Dubai:

The supreme leader of Iran, which backs the Hamas and Hezbollah militants fighting Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, said on Monday that death sentences should be issued for Israeli leaders, not arrest warrants.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was commenting on a decision by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence chief and a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri.

“They issued an arrest warrant, that’s not enough… Death sentence must be issued for these criminal leaders”, Khamenei said, referring to the Israeli leaders.

In their decision, the ICC judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza”.

The decision was met with outrage in Israel, which called it shameful and absurd. Gaza residents expressed hope it would help end the violence and bring those responsible for war crimes to justice.

Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.

The warrant for a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, lists charges of mass killings during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel that triggered the war on the long-blockaded Palestinian enclave, and also charges of rape and the taking of hostages.

Israel has said it killed Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike in July but Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied this.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Sidon, Lebanon:

Rescuers did not expect to find two-year-old Ali Khalifeh alive after an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed his entire family and left him trapped under the rubble for 14 hours.

Amputated, bandaged and hooked to a respirator in a hospital bed that was way too big for him, “Ali is the sole survivor of his family,” said Hussein Khalifeh, his father’s uncle.

The toddler’s parents, sister and two grandmothers all perished in the strike on September 29, days after Israel intensified its attacks on Hezbollah militants.

The strike on Sarafand, some 15 kilometres (nine miles) south of the coastal city of Sidon, flattened an apartment complex and killed 15 people, many of them relatives, according to residents.

“Rescue workers had almost lost hope of finding anyone alive under the rubble,” 45-year-old Khalifeh told AFP from the hospital in Sidon where his two-year-old relative was being treated.

But then “Ali appeared among debris in the shovel of the bulldozer, after we all thought he had died,” he said.

“He emerged from the rubble, barely breathing, after 14 hours.”

Israel has been at war with Hezbollah since late September, when it broadened its war focus from fighting Hamas militants in Gaza to securing its northern border with Lebanon.

An escalating Israeli air campaign, after nearly a year of low intensity cross-border fire, has killed more than 2,600 people across Lebanon since September 23, according to health ministry figures.

‘Psychological scars’

Signs of the violence were apparent even at the hospital in Sidon where Ali was rushed to following the strike on Sarafand.

The toddler, under a medically induced coma after doctors amputated his right hand, has since been transferred to a medical facility in the capital Beirut where he is due to undergo pre-prosthetic surgery.

“Ali was sleeping on the couch at home when the strike hit. He is still asleep today… were are waiting to complete his surgeries before waking him up,” said the relative Hussein Khalifeh.

Other family members were also fighting to stay alive after the Sarafand strike.

One of Khalifeh’s nieces, 32-year-old Zainab, was trapped under the rubble for two hours before being rescued and transferred to the nearest hospital, said the man.

It was there that she was later informed that her parents, her husband and three children, aged between three and seven, had all been killed.

The strike left her with only one, severely injured eye.

Zainab said she “did not hear the sounds of the missiles that rained down on her family’s home,” according to Khalifeh.

“She only saw darkness and heard deafening screams,” he said.

Ali Alaa El-Din, a doctor treating her, said that “the psychological scars that Zainab suffered are much greater than her physical injury”.

He has also tended Zainab’s sister Fatima, 30, who was wounded in the same strike.

Both had injuries “throughout their bodies, with fractures in the feet and damage to the lungs,” said the doctor.

Medically, he added, “Zainab and Fatima’s cases are not among the most difficult cases we have faced during the war, but they are the most severe from a psychological and human perspective.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a meeting in Tehran on October 27, 2024
| Photo Credit: via Reuters

The social platform X has suspended a new account on behalf of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that posted messages in Hebrew.

The account was suspended early Monday (October 28, 2024) with a brief note appended to it saying: “X suspends accounts which violate the X Rules”.

It wasn’t immediately clear what the violation was. The Elon Musk-owned social media company did not respond to a request for comment from AP.

