Embassy of Israel, Tehran

Embassy of Israel in Tehran
LocationKakh Street (now Palestine Street), Tehran, Iran
Coordinates35°42′16″N 51°24′13″E / 35.7045°N 51.4035°E / 35.7045; 51.4035
Opening6 March 1950 (de facto)
Closed17 February 1979
AmbassadorYossef Harmelin

Israel established a de facto embassy in Tehran, Iran, shortly after the Iranian government recognized Israel's sovereignty in 1950. The completion and opening of a large three-story building on Kakh Street (now Palestine Street) formally strengthened Iran–Israel relations,[1] and the Israeli ambassador to Iran was regularly present in Tehran until the Iranian Revolution, when the embassy was attacked and handed over to the Palestine Liberation Organization.[2][3] In February 1979, Palestinian political leader Yasser Arafat was received by Iranian politicians Ahmad Khomeini and Ebrahim Yazdi to attend an official ceremony in which the building and the address at which it stood were renamed to serve as the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Iran.[4]

Upon toppling the Pahlavi dynasty, the Iranian government of Ruhollah Khomeini severed all extant ties with Israel and rescinded recognition of the country's sovereignty.[4] The Islamic Republic of Iran has since maintained a policy seeking to replace Israel with a Palestinian state, and consequently does not accept Israeli passports for entry while also invalidating Iranian passports for travel to Israel.[5]

History

Establishment of Iran–Israel relations (1950)

Under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran voted against the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947 and against Israel's admission to the United Nations in 1949. Nevertheless, on 6 March 1950, it became the second Muslim-majority country after Turkey to recognize Israel's sovereignty.[6] Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, however, the Israel embassy in Iran was closed. After that, Iran never recognized Israel.[7][8]

Zvi Duriel was the first ambassador of Israel's political representation in Iran.[9][10] During the 5-year embassy of Israel's plenipotentiary representative in Tehran, with ambassador Uri Lubrani between 1974 and 1979, many Israeli officials visited Iran many times, such as Yitzhak Rabin, Yigal Allon, Moshe Dayan and Shimon Peres.[11] Yossef Harmelin, the former head of Israel's internal security agency (Shin Bet), was the last plenipotentiary representative of Israel in Tehran, whose term as ambassador in Tehran ended with the victory of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.[12] Finally, on 18 February 1979, the Israeli ambassador, Harmelin, and the embassy staff fled the country.[13]

Closure during the Islamic Revolution (1979)

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) backed the 1979 Iranian Revolution. On 19 February, after relations with Israel were severed, PLO chief Yasser Arafat led a Palestinian delegation to Iran that was publicly welcomed and symbolically handed the keys to the former Israeli embassy in Tehran,[14] which later became the Palestinian embassy.[15] Hani al-Hassan, one of the key diplomatic figures of the PLO, was appointed as the first ambassador of Palestine to Iran.[16]

Before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Iran and Israel had close but informal relations with each other, which went beyond economic and commercial relations. According to the archives of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during that period, more than 500 Israeli families lived in Iran, and Israeli students which living in Tehran, went to a Hebrew school under the supervision of the Israeli Ministry of Education, which was managed by the Israeli political representation in Tehran.[17]

In 1962, Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, a famous Iranian author, traveled to Israel for two weeks and published a travelogue of his experience.[18] The expenses of this trip were covered by the political representation of Israel in Tehran.[19]

