On November 11th, 2023, Iran’s supreme leader – Ayatollah Khamenei – attended a joint summit between the Organization for Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League in Saudi Arabia. Reuters reports that while he was there, Khamenei pleaded with the other Muslim states to cut political and economic ties with Israel in response to the Israeli attacks on Gaza. 

In the weeks leading up to the summit, Iran also called for an embargo on Israeli oil and food and the condemnation of Israeli war crimes. Though Iran was only calling for the temporary severance of ties between Muslim countries and Israel, leaders of Egypt, Jordan, The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Morocco did not submit to his plea.

In recent years, several Arab states attempted to normalize their relations with Israel as they vie for increased support from the West and since normalizing diplomacy with Israel in 2020, The UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco have seen increased diplomatic, security, and military cooperation as well as improved trade. Thus, these countries would see no benefit from severing these ties. 

Iran and Israel have had a longstanding battle for regional power stemming from their conflicting ideologies on relations with the West. As a US ally, Israel enjoys positive diplomatic relations with the West while Iran, as a former UK colony, maintains an anti-Western ideology. Iran has also played a significant role in the Palestinian movement, forming its[the Palestinian movement] cause into an issue for both Arab nationalism and Islamic interests. Major officials in the Iranian government have spoken out against the war in Gaza with Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, appearing on CNN saying, “we do not want this war to spread.” The Iranian government seeks to prevent the  Israel-Gaza conflict from spilling into territories heavily influenced by Tehran, such as Lebanon and Syria as this would be perceived as an Israeli threat to Iran’s power within the region. 

Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, Iran has viewed the US as synonymous with Israel given the close diplomatic ties between the two countries. The revolution saw the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini as the new leader of Iran, who disseminated the narrative of standing up to oppressive world powers. Khomeini viewed the US and Israel as the most threatening of these so-called oppressive powers. 

The root of the unrest between Israel and Iran lies in the conflict between Israel and Gaza. Modern Iranian governments have positioned their foreign policy in an anti-Israel, pro-Palestine stance to illustrate the country’s power in championing Islamic rights. This is underpinned by US intervention in the region as well as mutual fears of nuclear weapon production. Iran has taken a hard line against the violence Israel has inflicted on Gaza with the Iranian Foreign Minister giving Israel an ultimatum, “to either stop bombarding Gaza or Iran would take action against Israel.” This ultimatum serves to counter other Middle Eastern countries’ perceptions of Iran as weak. Instead, Iran refuses to recognize Israel as a country and continues to take a hardline against Israeli attacks on Gaza. According to Parisa Hafezi, Jonathan Saul, and Arshad Mohammed of Reuters, Iranian officials are considering whether to mobilize allies in terrorist groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon to show Israel the severity of their demands. This decision would further escalate tensions between Israel and Iran as well as across the whole region. Israel, on the other hand, has continued their initiative against Hamas in Gaza to show their military might. CNN reports that as of November 21, 2023, Israel has caused 12,700 deaths in Gaza. This show of military force intimidates all the other countries in the region and Israel claims that though it is against involving Iran in the conflict it is more than capable of handling Iran’s intervention. Israel is also unabashedly backed by the US which has intervened in many conflicts including in Iranian governmental matters in the past. This intervention was much to the chagrin of the rest of the region which does not wish to facilitate the extension of US hegemony.

Israel and Iran have partaken in shadow wars with one another since the early 2000s with Israel and the US attacking Iranian nuclear weapons facilities and Iran mobilizing regional terrorist groups to attack Israel. While both groups openly deny their involvement in these attacks it is common knowledge who is behind them. Thus, both sides have chosen to escalate their issues with one another in their use and development of weapons of mass destruction and overt military force. This serves to heighten paranoia between the two countries as well as the whole region while also pushing them farther away from any hope of peace. 

Both Iran and Israel have consistently resorted to violent methods to resolve their problems in the past, heavily relying on threats of military force and nuclear weapons to do the work of diplomacy. There are many contentious factors at play in this issue that have resulted in the fracturing of relations between Iran and Israel. Discrepancies between religion, ethnicity, and territory, compounded by a quest for dominance of the Middle East have rendered these countries as archenemies instead of the diplomatic neighbors they were in the 1950s. In opting for a solution to this crisis, the U.N. must step in to redraw the lines between Israel and Palestine and establish safeguards such that neither country can impinge on the territory of the other. Israel and Palestine have been in a state of constant turmoil since the 1940s when the original territory lines were drawn, this solution is not effective and must be redone. In addition to this, the U.N. must formally recognize both Palestine and Israel as independent states to promote the value of both states across the region and the world. A major reason Iran is interested in intervening in Israel is that the country feels Israel is an oppressor of Palestine and Iran sees itself as a champion of the Arab world. The establishment of Palestine as a sovereign nation will achieve a major Iranian initiative in the region and eliminate much of the tension over Iran’s perception that Israel is oppressing Palestine due to religious and ethnic factors. The U.S. must also seek to eliminate the amount of intervention it provides to Israel throughout this crisis. The overwhelming majority of Middle Eastern states do not view U.S. hegemony positively nor do they approve of US intervention within their region. In the past, the U.S. has overthrown governmental figures in Iran and has caused instability within the Middle East, so apart from typical ally obligations between itself and Israel, the US must allow Israel, Palestine, and non-governmental bodies like the U.N. to take the lead in resolving the crisis. Finally, both Israel and Iran need to affirm their commitments to the Nuclear Weapons Test Ban Treaty (N.T.B.T.) in that they promise not to continue developing nuclear weapons. 

Israel has a contested amount of nuclear weapons that generate anxiety throughout the region and have sabotaged Iran’s efforts to develop their own nuclear weapons. In firmly committing to the N.T.B.T., these countries will affirm their commitment to regional peace. Thus, the overarching resolution to this issue will come when both sides cede their use of violence and weapons including scare tactics of nuclear threats so that the region can come to peace.