The move came after Israel openly attacked Iran for the first time this weekend. Mr. Khamenei said in a speech on Sunday that Israel’s strikes — in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack this month — “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed”, while stopping short of calling for retaliation.

The X account opened Sunday (October 27, 2024) with a message in Hebrew reading: “In the name of God, the most merciful,” a standard Islamic greeting.

Mr. Khamenei’s office has maintained multiple accounts for the 85-year-old supreme leader on X for years and has sent messages in a variety of languages in the past.

A second message corresponded to a speech Mr. Khamenei gave on Sunday and was sent on his English account as: “Zionists are making a miscalculation with respect to Iran. They don’t know Iran. They still haven’t been able to correctly understand the power, initiative, and determination of the Iranian people.” The message referred to Israel’s attack Saturday on Iran.

This isn’t the first time Mr. Khamenei has seen a suspension or removal from social media. In February, Meta removed Facebook and Instagram accounts for the supreme leader over his support of the militant group Hamas after its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Social media platforms like X and Facebook have been blocked in Iran for years, requiring Iranians to use virtual private networks to access them.

New Delhi:

Israel wants peace in the region but is not ready to be attacked by Iran directly or indirectly, the country’s Ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, has said. 

Speaking exclusively to NDTV on Saturday, Mr Azar said this was one of the signals that his country wanted to send with its strikes on Iran earlier in the day and the other message is that it has the capability to hit many more targets in Iran if Tehran chooses to escalate. 

“What Israel did is a very precise strike that took out Iran’s air defence systems, and targeted military installations connected to their missile and drone programmes. The signal here is very clear: Israel will not agree to continue to be attacked by Iran either directly or indirectly,” the ambassador said, hinting at Iran’s proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah, with which Israel is already engaged in conflicts. 

Iran had earlier launched 200 ballistic missiles at Israeli targets on October 1.

Claiming that Iran is now exposed, Mr Azar said Israel is not worried about comments from the regime in Tehran warning of a “proportionate reaction” to the Israeli strike.

“We are ready for it. We are completely coordinating with our allies, especially the United States, which is completely backing our moves. It is very clear that Israel could have done much more to inflict damage on Iran but it chose to limit its response out of responsibility because we want to stay focused on this operation that the Israeli cabinet has determined – to completely eradicate the military capabilities of Hamas, to bring back our hostages and make sure Hamas doesn’t rearm,” the ambassador said.

In the north, where Israel shares a border with Lebanon, the ambassador said that the objective is to resettle Israeli communities in the areas from which they were evacuated because of attacks from Hezbollah.

“We are operating there as well, we have uprooted the military infrastructure that Hezbollah has created there for decades. And we will not agree that Iran will try to intervene in that and attack Israel. If they continue doing that, Israel will feel free to act in a much more decisive manner,” he warned.

‘Will Pay The Price’

To a question on whether Israel is locked in a never-ending war, Mr Azar said while that may seem to be the case, his country is defending itself and has created a situation in which Hamas can no longer attack it with missiles and the leadership of Hezbollah has been eliminated – and it is now for Iran to “accept the new reality”.

“If they don’t accept the new reality and come to the table to create a more stable situation in our region, they will pay the price,” he said. 

The ambassador said routes of diplomacy are always available and insisted that Israel did not start the war, which began after the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas. 

“We want to restore peace in our region. We are prepared for diplomacy, but it has to lay on the foundation of the understanding of the other side that Israel will be relentless. We will not rest until we are sure that assurances for our security are met and we will maintain the right to self-defence against any aggression in the future,” he said.

‘Downplaying Is Good’

On Iran claiming that the Israeli attack caused limited damage and its defence systems worked, Mr Azar said he was happy that Tehran was “downplaying” it because it could be a sign that it was not interested in continuing the aggression.

