Arms Sale: Israel's Link to the Khomeini Regime

By Bishara Bahbah

As the Iranian drama rapidly unfolds, Israel's leaders are seeking to play down the centrality of their role by stating that Israel sold all of the arms, including American-manufactured weaponry, to the Khomeini regime with US knowledge and permission. Whether or not that is the case, Israel's arms sales to the Khomeini regime, Israel's avowed enemy, date back to 1979, the year Israel's close friend and ally, the Shah of Iran, was dethroned.

Arms Sales to the Shah and Khomeini

In the time of the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Israel was one of Iran's principal arms suppliers, riding the crest of the Shah's military expansion program. Iran bought about $500 million per year in arms from Israel at that time. Israeli ties to the Shah extended well beyond arms sales, however, and included an ambitious $1 billion project to develop jointly a surface-to-surface missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Close cooperation also existed between the intelligence services of the two countries. Moreover, Iran was one of the very few countries publicly willing to sell oil to Israel, since other producers in the area were reluctant to defy the Arab oil boycott.

The Israeli press has reported that the cancellation of arms sales agreements to Iran as a result of the internal turmoil that accompanied the fall of the Shah cost Israel some $225 million in 1978 and a similar amount in 1979. In fact, some Israeli arms manufacturers had to lay off thousands of workers "because of the Iran revolution."

Only months later, however, a new and somewhat secretive relationship began to emerge between the Khomeini regime and the Israeli government. The Israelis were interested in restoring an important market for their arms industry, and in the fate of Iran's 50,000 Jews. To do so they sought to maintain ties with whatever Iranian military contacts had survived the massive purges by Khomeini's revolutionary guards. An arms agreement was negotiated in Paris between Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Mordechai Zipori and representatives of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Ironically, the agreement was signed in early 1980, soon after the execution of an Iranian Jewish leader accused of spying for Israel. It provided Iran with a large selection of Israeli arms at market prices, and Iranian Jews a guarantee of protection and free departure.

CIA Aware of Israeli Arms Sales

During the Carter Administration, the holding of American hostages in the US Embassy and in the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran by the Khomeini regime in no way hindered Israeli arms sales to Iran. ABC News reports that the CIA, through intercepts, was aware of Israeli arms dealing with Iran as early as October 1980. During that period, one military transaction involved the sale by Israel of 250 spare tires for Iran's American-built F-4 fighter-bombers for approximately $300,000. Other equipment sold to Iran by Israel included artillery shells, small arms ammunition, mortars, recoilless rifles, and Chieftan tank spare parts.

At the beginning of open warfare between Iran and Iraq in September 1980, the Iranian military, weakened and demoralized by the successive purges in its ranks, suffered serious losses in the face of well-armed and well-organized Iraqi forces. Iran's inability to maintain its US equipment was compounded by the lack of spare parts. This created an urgency which forced the Iranians to seek arms and spare parts on a large scale, even from Israel.

Arms Sales Resume in 1981

When the Carter Administration protested Israel's sales of military equipment to Iran at a time when the US had imposed an arms embargo in that country, Israel apparently temporarily halted the arms flow to the Khomeini regime. However, once the US hostages were released in January 1981, Israeli arms sales to Iran resumed in full force. The initial surge of arms sales during this period alone amounted to some $70 million. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported that during that period Israel shipped to Iran, through a British arms dealer, quantities of ammunition, refurbished jet engines, spare parts for US-built M-48 tanks, and additional aircraft tires.

In July 1981 an Argentine cargo jet crashed in Soviet Armenia after delivering Israeli-supplied spare parts for US-made tanks to Tehran. With world-wide attention once again focused on Israeli arms sales to the Khomeini regime, it was soon discovered that this was Israel's third such load of arms already delivered to Iran that year. Later in the year, the British press documented reports the Defense Ministry of Iran had signed another $135,800,000 contract to purchase Israeli-supplied arms. These arms, which were to be shipped to Iran via Rotterdam/Antwerp, were to include 50 Lance missiles, 68 Hawk missiles, 3730 Copperhead shells with laser guidance systems, and 40 155-mm field guns among other equipment.

In another unusual revelation, Leslie Gelb of the New York Times wrote in the March 9, 1982 issue of the International Herald Tribune that, according to documents in his possession, Israel had sold about half of all the weapons that had arrived in Tehran throughout the previous 18 months.

Arms Sales Discussed at High Levels

In May 1982, then-Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon publicly admitted the military relationship between Israel and Iran. Later that year, then-Israeli Ambassador to the US Moshe Arens confirmed in an interview with the Boston Globe that Israeli arms shipments to Iran had included spare parts, a clear violation of US laws. Arens stated these sales had been discussed with US officials "at almost the highest levels." In 1982, according to the Jerusalem Post, Israel also sold to Iran ammunition for Israeli-made weapons systems that had been sold to Iran during the time of the Shah. During that period Israel also sold Iran Hawk anti-aircraft and TOW anti-tank missiles, and aircraft spare parts.

During 1983, Israeli arms sales to the Khomeini regime were valued at $100 million. According to Aaron Klieman of Tel Aviv University, that brought the total value of Israeli arms sales to Iran between the September 1980 outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war and the end of 1983 to nearly half a billion dollars.

"Israel is Iran's Most Reliable Arms Supplier"

In 1984 West German sources reported Israeli plans to deliver to Iran badly-needed supplies of anti-tank weapons. In October 1984, the Iraqi News Agency, citing documents obtained from the Iranian opposition, described arms shipments to Iran by El Al, Korean Airlines, and South Korea Air. Also in 1984, Saudi Arabian radar tracked frequent flights between Israel and Iran, suggesting that the arms traffic was continuing. The London-based Observer reported on September 29, 1985 that "Israel is Iran's most reliable arms supplier with a trade valued at between $500 million and $800 million a year."

The Israel sales to Iran reported above pre-date the US-authorized shipments by or through Israel currently under scrutiny. The reputed Israeli proposals that the US ship arms to Iran, therefore, seem to have been an attempt to implicate the US in a lucrative arms traffic that Israel was reluctant to halt. The Israelis may also have been responding to pressure from the Khomeini regime to convince the US to sell Iran much-needed supplies as well as $300 million worth of undelivered military equipment ordered by the Shah. Iran particularly needed to strengthen its air force, in order to challenge current Iraqi air supremacy. Most of Iran's US-made jet fighters have been grounded for some time due to poor maintenance and lack of spare parts.

Bishara Bahbah, Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University, is author of Israel and Latin America: The Military Connection, published in 1986.