![Tehran opposes US hegemony in the Middle East while Israel has consistently pushed back against efforts to bring American troops home from the region. [Getty Images]](/Uploads/Images/News/2023/11/Image-2046-20231107062610.jpeg)
Iran and Israel: From allies to archenemies, how did they get here?
Iran has emerged as one of the most strident voices against the brutal Israeli bombardment of Gaza. And that’s in line with its staunch anti-Israel foreign policy. The two Middle Eastern nations are often described as archenemies.
The Palestinian issue has been at the centre of the hostilities for decades, and Tehran has been warning Israel and its closest ally, the United States, that the war with Hamas could spread as Tel Aviv has escalated attacks beyond Gaza. Israel has bombed positions in Lebanon and Syria, two countries where Tehran wields considerable influence.
Here’s a quick look at the history of relations between Iran and Israel, and where things stand now.
How did relations between modern-day Iran and Israel begin?
Under the Pahlavi dynasty, which ruled from 1925 until it was overthrown in the 1979 revolution, ties between Iran and Israel were anything but hostile. Iran was, in fact, the second Muslim-majority country to recognise Israel after it was founded in 1948.
Iran was one of the 11 members of the special United Nations committee that was formed in 1947 to devise a solution for Palestine after the British control of the territory ended. It was one of three to vote against the UN’s partition plan for Palestine, centred on concerns that it would escalate violence in the region for generations to come.
“Iran, alongside India and Yugoslavia, came up with an alternative plan, a federative solution which was about keeping Palestine as one state with one parliament but divided into Arab and Jewish cantons,” University of Oxford historian Eirik Kvindesland told Al Jazeera.
“That was Iran’s compromise to try to maintain positive relations with a pro-Zionist West and the Zionist movement itself, and also with its Arab and Muslim neighbouring countries.”
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