“Anybody that knows something about military capabilities knows that the S-300 (air defence system) that the Iranians have is not capable of stopping the F-35s and the F-16s of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and not capable of stopping our pilots from hitting any targets they want. So they can continue saying what they want but the situation is very clear and the message has been conveyed in a very clear way,” he said.   

Paris, France:

From hitjobs to sabotages and cyberattacks, Israel has either been blamed for or has itself claimed a variety of attacks against Iran.

In Israel’s sights are Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Tehran’s nuclear programme.

As Israel launched a series of air strikes Saturday, which it said were aimed at Iran’s military infrastructure, AFP looks at the other attempts over the years.

Revolutionary Guard

Israel has been blamed for targeting top members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, mostly in attempts outside their country’s borders.

Latest victims include a general killed on September 27 by the side of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli strike in the suburbs of Beirut. 

An air strike blamed on Israel on Iran’s consular annex building in Damascus on April 1, 2024 killed, according to Tehran, seven members of the Revolutionary Guards, including two of top rank.

The recent killings are only the latest in a long list.

In December 2023, a commander died in Syria in an attack blamed on Israel, a year after a colonel was killed, also in Syria. 

In May 2022, Sayyad Khodaei, a member of the Quds Force, the unit in charge of the Guards’ external operations, was gunned down by two motorcyclists on his way home in Tehran. According to the New York Times, Israel told the United States that it was responsible for the hitjob. 

General Hassan Moghadam, responsible for armament programmes, was killed in an explosion at a munitions depot in November 2011 close to Tehran, in an operation blamed on the United States and Israel.

Iran’s nuclear programme

Israel has also been accused of carrying out targeted assassinations against several high-ranking Iranian physicists, often linked to Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Among them are nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in November 2020 and presented after his death as a vice minister of defence. 

Scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, who was working on the Natanz nuclear site, and Majid Shahriari, the founder of Iran’s nuclear society, as well as particle physics professor Massoud Ali Mohammadi were others killed over the years.

Israel has also been accused of sabotaging Iranian nuclear installations, mainly the Natanz complex to the south of Tehran.

On April 11, 2021, the site saw a small explosion, according to Iran’s atomic energy agency.

The New York Times reported that Israel played a part in the “strong blast” that apparently took out the internal electric system supplying uranium enrichment centrifuges.

Another “accident” also hit Natanz in July 2020, in what Iran’s atomic agency had said was a “sabotage”.

In September 2010, a cyberattack using the Stuxnet virus took out the enrichment centrifuges at Natanz. 

Iran accused Israel and the United States, while information security experts also pointed the finger at Washington. 

Iran’s allies

Iran’s allies too have found that Tehran is not always safe shelter.

Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed on July 31 in Iran’s capital in an attack blamed on Israel. He was in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iranian petrol

In March 2021, the Wall Street Journal, citing US and Middle East officials, reported that Israel had in 2019 targeted at least a dozen vessels travelling to Syria and in most cases, transporting Iranian petrol.

The report said Israel had deployed underwater mines in the assault.

Through 2021, Israel and Iran accused each other of naval sabotages.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Israel has assured the White House that a planned retaliatory attack on Iran won’t target nuclear or oil facilities, US media reported Monday.

Israel has vowed to counterattack after Iran fired ballistic missiles at the country on October 1, launched in response to Israel’s killing of Tehran-aligned militant leaders in the region, along with a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Citing unnamed US officials, the Washington Post said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reassured the White House that a counterstrike it is contemplating would target only military sites.

The Wall Street Journal, also citing US officials speaking on condition of anonymity, said the pledge came in a call between US President Joe Biden and Netanyahu last week, as well as in conversations in recent days between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant.

The plan “was met with relief in Washington,” the Washington Post reported.

Biden has warned Israel against striking Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities in order to avoid a further expansion of regional war and amid worries of a spike in global energy prices.

