 October 1985, titled 'Israel and Iran: The ties that bind' said, "We believe Israeli arms sales to Iran, which began in the late 1950s, are continuing."
"We believe the Israeli Government's relatively benign attitude toward the sales is influenced by the same strategic concerns that impelled Israel to forge links to Iran in the late 1950s," the CIA document says. "The Israelis have told us that they hope their aid will help to prolong the Iran-Iraq conflict and thereby keep Baghdad's vastly enlarged military tied down along Iraq's eastern border. Their aid, however, probably would not extend to operational assistance such as providing the Iranians with battlefield intelligence. The Israelis probably fear that such assistance would reveal too much about their capabilities and that the Irani might share this knowledge with confrontation states such as Syria."
The CIA document also flagged that Israel believes, despite repeated US statements to the contrary, that US strategic interests in the Gulf will lead Washington inexorably to mend fences with Iran. Israel sees Iran as the key to promoting its interests in the Gulf and hopes eventually to use its good offices to facilitate a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran.
It may seem immensely ironic in today's context that Israel was hoping that it would use its covert ties with Iran to broker peace between the US and Iran. "According to the US Embassy, the Israelis also continue to believe, despite repeated US statements to the contrary, that US strategic interests in the Gulf will lead Washington inexorably to mend fences with Iran," the CIA document says. "Israel sees Iran as the key to promoting its interests in the Gulf and hopes eventually to use its good offices to facilitate a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran." Israel was also looking to buy oil from Iran in case the US and Iran mended ties.
The CIA document said that Israel would continue supplying weapons to Iran but only secretly. "Israel is acutely aware of the US desire to punish the Khomeini regime and wants to avoid angering its patron," it said. "The Israelis are consequently unlikely to allow arms sales to expand to a point where they are no longer plausibly deniable. In the past, sensitivity to US concerns appears to have prevented Israel from selling Iran any major items such as tanks or aircraft."
In the 1990s, the secret Iran-Israel alliance ended due to Iran's nuclear programme and the two countries turned into bitter enemies. Israel began viewing Iran's nuclear ambitions as an existential threat. Its pursuit of nuclear technology, despite its insistence on peaceful intentions, has prompted Israeli fears of a potential nuclear-armed adversary. Iran expanded its support to anti-Israel entities such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthis. By the 2020s, the rivalry between Iran and Israel had escalated into a shadow war, involving drone attacks, cyber warfare and maritime sabotage. Iran's increasing influence in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen has been matched by Israel's growing cooperation with Gulf states and continued military operations aimed at limiting Iranian entrenchment near its borders. The ongoing Gaza conflict and subsequent regional tensions, culminating in direct missile and drone exchanges in 2024, brought the Iran-Israel confrontation close to open warfare. Yesterday, the attack Israel has been vowing to mount on Iran for years finally happened and is likely to turn into a full-scale war.