HOW IRAN WENT FROM ISRAEL’S CLOSE ALLY TO ITS GREATEST ENEMY

 

HOW IRAN WENT FROM ISRAEL’S CLOSE ALLY TO ITS GREATEST ENEMY

For many people today, Iran and Israel represent two of the biggest enemies in the Middle East. Iran has supported groups fighting Israel, while Israel has repeatedly targeted Iranian military and nuclear facilities. The two countries have exchanged missiles and carried out years of covert operations against one another.

But their relationship was once dramatically different.

Before the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Iran and Israel developed one of the closest strategic relationships in the Middle East. Iranian oil flowed to Israel, Israeli military and intelligence officials worked with Iran, Israeli weapons were sold to the Shah's government, and people travelled between Tehran and Israel.

So how did two countries that were once partners become bitter enemies?

The answer lies in a combination of the Cold War, Arab nationalism, Iranian ambitions, Israel's search for regional allies, and finally the Islamic Revolution that transformed Iran's political identity.

THE BEGINNING: IRAN RECOGNIZES ISRAEL

When Israel was established in 1948, most Arab governments strongly opposed the new Jewish state. Iran, however, was different.

Iran was not an Arab country. It was a predominantly Persian and Shiite country surrounded by a largely Arab and Sunni region. Its leaders therefore had strategic interests that did not always match those of the Arab states.

In March 1950, Iran granted Israel de facto recognition, becoming one of the first Muslim-majority countries to do so. The decision angered many Arab governments and religious figures inside Iran.

The relationship was still cautious. Iran's leaders understood that openly embracing Israel could damage their standing in the Muslim world.

But behind the scenes, economic and strategic cooperation continued.

WHY IRAN AND ISRAEL BECAME PARTNERS

The relationship became much stronger after Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi consolidated his power following the 1953 overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.

The Shah wanted Iran to become a powerful modern state closely connected to the United States and the West.

Israel also had a problem.

It was surrounded by Arab states that generally refused to recognize it. Israel therefore developed what became known as the "periphery doctrine."

Instead of depending only on relationships with Arab countries, Israel sought partnerships with non-Arab powers such as Iran and Turkey, as well as relationships with minorities and other regional actors.

Iran was especially valuable.

Both Iran and Israel were concerned about Soviet influence and the rise of Arab nationalism. Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser was particularly important. Nasser promoted Arab nationalism and challenged Western influence in the region.

Iran and Israel increasingly saw each other as useful strategic partners.

OIL BECAME A MAJOR PART OF THE RELATIONSHIP

One of the most important parts of the partnership was oil.

Israel had limited access to energy supplies and needed reliable sources of petroleum. Iran, meanwhile, was a major oil producer.

Iran began supplying Israel with large quantities of crude oil, despite the political sensitivity surrounding the relationship.

After the 1967 Six-Day War, Iran and Israel became even more closely connected through energy cooperation. They eventually developed the Eilat-Ashkelon oil pipeline project, allowing Iranian oil to move through Israel toward the Mediterranean.

According to a CIA assessment from the 1980s, Iran supplied roughly 70 percent of Israel's oil requirements before the Shah was overthrown in 1979.

This was not simply a political friendship. Both countries had something the other wanted.

Iran had oil, money and regional influence.

Israel had military technology, intelligence capabilities and connections with the Western world.

MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE COOPERATION

The relationship expanded beyond oil.

Israel sold military equipment to Iran and provided technical assistance. Israeli personnel also helped train and cooperate with Iranian security and military organizations.

Iran's intelligence service, SAVAK, developed close relations with Israel's Mossad.

The cooperation was partly directed against common threats, including Arab nationalist movements and Soviet influence.

Israel also saw the Shah as an important counterweight to Iraq, one of Israel's major regional adversaries.

By the 1960s and 1970s, the relationship had become so extensive that Israeli officials, businessmen and military personnel were active in Tehran.

There were commercial connections, air travel and other forms of exchange.

Yet there was an important contradiction.

The Iranian government was cooperating with Israel while much of Iran's religious opposition strongly opposed Israel.

One of the most outspoken opponents was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Khomeini accused Israel of interfering in Iran and viewed the Shah's relationship with Israel and the United States as evidence that Iran was becoming too dependent on Western powers.

This opposition would eventually become extremely important.

THE SHAH WAS NOT COMPLETELY PRO-ISRAEL

It would be wrong to describe the Shah as simply an Israeli ally who supported everything Israel did.

Iran had its own regional ambitions and sometimes disagreed with Israeli policy.

The Shah supported Palestinian rights and increasingly criticized Israel's occupation of Arab territories after the 1967 war.

During the 1970s, Iran also improved relations with Arab states, including Egypt.

Therefore, Iran's relationship with Israel was based mainly on strategic interests rather than ideological loyalty.

The Shah wanted Iran to be a major independent power.

Israel was useful to him, but Iran's relationship with the Arab and Muslim world also mattered.

THEN CAME THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION

Everything changed in 1978–1979.

Growing opposition to the Shah's authoritarian government, economic problems, political repression, religious opposition and revolutionary movements eventually brought millions of Iranians into the streets.

The Shah left Iran in January 1979.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile and became the dominant figure in the new Islamic Republic.

The new government rejected the Shah's Western-oriented foreign policy.

And Israel immediately went from partner to enemy.

The Iranian Revolution therefore did not merely change Iran's government.

It changed Iran's entire foreign-policy identity.

ISRAEL BECOMES THE "LITTLE SATAN"

Khomeini's government viewed the United States as the "Great Satan" and Israel as the "Little Satan."

