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 emigration 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 Iranian Revolution in 1979, Iran under the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was an ally and major buyer of Israeli weapons. However, after the revolution, the new government of Ayatollah Khomeini froze relations with Israel and was openly hostile towards it.Jane Hunter, November 1986, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Israeli Arms Sales to Iran Relations between Iran and Iraq also deteriorated after the revolution. Khomeini preached to Iran's bordering Shiite populations to continue the Islamic revolution. Iran actively sought to destabilize its neighboring countries seeking regional hegemony, even though neighboring countries like Iraq sought a conciliatory position. Iran's hostility led to an escalation of rhetoric between Ayatollah Khomeini and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a Sunni who advocated for secular pan-Arab nationalism. With the turmoil in Iran, because of the revolution, Saddam Hussein saw an opening to take Iran's Khuzestan province which had Iran's southern oilfields and an Arab majority. By early 1980, it became evident to both countries that preparation for possible war would be a necessary measure.
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 hard liner 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. As a result of the hostage taking, the US government placed an embargo on Iran.
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. 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.
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:
Start of war On 22 September 1980 Iraq attacked Iran. With the start of the war, Iran was under substantial pressure to gain access to military equipment to defend itself. Iran needed American-made and British-made military equipment, since its arsenal was based on American armaments and British armaments acquired during the Shah's rule. 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. 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. 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.
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 Ronald Reagan administration in early 1981 at the time of the release of the American embassy hostages gave covert consent to Israel to sell unsophisticated American-made military equipment to Iran; even though officially, the Reagan administration staunchly opposed any weapon sales to Iran. Robert McFarlane, who was Counselor of the State Department, coordinated the Israeli–U.S. agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig.
Israel started selling unsophisticated American military equipment to Iran at this time; at the same time Israel breached the agreement and also sold sophisticated American military equipment to Iran. In order to implement these illicit 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. The office was used to direct the covert purchases of American military equipment to resell to Iran. In March 1982, there was a leak to The New York Times about Israel's covert weapon sales to Iran. 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.
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 early 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 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 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 worldwide weapons related sales to Iran.
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. Other arms experts estimated the total sales at more than $500 million per year including aircraft spare parts, artillery, and ammunition. Internal U.S. government reports indicated that in the early 1980s total Israeli arms sale to Iran approached $2 billion each year. Most of it was paid for by Iranian oil delivered to Israel. 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." 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."
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. 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. The Cyprus Weekly reported that Larnaca airport was used to transfer the arms from Israel to Tehran. 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.
Yaakov Nimrodi, who was Israel's military attaché in Tehran from 1955 to 1979, in July 1981 signed an arms deal with Iran's Ministry of National Defense. Nimrodi agreed to sell to Iran $136 million worth of arms, including Lance missiles, Copperhead shells and Hawk missiles. A French newspaper confirmed the sale with photocopies of the contract for the $136 million arms deal. In March 1982, The New York Times cited documents indicating that Israel had supplied half or more of all arms reaching Tehran in the previous 18 months, amounting to at least $100 million in sales. The Milan weekly Panorama reported that Israel had sold Iran 45,000 Uzi submachine guns, anti-tank missile launchers, missiles, howitzers and aircraft replacement parts. "A large part of the booty from the PLO during the 1982 Lebanon campaign wound up in Tehran".
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. 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. 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.
In 1983 Israel sold more than $100 million worth of arms to Tehran. The volume or arms sale was so great that a special office was instituted in Cyprus to facilitate the arms transfer. The best known of the middle men facilitating the arms deal was Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi. The best known Iranian middleman was Manucher Ghorbanifar.