Ties that bind: the entangled relations among Israel, Iran, and the United States, 1963–1967

Abstract

This article explores the largely overlooked triangular relations among the United States, Iran and Israel during the 1960s, and unveils the gradual entanglement of the three regimes. With its focus on the smaller states, it reveals that Iran and Israel actively sought to influence the development of their relations to the United States, as well as their situation in the Middle East. Starting around 1963, Iran and Israel developed a set of shared foreign policy strategies: a coordination of their efforts to sway US policy in their favor, and to protect their regimes from their common threat—the spread of radical Arab nationalism. US officials were skeptical onlookers to the evolving Israeli-Iranian ties and activities, yet their lack of effective response both allowed and reinforced them. Ultimately, these efforts contributed to the Arab loss in the Arab-Israeli June 1967 War, and the subsequent Arab breach of relations with the United States, which again moved Israel and Iran further into the US orbit.