Iran cut diplomatic relations with Israel.

The Israeli embassy in Tehran was taken over and handed to the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Commercial and diplomatic connections were dismantled, and travel between the countries was sharply restricted.

The country that had once supplied Israel with oil was now calling for the destruction of the political order that Israel represented.

Khomeini also established Quds Day, observed on the last Friday of Ramadan, as a day for demonstrations supporting the Palestinians and opposing Israel.

The Palestinian cause became an important part of Iran's revolutionary identity.

THE IRAQI INVASION TEMPORARILY CHANGED EVERYTHING

There was an unexpected twist.

In 1980, Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded Iran.

Suddenly, Iran was fighting for its survival.

Although Iran officially regarded Israel as an enemy, the strategic reality was more complicated.

During the Iran-Iraq War, Iran secretly obtained weapons from Israel in what became part of the complicated arms networks later associated with the Iran-Contra affair.

This demonstrated something important: ideological hostility did not completely eliminate strategic calculations.

Even enemies sometimes cooperate when national security is at stake.

But the relationship did not return to its pre-1979 form.

IRAN BUILDS ANTI-ISRAEL ALLIANCES

During and after the Iran-Iraq War, Iran increasingly developed relationships with groups opposed to Israel.

The most important became Hezbollah in Lebanon.

After Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps helped establish and support Hezbollah, a Shiite militant and political organization.

Iran also supported Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

This gave Iran a way to confront Israel without necessarily fighting Israel directly.

Instead of sending the Iranian army across the border, Tehran could support organizations operating in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

Israel increasingly viewed Iran as the central source of the threat surrounding it.

THE SHADOW WAR

By the 2000s and 2010s, Iran and Israel entered a new phase.

They were not formally at war, but they increasingly fought a shadow war.

Israel carried out operations aimed at slowing Iran's nuclear program. Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated in attacks attributed to Israel, while cyber operations and sabotage became part of the confrontation.

The Stuxnet cyberattack, widely attributed to the United States and Israel, damaged Iranian nuclear centrifuges.

Iran, meanwhile, expanded its missile program and supported armed groups across the region.

The Syrian civil war created another major battlefield.

Iran supported the government of Bashar al-Assad, while Israel repeatedly carried out strikes against Iranian-linked military infrastructure in Syria.

The confrontation was no longer just about Palestine.

It had become a broader struggle for regional influence.

THE 2024 BREAKTHROUGH: DIRECT ATTACKS

For decades, Iran and Israel generally avoided directly attacking each other's territory on a large scale.

That changed dramatically in 2024.

Following escalating attacks involving Iranian and Israeli interests, Iran launched a large direct attack against Israel in April 2024, using hundreds of drones and missiles.

Israel and its allies intercepted most of the incoming weapons.

The event demonstrated that the long-running shadow war could become direct warfare.

Later in 2024, Iran launched another major missile attack against Israel.

The relationship had moved far beyond the secret cooperation of the Shah's era.

2025: THE CONFLICT BECOMES AN OPEN WAR

In June 2025, Israel launched a major campaign against Iranian nuclear and military targets.

Iran responded with missile attacks against Israel.

The fighting became one of the most serious direct confrontations between the two countries in history.

The United States eventually became directly involved by striking Iranian nuclear facilities, after which a ceasefire was announced.

The old relationship between Tehran and Jerusalem now seemed almost unimaginable.

The countries that once exchanged oil, weapons and intelligence were openly attacking one another.

2026: A NEW AND EVEN MORE DANGEROUS PHASE

The confrontation escalated again in 2026.

On February 28, 2026, Israel and the United States launched another major series of strikes against Iran, targeting nuclear and military infrastructure.

Iran responded with attacks against Israel, U.S. forces and targets in several neighboring countries.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed during the conflict, according to the UK House of Commons Library's account of the war.

A conditional ceasefire was announced in April, while negotiations continued.

In June, the United States and Iran reached a memorandum of understanding covering issues including Iran's nuclear and missile programs, sanctions and freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. However, the broader confrontation remained unresolved, with subsequent strikes and disputes continuing.

By September 2026, the conflict remained unresolved, with the Council on Foreign Relations describing the situation as worsening and noting that disagreements over Iran's nuclear program, sanctions and the Strait of Hormuz remained major obstacles to a durable settlement.

HOW DID TWO FRIENDS BECOME ENEMIES?

The answer is not simply religion.

The Shah's Iran and Israel were never identical ideological partners.

They cooperated because their governments believed cooperation served their national interests.

Iran wanted Western technology, military cooperation and strategic protection.

Israel wanted Iranian oil, intelligence cooperation and a powerful non-Arab ally.

The 1979 Revolution destroyed that political foundation.

The Islamic Republic replaced the Shah's Western-oriented monarchy with a revolutionary government that made opposition to Israel part of its identity.

From there, Iran built influence through Hezbollah and Palestinian armed groups, while Israel increasingly treated Iran's nuclear and missile programs as an existential threat.

The result was a complete reversal.

Iran once helped supply Israel with oil.

Iran once bought weapons and military technology from Israel.

Iran once hosted Israeli diplomats and intelligence personnel.

Today, Iran and Israel are among the Middle East's most determined enemies.

The story shows how quickly international relationships can change when governments, ideologies and strategic interests change.

The Iran-Israel relationship was never simply a story of friendship followed by hatred. It was a story of national interests.

And when the interests of the two countries changed, their relationship changed with them—from quiet strategic partners, to secret enemies, and eventually to direct military opponents.

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