The attack was Iran’s second direct attack on Israel after missile and drone fire in April, carried out in response to an air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that is attributed to Israel.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Israel hasn’t clarified its intention of targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities in retaliation for the Iranian ballistic missile strikes earlier this week on Tuesday. It is as ambiguous as it could be. It is “really hard to tell” if Israel will use the anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attacks to retaliate, a top US State Department official told CNN on Friday.

“We hope and expect to see some wisdom as well as strength, but as you guys know, no guarantees,” the official said when asked by CNN if Israel has assured the US that Iran’s nuclear sites are off the table.

“I think in some ways they would want to avoid the seventh, so in my estimation, if there is anything it would likely be before or after,” the senior State Department official said.

Iran launched a barrage of 181 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday night, triggering nationwide air raid sirens and forcing nearly 10 million Israelis into bomb shelters. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for the missile assault, targeting three Israeli military bases near Tel Aviv.

Although a majority of missiles were intercepted, there were scattered reports of damage and injuries. In Tel Aviv, two civilians were lightly injured by shrapnel, while in the West Bank city of Jericho, a Palestinian civilian was killed by debris from one of the missiles, news agency AFP reported. The Israeli military quickly announced that the immediate threat had passed, and civilians were allowed to leave bomb shelters after an hour.

US officials have voiced support for Israel and its response to Iran’s missile attack earlier this week. “Israel has a right to defend itself, as any nation does. In terms of what Israel’s response will be, of course, there must be consequences for Iran for this attack. We’ve made clear that there must be consequences,” said Matthew Miller, Spokesperson, US Department of State, during a press briefing.

President Joe Biden opposed Israel’s idea of targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,” Biden said at a press briefing Friday.

Washington:

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he would not support any Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear sites in response to its missile attack and urged Israel to act “proportionally.”

Biden spoke a day after Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel in a move that he previously described as “ineffective.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Iran would pay for the attack.

“We’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do, but all seven of us (G7 nations) agree that they have a right to respond but they should respond proportionally,” Biden told reporters before boarding Air Force One.

Some analysts said Israel’s response would likely be sharper than when Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel in April, suggesting this time it could target Tehran’s nuclear or oil facilities.

Asked whether the U.S. would back any Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, Biden told reporters: “The answer is no.”

Biden said more sanctions would be imposed on Iran and that he would speak soon with Netanyahu.

“Obviously, Iran is way off course,” he said.

U.S. Deputy Secretary Kurt Campbell said the administration was seeking to align its position with Israel on any response to Iran’s attack but also recognizes the Middle East is on a “knife’s edge” and a broader escalation could imperil both Israeli and U.S. interests.

Speaking at a virtual event hosted by Washington-based think tank Carnegie Endowment, Campbell repeated the U.S. view that what Tehran has undertaken was “deeply irresponsible” and that there must be a “return message.”

“I think we tried to underscore our support for some of the actions that Israel has taken,” he added. “We have real wariness about a extended or substantial ground set of operations in Lebanon,” Campbell said.

The Israeli army is locked in combat at its northern border with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters. On Wednesday, eight Israeli soldiers were killed — the deadliest suffered by Israel’s military on the Lebanon front in the past year of border-area clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.

Iran said on Wednesday its missile volley – its biggest ever assault on Israel – was over, barring further provocation.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Doha:

President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted Wednesday that Iran was “not looking for war” but pledged a stronger response if Israel retaliates for its missile attack.

“If it (Israel) wants to react, we will have a stronger response, this is what the Islamic Republic is committed to,” Pezeshkian said in a joint press conference with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in Doha.

“We are not looking for war, it is Israel that forces us to react,” he said.

Pezeshkian spoke a day after Iran fired about 200 missiles including hypersonic weapons towards Israel, sending frightened civilians into shelters.

Israel intercepted most of them, while medics reported two people lightly wounded by shrapnel. One of the missiles damaged a school building.

On Wednesday the Israeli military said several Iranian missiles fell inside air force bases without causing any damage.

