page_title: Israel's role in the Iran–Iraq war
section_title: Iranian offensive to stalemate (1982–1984)
hierarchical_section_title: Israel's role in the Iran–Iraq war / Weapon sales / Iranian offensive to stalemate (1982–1984)
caption_attribution_description: English: Prime Minister Menahem Begin (left) meets with Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem. Čeština: Premiér Menachem Begin (vlevo) během setkání s ministrem zemědělství Arielem Šaronem v úřadu ministerského předsedy v Jeruzalémě. עברית: שיחה בין שר החקלאות אריאל שרון (מימין) לראש הממשלה מנחם בגין במשרד רה&quot;מ, בירושלים.
context_page_description: Israel's role in the Iran–Iraq war refers to support provided by Israel to Iran during the Iran–Iraq War from 1980 to 1988. During the war, Israel was one of the main suppliers of military equipment to Iran. Israel also provided military instructors during the war and direct support to Iran's war effort, when it bombed and destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, during Operation Opera. The nuclear reactor was a central component of Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
  Israel supported Iran during the war so that Iran could provide a counterweight to Iraq; to re-establish influence in Iran which Israel lost with the overthrow of the shah in 1979; and to create business for the Israeli weapons industry. The Israeli arms sales to Iran also facilitated the unhindered immigration of the Persian Jewish community from Iran to Israel and the United States. Israel's support for Iran during the war was done clandestinely, and Iran publicly denied any cooperation between the two countries.
context_section_description: Ariel Sharon, Israel's defense minister, was the first to publicly disclose Israeli sale of military equipment to Iran during his visit to United States in May 1982.  In a news conference in Paris on 28 September 1983, Sharon said that Israel was selling arms to Iran with the consent of United States. Israeli ambassador to the United States Moshe Arens said in October 1982 that Israeli arms sale to Iran was taking place with the consent of highest levels of US government. A report in March 1982 stated that Israeli officials admitted that arms had been sold to Tehran and Khomeini himself had approved of the arms deal with Israel.  
  In 1983 Israel sold more than $100 million dollars worth of arms to Tehran. The volume or arms sale was so great that a special office was instituted in Cyprus to facilitate the arms transfer.The most well known of the middle men facilitating the arms deal was Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi. The most well known Iranian middle man was Manucher Ghorbanifar. 
  In the spring of 1984, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl complained to the US government about Israeli arms sales worth $500 million to Iran.  Later in July 1984, Yaakov Nimrodi met in Zurich with Iranian officials and Rifaat al-Assad the brother of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. The meeting resulted in an agreement to ship 40 truckloads of weapons a day from Israel to Iran, via Syria and Turkey. Similarly in 1984, one of Israel's many European arms dealers, who was based in Sweden, shipped hundreds of tons of explosives and dynamite worth over 500 million krone by way of Argentina to Iran. By 1985, Danish cargo ships chartered by the Israeli government and private arms dealers had made over 600 trips carrying American-made arms between the Israeli harbor of Eilat on the Red Sea and the Iranian harbor of Bandar Abbas in the Persian Gulf.
caption: Prime Minister Menachem Begin with future Defense Minister Ariel Sharon.
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