IRAN & ISRAEL Relations
Biblical Times
Biblical books contain references to the life and experiences of Jews in Persia. In the book of Ezra, the Persian king Cyrus the Great is credited with permitting and enabling the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple.
1947 to 1953
In 1947 Iran was among 13 countries that voted against the UN Partition Plan for Palestine Two years later, Iran also voted against Israel’s admission to the United Nations. But after the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948, Israel and Iran maintained close ties. Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel as a sovereign state after Turkey. Israel viewed Iran as a non Arab power on the edge of the Arab world.
1953 - 1979
Friendly era of Pahlavi rule:
After the 1953 coup d’état in Iran, which re-installed pro-Western Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power, relations between the two countries significantly improved.
1979 to 1990
Worsening period after the Islamic Revolution. Iran cut off all official relations with Israel. The Israeli Embassy in Tehran was closed and handed over to the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Ayatollah Khomeini declared Israel an “enemy of Islam” and ‘The Little Satan— the United States was called ‘The Great Satan’.
Since 1990
The turn from cold peace to hostility started in the early 1990s, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and defeat of the Iraqi Army during Desert Storm. Yitzhak Rabin’s government adopted a more aggressive posture on Iran. Rhetorical conflict, Iran’s development of nuclear technology relative to Israel’s long- stated Begin Doctrine, Iranian funding of groups like Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas, and alleged involvement in terrorist attacks such as the 1992 attack on Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 AMIA bombing, alleged Israeli support for groups like People’s Mujahedin of Iran or Jundallah and alleged covert operations in Iran including assassinations and explosions.
IRAN - IRAQ Relations & War of 1980 - 88
1937
Iran had repudiated the demarcation line established in the Persian Gulf in the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913, arguing that the Iran-Iraq border in the Shatt al-Arab (Arvand rood in Farsi) should be demarcated according to the Thalweg Principle (line of lowest elevation within a valley or watercourse). In 1937, Iran and Iraq signed their first official boundary treaty. That treaty marked the beginning of a period of acute Iraqi-Iranian tension that was to last until the Algires Accord of 1975.
1974
From March 1974 to March 1975, Iran and Iraq fought border skirmishes over Iran’s support of Iraqi Kurds, who were engaged in an insurgency against the Arab Iraqi state for secession and the establishment of a Kurdish state.
1975
In the 1975 Algiers Agreement, Iraq made territorial concessions— including the Shatt al-Arab /Arvand Rood waterway—in exchange for normalized relations.
1980
17 September 1980, following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein claimed that the newly-established Islamic.
1988 8 year war
Republic of Iran had refused to abide by the stipulations of the Algiers Accords and, therefore, Iraq considered them null and void. Five days The Iater, the Iraqi military launched a major offensive and invaded Iran, sparking the Iran–Iraq War. By May 1982 (when Iran recaptured Khorramshahr), Saddam Hussein’s strategic response was to proclaim a unilateral cease-fire (June 10, 1982) while ordering Iraqi forces to withdraw to the border. But Iran rejected a cease-fire, demanding the removal of Saddam Hussein and compensation for war damage. The end came on July 18, when Iran accepted UN Resolution 598 and the truce came into effect on July 20, 1988. US backed Iraq in this invasion.