Israeli support for Iran during the Iran–Iraq war
Israel supported Iran during the Iran–Iraq War. Israel was one of the main suppliers of military equipment to Iran during the war. Israel also provided military instructors during the war, and in turn received Iranian intelligence that helped it carry out Operation Opera against Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor. The nuclear reactor was a central component of Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
Israel supported Iran during the war so that Iran could provide a counterweight to Iraq; to re-establish influence in Iran which Israel lost with the overthrow of the shah in 1979, and to create business for the Israeli weapons industry. The Israeli arms sales to Iran also facilitated the unhindered immigration of the Persian Jewish community from Iran to Israel and the United States. Israel's support for Iran during the war was done clandestinely, and Iran publicly denied any cooperation between the two countries.
Background
Iranian Revolution
Before the
The first prime minister appointed by the revolutionary government was Mehdi Bazargan. He reached out to the U.S. government for military arms to help consolidate his position; however, the Carter administration chose not to become involved in Iran's internal affairs. By the fall of 1979, Prime Minister Bazargan's moderate faction began to lose the internal struggle to the rising extremist faction in the revolutionary government. On 4 November 1979, elements of the extremist faction seized the United States embassy and held the American embassy employees hostage.[9] As a result of the hostage taking, the US government placed an embargo on Iran.[10][11]: 94
Covert arms deal
Unable to get military equipment from the Carter administration, the Iranians reached out through back channels to the Israeli government and negotiated a preliminary covert arms deal between the two countries. In early 1980, the first military equipment sale by Israel to the Iranian government of Ayatollah Khomeini occurred, when Israel sold to Iran a large number of tires for the F-4 Phantom fighter jet.[12][13][14][15][16] The net profit from the sale gave rise to an extra-budgetary Likud party/intelligence community slush fund, which grew substantial over the next years.[17]
Iranian officer, Mohammad-Reza Aminizadeh, chief of the first battalion of air ground forces who sought political asylum in England in 1985, described in an interview with London-based magazine Al-Dastur his observation of the first contacts between Israel and Khomeini's government. The head of the Israeli mission to Iran at the time was Colonel Uri, a high-ranking army officer. Aminizadeh described how:[18]
"When [Colonel Uri] reached Tehran I guided him with a helicopter to Lavisan garrison. After five days in Tehran he met most of the high ranking officials of the Islamic Republic even while the American diplomats were still hostage in Tehran. Three days after mission returned to Tel Aviv one airline cargo flew to Larnaca and brought Phantom or F-14 parts, 'Tom Cat', and since then the relations developed so that besides arms, medicine, chicken, eggs, and foodstuffs were also exported to Iran."
Start of war
On 22 September 1980 Iraq attacked Iran.[19] With the start of the war, Iran was under substantial pressure to gain access to military equipment to defend itself. Iran specifically required American-made and British-made military equipment, since its arsenal was based on American armaments and British armaments acquired during the shah's rule.[3] Iran continued with its outreach to Israel. The first mission from Israel in early 1980 was later followed by a second mission in October 1980. The second mission resulted in a new set of arms deals. On 24 October 1980, Scorpion tank parts and 250 tires for F-4 jets were flown to Iran.[20][21] Around the same time, other Israeli-owned military supplies were being clandestinely shipped from European storage locations to the Iranian ports of Chabahar, Bandar Abbas, and Bushehr. The military supplies included spare parts for American built F-4 jets, helicopters, and missile systems.[22][23] The Carter administration found out about the military equipment sales and, subsequently, pressured the Israeli government to halt future sales, while the United States negotiated with Iran for the release of the American embassy employees held hostage.[24][25][26][27]
Israeli–U.S. agreement
Following the start of the war, Israel sought permission from the United States to sell to Iran necessary American-made military equipment. The newly elected
