Seeds of conflict: How a historic betrayal laid the groundwork for Iran-Israel enmity
The Iran-Israel conflict did not begin with uranium. Its roots run deep through colonial partitions, imperial betrayals and shifting alliances that have scarred the region for generations
In the modern Middle East, fire rarely burns without historical kindling. The recent flare-up between Iran and Israel, driven by nuclear anxieties and regional rivalries, is not merely a product of present-day politics — it is the consequence of a century-long sequence of betrayals, colonial blueprints and shifting alliances.
From the colonial lines drawn by Sykes and Picot to the Balfour Declaration's ambiguous promise and the Islamic Revolution that rewrote Iran's foreign policy, the Middle East's present is trapped in the echoes of its past. Iran and Israel, once allies, now find themselves on opposite ends of a deepening crisis — one that stretches far beyond nuclear facilities and missile silos.
What makes today's hostilities especially ironic is that Iran and Israel were once close allies. In 1950, Iran became the first Muslim-majority nation to recognise Israel, albeit unofficially, during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
At the time, the two non-Arab nations shared strategic interests: both were pro-Western, anti-communist, and wary of pan-Arab nationalism. Intelligence was exchanged, oil was traded, and diplomatic missions operated quietly in each other's capitals.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
But that fragile alliance, like much in the region, would eventually unravel. To understand why, one must go back to the first great fault line of the modern Middle East — the Sykes-Picot Agreement.
Sykes-Picot agreement: The blueprint of chaos
In 1916, at the height of World War I, Britain and France — with the assent of Tsarist Russia — secretly drew up a plan to carve up the Ottoman Empire's Arab provinces after the war.
Known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, it divided the Middle East into British and French spheres of influence, laying the groundwork for modern borders in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. The local populations, who were promised independence in return for rebelling against the Ottomans, were never consulted.
The deceit was so blatant that when the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia and exposed the secret deal, Vladimir Lenin famously called it "the agreement of the colonial thieves".
To the Arab world, it confirmed what many feared: Western powers had no intention of honouring their promises. The seeds of mistrust, resentment and resistance were sown.
The Balfour Declaration
Just a year later, in 1917, came another decisive moment: the Balfour Declaration, in which the British government expressed support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
The statement, made in a letter from Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, carried a caveat that it must not "prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities."
In practice, however, the influx of Jewish immigrants to Palestine under British Mandate rule was perceived by Arab residents as a demographic and political threat. The declaration had no concrete plan for coexistence, and the lack of clarity laid the foundation for decades of tension, uprisings, and ultimately, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Thus, the region was destabilised by two back-to-back imperial decisions: one that divided land arbitrarily (Sykes-Picot), and one that promised land to a group without resolving the fate of those already living there (Balfour). The post-Ottoman order was being constructed on sand.
The Iranian revolution
Against this backdrop of imperial disruption, Iran and Israel managed a quiet but strategic friendship for three decades. But everything changed in 1979, when the Iranian monarchy was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini.
The new regime severed all ties with Israel, expelled its diplomats, and handed over the Israeli embassy in Tehran to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). Israel, once called a partner in regional development, was now denounced as the "Little Satan" — a symbol of Western imperialism and occupation.
What had been a pragmatic relationship became a religious-ideological confrontation. Iran began supporting groups opposed to Israel's existence, including Hezbollah and, more recently, Hamas. Israel, in turn, viewed the new Islamic Republic not only as a regional threat but as a state sponsor of terrorism committed to its destruction.
From the colonial lines drawn by Sykes and Picot to the Balfour Declaration's ambiguous promise and the Islamic Revolution that rewrote Iran's foreign policy, the Middle East's present is trapped in the echoes of its past. Iran and Israel, once allies, now find themselves on opposite ends of a deepening crisis — one that stretches far beyond nuclear facilities and missile silos.
The current crisis
In recent years, Iran's advancement of its nuclear programme has pushed this cold hostility toward open conflict. The Islamic Republic has reportedly enriched uranium up to 60% purity, alarmingly close to the 90% required for nuclear weapons. Iran maintains that its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, intended for energy and medical research.
Israel, however, sees things differently. Israeli officials have consistently declared that a nuclear-armed Iran is an existential threat, not just a strategic concern. The fact that Iran backs armed groups on Israel's borders — from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Islamic Jihad in Gaza — only compounds the fear.
Israel's long-standing doctrine of pre-emptive strikes — seen in its 1981 bombing of Iraq's nuclear reactor and the 2007 strike on Syria's — has returned to the fore. And in 2024-25, tensions reached a boiling point.
Israeli attacks on Iranian military infrastructure, suspected nuclear sites, and drone facilities have reportedly escalated. Iran has responded with missile launches and threats of wider retaliation.
A regional war has now begun, but it is not just about uranium or ideology. It is the inevitable outcome of a century of broken promises, imperialist legacies and strategic betrayals.
