How Israel and Iran's friendship turned to hate
- A friendship that has bombed
- Iran's 1948 recognition of Israel
- A source of regional violence
- The Nakba
- Iran's main concern
- Israel's "periphery doctrine"
- Strategic alliances to avoid isolation
- Weapons for oil
- A shared intelligence
- The cooling of relations in 1979
- "Little S a t a n"
- Trade under the radar
- The First Gulf War
- Iran's sponsorship of proxy groups
- All ties cut
- Espousing the Palestinian cause
A friendship that has bombed

As hostilities escalate between Iran and Israel, it is hard to imagine that there was a time when the two nations had each other’s backs.
Iran's 1948 recognition of Israel

While Iran vetoed the UN’s proposition to divide Palestine for the creation of the state of Israel back in 1947, a year later it was the second Muslim majority nation to recognize Israel following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War that resulted in more land being seized by the Jews.
A source of regional violence

The reason Iran voted against the partition of Palestine in 1947 was that it predicted this would generate violence and conflict in the region for years to come.
The Nakba

The 1948 war would result in the displacement and dispossession of 700,000 Palestinians in what is now known as the Nakba – Arabic for catastrophe.
Iran's main concern

But Iran at that point was more interested in the dispossession of the 2,000 Iranians living in Palestine than the displacement of the Palestinians themselves.
Israel's "periphery doctrine"

Curiously, it was Israel not Iran that sought to establish a friendship as part of Prime Minister David Ben Gurion’s so-called “periphery doctrine.”
Strategic alliances to avoid isolation

This doctrine involved forming alliances with Arabic states at the fringes of the Middle East for security reasons – both Israel and Iran were enemies of Egypt and Iraq.
Weapons for oil

During the Cold War period, Iran became a major source of oil for Israel which, in return, provided Iran with weapons and technology.
A shared intelligence

Iran’s intelligence service and secret police, Savak, was set up with the help of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service and the two then shared classified information.
The cooling of relations in 1979

However, when the Shah was deposed in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, relations between the two nations changed dramatically.
"Little S a t a n"

Trade under the radar

According to New Lines magazine, while Tehran made sure it was seen to deny Israel’s right to exist, trade worth millions of dollars continued to flow between the two nations under the radar.
The First Gulf War

And though Israelis were banned from travelling to Iran and Iranians from travelling to “occupied Palestine”, Israel provided Iran with $100 million worth of weapons during the Iran-Iraq War between 1980 and 1988.
Iran's sponsorship of proxy groups

During that period, Iran started arming Hezbollah following the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Later, it would sponsor other proxy groups such as the Houthis in Yemen and Hamas in Gaza.
All ties cut

At the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, the clandestine relationship broke down between the two countries definitively with Iran focusing on revolutionary matters and Hezbollah becoming a threat to Israeli security.
Espousing the Palestinian cause

At that time, Iran espoused the Palestinian cause as their own in order “to brandish its leadership credentials in the Islamic world and to put Arab regimes allied with the United States on the defensive,” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Al Jazeera.