Israel started selling unsophisticated American military equipment to Iran at this time; however, at the same time Israel breached the agreement and also sold sophisticated American military equipment to Iran. In order to implement these non-allowed sales, Israeli intelligence set up a covert operation in New York City. Israeli intelligence ran a front company of 50 employees on John Street in the Wall Street area.[29] The office was used to direct the covert purchases of American military equipment to resell to Iran.[28] In March 1982, there was a leak to The New York Times about Israel's covert weapon sales to Iran.[30][31] Fearing the company's operations might have been compromised, the covert Israeli weapons purchasing operation was moved to London in 1983. The London operation managed a worldwide network of private arm dealers, shell companies, and shippers who over the course of the war sold covertly for Israel several billion dollars worth of American-made arms to Iran.[28]
By 1982 it became evident to the U.S. State Department that the Israeli government was routinely selling American-made military material without Washington's case-by-case consent, which was part of the original agreement between Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Secretary of State Alexander Haig. In the spring of 1982, after it was determined that Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon was violating the agreement, the Reagan administration rescinded its consent for the sale of any American related military equipment by Israel to Iran. The U.S. government, however, continued to watch after this time Israel make military equipment sales to Iran. The Reagan administration, despite Israel's sales to Iran, continued to replenish Israel's weapons stockpile of American-made weapons, although it was evident that the weapons were eventually ending up in Iran. The willful ignoring of Israel's arms sales to Iran occurred despite the fact that the Reagan administration began in 1983 an aggressive public campaign, known as Operation Staunch, to stop world-wide weapon's related sales to Iran.[28]
Weapon sales
Iraqi invasion to reversal (1980–1982)
Israeli arms sales to Iran totaled an estimated $500 million from 1981 to 1983 according to the Jaffe Institute for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.[11]: 107 Other arms experts estimated the total sales at more than $500 million per year including aircraft spare parts, artillery, and ammunition.[32]: 173 Internal U.S. government reports indicated that in the early 1980s total Israeli arms sale to Iran approached $2 billion each year.[33] Most of it was paid for by Iranian oil delivered to Israel.[11]: 107 According to Ahmad Haidari, an arms dealer who worked for the Iranian government, "roughly 80 percent of the weaponry bought by Tehran immediately after the onset of the war originated in Israel."[11]: 106 The fact "that the Iranian air force could function at all", according to Mark Phythian, after Iraq's initial attack and "was able to undertake a number of sorties over Baghdad and strike at strategic installations" was "at least partly due to the decision of the Reagan administration to allow Israel to channel arms of US origin to Iran to prevent an easy and early Iraqi victory."[34]
In the first year of large scale arms sales in 1981, Israel sold Iran $75 million worth of arms from stocks of Israel Military Industries, Israel Aircraft Industries and Israel Defense Forces stockpiles, in their Operation Seashell.[35][30] Materiel included 150 M-40 antitank guns and 24,000 shells, spare parts for tank and aircraft engines, 106 mm, 130 mm, 203 mm and 175 mm shells and TOW missiles.[35] The Cyprus Weekly reported that Larnaca airport was used to transfer the arms from Israel to Tehran.[36] The material was transported originally by air using chartered planes from Argentine airline Transporte Aéreo Rioplatense and then, after the 1981 Armenia mid-air collision, by ship.[35]
Iranian offensive to stalemate (1982–1984)
Ariel Sharon, Israel's defense minister, was the first to publicly disclose Israeli sale of military equipment to Iran during his visit to United States in May 1982.[37] In a news conference in Paris on 28 September 1983, Sharon said that Israel was selling arms to Iran with the consent of United States. Israeli ambassador to the United States Moshe Arens said in October 1982 that Israeli arms sale to Iran was taking place with the consent of highest levels of US government.[37] A report in March 1982 stated that Israeli officials admitted that arms had been sold to Tehran and Khomeini himself had approved of the arms deal with Israel.[36]
In 1983 Israel sold more than $100 million worth of arms to Tehran.[32]: 174 The volume or arms sale was so great that a special office was instituted in Cyprus to facilitate the arms transfer. The most well known of the middle men facilitating the arms deal was Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi. The most well known Iranian middle man was Manucher Ghorbanifar.[38]: 190