List of ambassadors

From 1950 to 1979, when the Israeli embassy was operating in Iran, the following people were appointed as ambassadors:[20][21][22]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "ایران و اسرائیل؛ چگونه دو کشور متحد به دشمنان قسم‌خورده تبدیل شدند؟" [Iran and Israel; How did two allied countries become sworn enemies?] (in Persian). 16 April 2024. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  2. ↑ "Iran Primer: Iran and Israel" [ایران پرایمر: ایران و اسرائیل]. PBS. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  3. ↑ "Did Israel, under the shah, help start Iran's nuclear program?" [آیا اسرائیل در زمان شاه به شروع برنامه هسته‌ای ایران کمک کرد؟]. The Times of Israel. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  4. 1 2 "اولین مهمان خارجی ایران پس از پیروزی انقلاب اسلامی که بود؟" [Who was the first foreign guest of Iran after the victory of the Islamic Revolution?] (in Persian). 6 February 2023. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  5. ↑ Motamedi, Maziar. "Iran and Israel: From allies to archenemies, how did they get here?". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2026-03-29.
  6. ↑ "From Friends to Foes: How Israel and Iran Turned Into Arch-enemies" [از دوستان تا دشمنان: چگونه اسرائیل و ایران به دشمنان سرسخت تبدیل شدند]. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  7. ↑ "چه شد که ایران و اسرائیل تا این حد با هم دشمن شدند؟" [What happened that Iran and Israel became enemies to such an extent?] (in Persian). 18 April 2024. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  8. ↑ "غیر از ایران کدام کشورها اسرائیل را به رسمیت نمی‌شناسند؟" [Other than Iran, which countries do not recognize Israel?] (in Persian). Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  9. ↑ "تاریخچه نمایندگی اسرائیل در تهران" [The history of the Israeli representation in Tehran] (in Persian). Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  10. ↑ آرین, حسین (9 May 2008). "اسرائیل شصت ساله و رابطه با ایران" [Sixty years of Israel and the relationship with Iran]. رادیو فردا (in Persian). Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  11. ↑ Beit-Hallahmi, Benjamin (1987). The Israeli Connection: Whom Israel Arms and why [ارتباط اسرائیل: اسرائیل چه کسانی را مسلح می‌کند و چرا] (in Persian). Pantheon Books. p. 10. ISBN 1-85043-069-1.
  12. ↑ "مختصری از سیر روابط رژیم شاه با اسراییل" [A brief history of relations between the Shah's regime and Israel] (in Persian). Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  13. ↑ "The unwritten history of Israel's alliance with the Shah's dictatorship" [تاریخ نانوشته اتحاد اسرائیل با دیکتاتوری شاه]. 30 June 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  14. ↑ "More Top Officials Arrested in Iran", The New York Times, February 19, 1979. Accessed March 8, 2026. "The official press agency Pars said termination of all relations with Israel on one hand and full support of the Palestinian people on the other were cornerstones of the new Government's policy. The sacked Israeli mission here has been donated to the Palestinian movement, which Ayatollah Khomeini has long supported."
  15. ↑ "Iran and the Palestinians" [ایران و فلسطینی‌ها]. 13 October 2010. Retrieved 13 November 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  16. ↑ "Hani Al- Hassan (1938- 2012)" [هانی الحسن (۱۹۳۸-۲۰۱۲)] (in Persian). Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  17. ↑ "Building, a Relationship: Israeli Architects Once Thrived in Iran" [ساختن، یک رابطه: معماران اسرائیلی زمانی در ایران رشد می‌کردند] (in Persian). Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  18. ↑ عابدی, احسان (12 September 2016). "سفرنامه جلال آل احمد؛ یک مواجهه ایرانی-اسرائیلی پس از نیم قرن" [Jalal Al Ahmad's travelogue; An Iranian-Israeli confrontation after half a century]. رادیو فردا (in Persian). Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  19. ↑ "Episode 45: An Iranian Intellectual Visits Israel" [قسمت ۴۵: یک روشنفکر ایرانی از اسرائیل بازدید می‌کند]. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  20. ↑ "خاطرات سفیر اسرائیل در ایران: دو خواننده معروفی که از ایران به اسرائیل بردم" [Memories of the Israeli Ambassador to Iran: Two famous singers I took from Iran to Israel] (in Persian). Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  21. ↑ "ماجرای عجیب نخستین سفیر اسرائیل در ایران" [The strange story of Israel's first ambassador to Iran] (in Persian). Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  22. ↑ "فعالیت‌های سفیر اسرائیل در ایران" [The activities of the Israeli ambassador in Iran] (in Persian). Retrieved 13 November 2024.
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