“The dirty goal of the Zionist regime is to cause insecurity and spread crisis in the region,” Pezeshkian said.

“What we want from US and European countries is to tell the entity they have planted in the region (Israel) to stop the bloodshed.”

Sheikh Tamim warned that Israel was drawing the region to the “brink of the abyss” with its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The emir also condemned ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, saying Doha would press on with efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, whose October 7 attacks triggered the war.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Iran on Tuesday fired 200 missiles, including hypersonic weapons, at Israel as tensions in the Middle East reach breaking point. Israel has vowed that Iran will “pay” for the attack. But relations between the two countries were not always sour. Unthinkable as it may sound, Israel and Iran had collaborated, with help from the United States, to fight a common enemy. 

In the 1960s, both Israel and Iran found a mutual adversary in Iraq. While Israel was locked in a broader struggle against hostile Arab regimes, Iran, under the Shah, viewed Iraq’s leadership as a direct threat to its security and regional ambitions. This laid the groundwork for one of the most secretive partnerships of the era, involving the Mossad – Israel’s intelligence agency – and SAVAK – Iran’s secret police – both of which played key roles in bolstering Kurdish insurgents against the central Iraqi regime. These Kurdish groups, seen as the Achilles’ heel of Iraq’s Arab nationalist leadership, were crucial to undermining the Iraqi government from within.

The cooperation between Israel and Iran reached new heights with the formation of a trilateral intelligence alliance code-named Trident, which also included Turkey. Beginning in 1958, Trident saw these three non-Arab powers exchange critical intelligence and engage in joint counterintelligence operations. As the relationship matured, Israel and Iran became even closer, forming deep military and intelligence ties that extended well into the Shah’s reign.

The Shah’s Ambitions And Israel’s Influence

The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was driven not only by shared geopolitical interests but by a belief in Israel’s influence in Washington. The Shah saw Israel as a potential means for enhancing relations with the United States, especially after the Kennedy administration voiced concerns about his authoritarian rule.

The burgeoning Israeli-Iranian relationship became a key feature of Iran’s strategy to align itself with the West, resulting in the establishment of a permanent Israeli delegation in Tehran by the mid-1960s, which functioned as a de facto embassy.

The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi with US President Jimmy Carter
Photo Credit: Getty

However, the relationship was not without complications. The Shah, aware of the widespread anti-Israeli sentiment across the Arab world, carefully managed the public face of Iran’s relationship with Israel. While he became more critical of Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War, his strategic interests continued to outweigh ideological or diplomatic positions.

Cooperation In The Shadows

The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran drastically changed the country’s political landscape, transforming it into an anti-Israel Islamic Republic. Yet, even after Ayatollah Khomeini’s rise to power, the new regime found itself quietly collaborating with Israel, driven once again by common enemies. As the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) dragged on, both countries recognised the advantage of working together against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

Israel, too, saw an opportunity in aiding Iran. In particular, it viewed Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as a more immediate and dangerous threat to its security, given Baghdad’s ambitions for regional dominance and its pursuit of nuclear capabilities. Iraq’s formidable military, supplied by both the United States and the Soviet Union, posed a risk, and Israel’s shipment of arms to Iran – particularly after Prime Minister Menachem Begin approved the sale of military equipment in 1980 – was a calculated decision to undermine Iraq’s strength.

Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (L) chats to Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat at his home where the ministers discussed events in Iran in 1979.
Photo Credit: Getty

These covert arms deals were conducted despite US policy that barred military support for Iran until the release of American hostages held in Tehran. In exchange for Israeli military aid, Khomeini’s regime allowed a significant number of Iranian Jews to emigrate to Israel or the United States, a concession that underscored the pragmatic nature of the relationship.