In the spring of 1984, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl complained to the US government about Israeli arms sales worth $500 million to Iran.[36] Later in July 1984, Yaakov Nimrodi met in Zurich with Iranian officials and Rifaat al-Assad the brother of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. The meeting resulted in an agreement to ship 40 truckloads of weapons a day from Israel to Iran, via Syria and Turkey.[3] Similarly in 1984, one of Israel's many European arms dealers, who was based in Sweden, shipped hundreds of tons of explosives and dynamite worth over 500 million Swedish kronor by way of Argentina to Iran.[32]: 174 By 1985, Danish cargo ships chartered by the Israeli government and private arms dealers had made over 600 trips carrying American-made arms between the Israeli harbor of Eilat on the Red Sea and the Iranian harbor of Bandar Abbas in the Persian Gulf.[28]
Iran–Contra period (1985–1986)
Israel facilitated from 1985 to 1986 arms shipments from the United States to Iran as part of the
The Iran–Contra Affair began in late 1984 when representatives of Israel and Iran met to discuss ways of opening an arms channel with the United States for sophisticated American-made weapons. The discussion was held in Israel between Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar and Israeli representatives: Yaakov Nimrodi, an arms dealer who was a former Israeli defense attache in Iran; Al Schwimmer, a founder of Israel's aircraft industry who was close to then Prime Minister Shimon Peres; and David Kimche, the general director of the Israeli foreign ministry. Ghorbanifar said there were Iranian officials who sought a more pro-Western orientation and sales of sophisticated American-made weapons would help gain sway for them with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.[39][40]
In 1986, five men with ties to Israel were also arrested attempting to sell $2.6 billion worth of arms to Iran in Bermuda. Others were arrested in New York on the same charges.[3][36] At the center of the trial was retired Israeli general Avraham Bar-Am. The case came to be known as the Brokers of Death arms case.[41] The Israeli government denied involvement.[3][36]
Destruction of Osirak reactor
On 7 June 1981, a squadron of
Other aid
According to
Despite Iranian leaders denouncing Israel at
In August 1982,
Israel assisted Iran in the sale of its oil. The Iranian government after the revolution faced significant difficulties selling oil to international markets as most European companies left Iran. International Israeli financier and trader Marc Rich sent one of his executives to Iran one week after the revolution, becoming the most important trader of Iranian oil for 15 years.[47] Rich sold Iranian oil to Israel through a secret pipeline.[48] Rich was also allegedly instrumental in the sale of arms to Iran, but none of the charges in Rich's 1983 indictment related to arms trading.[49] For tax evasion, Rich was put on FBI's most wanted list for many years until Bill Clinton pardoned him in his last day in office.[48] Former Mossad heads Avner Azular and Shabbtai Shevit both personally wrote to Clinton for his pardon.[50][51][52][53]
Goals
According to Ronen Bergman, Israel's goals were to: reestablish some influence in Iran which was lost when the Shah was defeated in 1979; prevent Iraq from conquering Iran as they feared a victorious Saddam Hussein, and create business for the Israeli weapons industry.[35]
Trita Parsi writes that Israel supplied Iran with arms and ammunition because it viewed Iraq as a danger to the peace process in the Middle East.
Another source argues that Israel saw the Persian Gulf War as an opportunity to ensure the safety of the
Iranian denial
During and after the war, Iranian officials denied they had received help from Israel which they denounced as an "illegitimate state".[11]: 82 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran during the war, angrily denied that Israeli arms were sent to Iran. In a speech on August 24, 1981, he maintained that Iran's enemies were trying to undermine the Islamic Revolution by spreading false rumors of Israeli-Iranian cooperation. He alleged that while Israel had bombed and destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear facilities in 1981, this was because Saddam Hussein was actually an ally of Israel who "forced" Israel to destroy his own nuclear facilities:[11]: 108
They are accusing us of importing arms from Israel. This is being said against a country which rose to oppose this condemned Zionist claim from the very beginning ... For over twenty years, in speeches and statements, we have spoken of Israel and its oppression, whereas a great many Islamic countries did not even take a step along this road in opposing Israel. This man Saddam who resorted to play-acting and, as reported, forced Israel to bomb his [nuclear] center in order to save himself from the disgrace he himself created by attacking Islamic Iran—his aim in doing this was to camouflage this crime and give the impression that Israel opposes Saddam, ... That is childish nonsense.[11]: 108
See also
References
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