Israeli support for Iran during the Iran–Iraq war

Israel provided important clandestine support to the Islamic Republic of Iran during the Iran–Iraq War according to at least two sources. Iran strongly denies it was aided by Israel.

Aid

Israeli actions that helped support for Iran during the Iran–Iraq War was comprised of several elements:Parsi, Trita "Treacherous Alliance: The secret dealings of Israel, Iran and the United States", by Trita Parsi, Yale University Press, 2007]
*Arms sales to Iran totaled an estimated $500 million from 1980 to 1983 according to the Jaffee Institute for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. Most of it was paid for through deliverance of Iranian oil to Israel. [Parsi, Trita "Treacherous Alliance" (2007), p.107] "According to Ahmad Haidari, "an Iranian arms dealer working for the Khomeini regime, roughly 80% of the weaponry bought by Tehran" immediately after the onset of the war originated in Israel. [Parsi, Trita "Treacherous Alliance" (2007), p.106]
*Israel facilitating the arms shipments from the U.S. to Iran in the Iran-Contra Affair.
*The attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor on June 7, 1981, set back Iraq's nuclear program. It was thought to be producing material for weapons of mass destruction which would first be employed against Iran.
*Israel is reported to have also supplied instructors and non-armaments help for Iran's war effort.

Nonlethal aid

It was the Israelis who devised and manufactured the huge, lightweight polystyrene blocks which the Iranian assault forces carried with them to build instant makeshift causeways across the shallow Iraqi water defences in front of Basra; it was Israel which kept Iranian planes flying in spite of a lack of spares; and it was Israeli instructors who taught the new young Iranian commanders how to handle troops, how to move their forces about and how to exploit the openings made by the fanatically brave young volunteers who died in their thousands in the human-wave assaults. Above all, it was the Israelis who involved the Reagan administration in the Iran-Contra affair. For all the speeches of Iranian leaders, the diatribes against Israel, the denunciations at the Friday prayers, there were never less than about a 100 Israeli advisers and technicians in Iran at any time throughout the war, living in a carefully guarded and secluded camp just north of Tehran; they remained there even after the ceasefire. [Bulloch, John, "The Gulf War : It's Origins, History and Consequences" by John Bulloch and Harvey Morris, London : Methuen London, 1989, p.17]

Explanation

Trita Parsi writes that

In May 1982, Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon told NBC that Tel Aviv had supplied Iran with arms and ammunition because it viewed Iraq as "being dangerous to the peace process in the Middle East". Sharon added that Israel provided the arms to Iran because it felt it was important to "leave a small window open" to the possibility of good relations with Iran in the future.

Israel helped the Islamic Republic of Iran despite the strong public anti-Zionist position of that government because of the belief of its authorities in the "periphery doctrine", whereby Israel appealed to non-Arab countries on the periphery of the Middle East such as Turkey. According to professor David Menashri of Tel Aviv University, "Israel's foremost expert on Iran," `Throughout the 1980s, no one in Israel said anything about an Iranian threat - the word wasn't even uttered.` [Parsi, Trita "Treacherous Alliance" (2007), p.104]

Another source argues that

Israel saw the Gulf War as an opportunity to confound its Arab enemies and to ensure the safety of a Jewish community which it believed was at risk. At the time of the revolution in Iran, there were probably some 80,000 Jews in the country a recognised minority along with Christians and Zoroastrians, which in general had suffered no persecution and had been able to continue its affairs undisturbed. The fervent fundamentalism of Khomeini put all that at risk ... a clandestine support of Iran which ensured the safety of the Jewish community in the country and allowed thousands to emigrate; it also contributed substantially to Iran's successful defence of its borders. [Bulloch, John, "The Gulf War", (1989), p.17]

Denial

During and after the war, officials of the Islamic Republic denied they had received help from Israel which they condemned as an illegitimate state. The Supreme Leader of Iran during the war, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini "angrily" and "vehemently" denied the allegations of Israeli arms help 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, and that in fact Saddam Hussein was actually an ally of Israel who "forced" that country to bomb and destory his Osirak nuclear facilities.

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. [Parsi, Trita "Treacherous Alliance" (2007), p.108]

ee also

*Iran–Iraq War
*Iran-Israel relations

References