The Iran-Contra Affair

By the mid-1980s, Iran’s need for military support reached a critical point. The Iran-Iraq War had drained the country’s resources, and its economy was teetering on the brink of collapse. It was against this backdrop that the Iran-Contra affair unfolded – a secretive, high-stakes operation involving arms sales facilitated by Israel, with the backing of senior Ronald Reagan administration officials, to secure the release of American hostages held by Iran-sponsored Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Algeria’s President Houri Boumedienne, (center), is flanked by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi of Iran, (left), and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, (right) in 1975.
Photo Credit: Getty

For Israel, these arms deals were lucrative and strategically valuable, further enhancing its role as a clandestine ally of Iran in its war against Iraq. Iran, desperate for arms and resources, was willing to engage with both Israel and the United States, even as it continued to publicly vilify Israel. 

The Secret Missile Project: Operation Flower

The Israeli-Iranian partnership extended beyond conventional arms deals. One of the most ambitious projects was Operation Flower, a secret multibillion-dollar initiative that began in 1977 under the Shah’s regime. The project involved the modification of surface-to-surface missiles, potentially capable of being fitted with nuclear warheads, for sale to Iran. However, the nuclear aspect of the project was not pursued.

As part of the deal, Iran made a substantial down payment in 1978 by sending $260 million worth of oil to Israel, a New York Times report from 1986 claimed. Work on the missile program continued until the Islamic Revolution in 1979, after which Khomeini’s regime abruptly halted the collaboration. 

Spare Tyres For F-4 Fighter Jets

Israel covertly supplied Iran with 250 spare tyres for American-made F-4 fighter jets in October 1980, as Iran waged war against Iraq, according to a New York Times report from 1981. 

After Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iran in September 1980, Israel found itself in an unusual position. The Israeli sale of 250 retreaded tires, valued at around $300,000, was a secretive transaction aimed at bolstering Iran’s air force. The F-4 Phantom jets, a key component of Iran’s military, had been grounded due to wear and tear. With no immediate access to parts due to the embargo placed by the US on Iran, Israel stepped in to fill the gap. According to the New York Times, retreaded tyres were produced in Israel and then covertly transported to France, where they were flown to Iran on chartered planes.

The Shah of Iran, in St. Louis to discuss buying F-4 Phantom jets built by McDonnel Douglas aircraft company.
Photo Credit: Getty

The transaction occurred during a delicate period for US-Iran relations, with 52 American diplomats still held hostage in Tehran. The Jimmy Carter administration, keen to secure their release, urged Israel to suspend further military deals with Iran until the hostages were freed. According to officials involved, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin agreed to American pressure and paused all military dealings, despite Israeli strategic interests in preventing an Iraqi victory in the war.

Beyond regional power politics, Israel had a more personal concern: the fate of the Jewish population in Iran. At the time, approximately 60,000 Jews lived in Iran, and there were growing fears in Israel that they could become targets of repression or persecution under the new regime. Maintaining some form of back-channel communication with Iran was seen as a way to protect these Jewish communities.

Hostility And Rivalry 

By the 1990s, the era of cooperation between Israel and Iran had all but evaporated. The geopolitical factors that had once united them -Arab socialism, Soviet influence, and the threat of Iraq – had disappeared, leaving little incentive for continued collaboration. Iran, now firmly under the control of its revolutionary government, embraced an anti-Israel ideology, supporting groups like Hezbollah and Hamas in their conflicts with the Jewish state.

By the early 2000s, the election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose Holocaust denial and aggressive rhetoric against Israel stoked tensions further, cemented Iran as Israel’s most prominent adversary in the region. As Israel fought wars with Hezbollah in 2006 and Hamas in 2008, Iranian support for these non-state actors – collectively termed the ‘Axis Of Resistance’ – became a central concern in Israel’s strategic calculations.

2024 And Threat Of All-Out War

Ties between Iran and Israel are now non-existent. The two Middle Eastern countries are now on the brink of all-out war, evidenced by Israel’s multi-frontal conflict against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthis in Yemen. All three of these armed militant groups are part of Iran’s ‘Axis Of Resistance’.