Israel and Iran are at a direct war now, but did you know that once upon a time, the two countries had friendly relations, and even cooperated to fight common enemies?
For nearly three decades since the formation of Israel in 1948, Iran and Israel had a peaceful relationship. They even helped each other fight common enemies. So what happened before their regional rivalry started? What changed now? Here is a timeline.
Iran was neutral, and cooperated with Israel during regional wars
In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel fought Egypt, Jordan and Syria. In the war of June 5-10, Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Golan Heights. At the time, Iran was ruled by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The Iranian Shah was an ally of the US and had friendly, albeit covert, ties with Israel. Iran exported oil to Israel at the time, and helped Israel with intelligence sharing. Iran played no military role against Israel in this war, one of the first in the long-standing Arab-Israeli conflict.
In the war of 1971 also, Iran played no significant military role against Israel. The Shah’s regime continued its relationship with Israel at the time, and even cooperated in joint ventures like the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline.
So what changed? Answer: The Islamic Revolution
The Islamic Revolution of 1978-79 was essentially a domestic political movement guided by Islamic principles with the aim of overthrowing the Shah’s regime. His pro-Israeli stance was, in fact, one of the reasons for the Shah’s downfall. From the outset, the Islamic Republic of Iran was opposed to Israel, which it called the Zionist regime. Iran, under the ayatollahs, severed diplomatic ties with Israel. That’s when the regional rivalry began. Yet, there’s a twist.
Israel helped Iran in its war against Iraq
Even after the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Israel reportedly helped Iran in its war with Iraq that lasted from 1980 to 1988. Israel supplied Iran with over $500 million in arms, as it saw Iraq’s nuclear ambitions at the time as a greater threat to its existence. Note that there’s also a sectarian angle to this, as Iran is a Shia nation, whereas Iraq is Sunni, with a significant Shia population.
The establishment of Hezbollah started an open rivalry
The open rivalry phase between Iran and Israel can be said to have started after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 as part of its operations against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation or PLO. That year, Iran established the militant group Hezbollah, the first of its several proxy groups in the region fighting against Israel.
Hezbollah is a Shia militia that fought Israeli forces, setting off the proxy wars, the first major attack being the 1983 bombing of Israeli and Western forces.
1990s: Suicide bombings by Hezbollah
The 1990s were a period of volatility in the region as the Palestinian liberation movement gathered steam.
Suicide bombings targeting Israel’s embassy in 1992, and a Jewish Cetre in Buenos Aires in 1994 are most prominent among them. Israel blamed Iran for these attacks, but Tehran denied responsibility.
2000s: The proxy war intensifies, Iran’s nuclear weapons programme raises concerns
In 2000, Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon after years of occupation. Backed by Iran, Hezbollah continued to attack Israeli targets across the world since then.
Iran’s secret nuclear weapons programme was revealed in 2002, a definitive moment in the rivalry that culminated in the current war.
Since 2002, Israel has openly opposed the Iranian nuclear enrichment programme at every available international forum.
By this time, ‘death to Israel’ became a common slogan in Iran, with politicians like the hardliner president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad using rhetoric that inflamed anti-Israel sentiment in the Islamic Republic.
2006 Israel-Hezbollah war
In 2006, two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah, which led to the Israel-Hezbollah war. Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) helped Hezbollah with rocket attacks and missile operations. Among these was an anti-ship missile strike on the Israeli Navy ship INS Hanit, which killed four Israeli crew. The war ended with the UN-brokered ceasefire Resolution 1701.
In 2009, Israel captured a ship carrying Iranian weapons to Hezbollah. By this time, Iran was also helping prop up Hamas as the dominant Palestinian faction in Gaza. This slowly led to the proxy war spreading. In this period, Israel conducted airstrikes on Iranian arms convoys in Sudan that were destined for Hamas.
2010s: Proxy war, sabotage of Iran nuclear programme
The 2010s were a period of more proxy wars, with the element of cyberattacks added. In this period, each country blamed the other, but the standard policy of both sides was not to overtly claim responsibility.
The most prominent among these disruptive activities is the Stuxnet virus attack of 2010. The malware was introduced allegedly by Israel with help from the US to disrupt the functioning of Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility.
Two years later, a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, was killed, with Iran pointing the finger at Israel.
In 2011, an Iranian General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam was killed in a blast at a missile base. Again, the Israeli hand was suspected.
The proxy wars continued amid regional conflicts. At the height of the Syrian civil war, Israel conducted the Operation House of Cards in 2018, targeting Iranian interests in Syria. This took place after the IRGC allegedly fired 20 rockets at Israel from Syria.
The same year, under President Donald Trump, the US withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal, after Israel revealed what it said were stolen Iranian nuclear documents. Israel has always maintained that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons programme.
2020s: More attacks on Iranian interests
In the 2020s, Israel continued to help Iran’s enemies, while Iran, particularly the externally-focused Quds Forces of IRGC, trained and armed anti-Israeli militia across the region. The most important event in this period was the assassination of Qasem Soleimani on 3 January 2020 by the US under Trump’s orders. Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, died in a US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq. He was in Iraq to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi. Iran accused the Israelis of involvement. Though Israel was silent at the time, its involvement was later admitted.
Israel also continued to target Iran’s nuclear programme. In 2020, an explosion damaged Natanz centrifuge facility. Another Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated near Tehran, allegedly by Israel using a remote-controlled weapon.
Disruptive activities by both sides continued into 2021, with Israel accused of attacking Iranian ships in the Red Sea.
2023 October 7 Hamas attack: The trigger of the current conflict
The October 7 terror attack by Hamas-led Palestinian militants that killed at least 1,200 Israeli civilians led to the invasion of Gaza by Israel. Soon, Isral expanded the Gaza war to target all proxy groups funded, aided and trained by Iran. Iran-backed groups like Hezbollah and Houthis of Yemen joined the Israel-Hamas war, targeting Israeli commercial and military interests in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Israel responded by a variety of attacks in countries across the region. In December 2023, an Israeli airstrike in Syria killed IRGC commander Razi Mousavi.
2024: A series of assassinations and attacks
In 2024, Hamas and Hezbollah leaders were killed in Iran and Lebanon in Israeli operations.
The year waw many conflagrations that were precursors to the current Iran-Israel war. In January 2024, Israel killed five Iranian officials, including General Sadegh Omidzadeh, in a strike in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
On April 1 that year, Israel attacked Iran’s consulate in Damascus, killing 16 people, including two IRGC generals. Iran retaliated on April 13 with an attack that involved 300 drones and missiles, but most of these were intercepted by Israel.
On April 19, Israel attacked an Iranian antiaircraft system. In May 2024, IRGC officer Sayad Khodayee was assassinated in Tehran, with Israel hand suspected.
In July 2024, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran in an Israeli military-intelligence operation.
In September that year, an Israeli pager and walkie-talkie attack targeted Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon, and injured Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon.
In the same month, Israeli air strikes in Beirut, Lebanon, killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan.
To avenge these killings, Iran fired 180 missiles at Israel. In response, Israel struck Iranian air defences and missile facilities.
These are the events that eventually led to the current war, which started on June 12 with Israel’s Operation Rising Lion, hitting Iran’s nuclear, energy and military infrastructure, and killing top officials, generals and scientists. Iran has responded with a series of drone and missile attacks hitting at the heart of Israel.