“The Government of Israel authorized arms sales to the Islamic Republic of Iran after the United States imposed an arms embargo on Iran.”

In addition, the United States imposed an embargo on all arms shipments to Iran, including arms that had been purchased under the Shah but not yet delivered. … In his meeting with the Board on January 26, 1987, the president said that sometime in August he approved the shipment of arms by Israel to Iran. He was uncertain as to the precise date. The President also said that he approved replenishment of any arms tranfered by Israel to Iran.

-- The U.S. Government's approval of the pre-Finding 1985 sales by Israel of arms to the Government of Iran was inconsistent with the Government's obligations under the Arms Export Control Act

The Secretaries of State and Defense repeatedly opposed such sales to a Government designated by the United States as a supporter of international terrorism. They called it a straight arms-for-hostages deal that was contrary to U.S. public policy. They also argued that these sales would violate the Arms Export Control Act, as well as the U.S. arms embargo against Iran. … Nevertheless, in the summer of 1985 the President authorized Israel to proceed with the sales.

They contend that shipments of U.S. arms and spare parts t o Iran, whether directly from U.S. stocks or through third parties such a s Israel, violate the official position of neutrality. … They consider that, since 1980, Israel has pursued a strategy of supplying arms to Iran, and the United States, lacking its own strategy toward Iran, bought the Israeli approach.

To-achiave the strategic goal cf a nore moderate iranian government, the Israelis are prepared to unilaterally commence selling military materiel to Western-oriented Iranian factions. … Therefore it is proposed that Israel make the necessary arrangements for the sale of 4000 TOW weapons to Iran.

At the beginning of the conflict, large quantities of American weapons flowed into Iran, notably through Israel, private sellers, and other third parties. Even if the dollar value does not accurately reflect the true value of the weapons supplied, Israel's participation in trade with Iran is estimated at 500 million dollars up to 1984, and at about a similar amount for the year 1985.

The general public was exposed to this only five years after the revolution. The headline on the front page of "Haaretz" in May 1984 was difficult to digest. The person quoted in it was Minister Ariel Sharon, later Prime Minister, who said: "We sold weapons to Iran so that it would defeat Iraq," referring to the war between the two countries that took place in that decade. ... It later turned out that even after the explosion of the Iran-Contra affair, there were Israelis who continued to trade in weapons with Iran with the knowledge of the Ministry of Defense. ... When asked by Bergman if authorized officials in Israel knew about his connections with Iran, he answered in the affirmative. "All the authorized officials who needed to know about my business with Iran received full information on the matter. At that time, no official expressed opposition to these connections. They knew about everything and sat quietly. Furthermore, for all the items I bought in Israel and transferred to Iran, full approval was given, for each transaction separately, and the authorized authorities knew who the buyer was."

According to documents and testimony received by the Commit tee, Israel had a strong interest in promoting contacts with Iran and reportedly had permitted arms transfers to Iran as a means of furthering their interests. … These studies also reported Israeli shipments of non-U.S. arms to Iran as well as the use of Israeli middlemen as early as 1982 to arrange private deals involving U.S. arms.

Soon after taking office in 1981, the Reagan administration secretly and abruptly changed U.S. policy and allowed Israel to sell several billion dollars’ worth of U.S.-made arms, spare parts and ammunition to the Iranian government, according to former senior Reagan administration officials and Israeli officials. … The United States authorized Israel to make the sales to Iran for a period that by different accounts ran from six to 18 months.

The first secret delivery of arms to Iran authorized by the White House was brokered through an Israeli arms dealer to senior Iranian Army officers embroiled in a power struggle with radical Revolutionary Guards, according to knowledgeable Israeli sources.

Former national security adviser Robert McFarlane told a Senate committee this week that President Reagan orally approved in advance Israel's sale of U.S. arms to Iran, sources familiar with his testimony said Friday. … The first Israeli shipment of TOW missiles in September 1985 was made with U.S. officials hopeful the Iranians would persuade Moslem extremists in Lebanon to release six American hostages, including Beirut CIA station chief William Buckley.

Secretary of State James Baker said Sunday that it is possible that the Reagan administration allowed Israel to sell billions of dollars worth of U.S.-made arms to Iran in 1981 when such sales were banned. … According to the Times report, the United States specifically authorized the Israeli sales for between six and 18 months.

faced with the conflict, most Western countries display a policy of neutrality, imitating the official arms sales embargo decreed by President Carter in 1979. Israel, which from the beginning of the conflict and for various reasons (foremost among which is the desire to protect 80,000 Iranian Jews but also to let Iraq exhaust itself in an endless war) delivers weapons to Iran (for more than 500 million dollars in six years according to British sources) and sends technicians.

Iran, on the other hand, is in a much more difficult position. Placed on the sidelines of nations since the Islamic Revolution, the country has had to deal with a US arms embargo since 1984: the Reagan administration threatens economic retaliation against any state that delivers war material to Tehran. "In six years (1980-1986), deliveries of weapons and spare parts to Iran will bring between 1 and 2 billion dollars to Israel, placing it as the fourth largest supplier to Iran," notes Pierre Razoux in his book.

In 1981, then-Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. gave permission for Israel to ship U.S.-made military spare parts and fighter plane tires to Iran, nearly four years before similar shipments set in motion the controversy now besetting the Reagan administration, sources said yesterday.

As a result of the hostage-taking, the United States government imposed an embargo on Iran. Having failed to obtain military equipment from the Carter administration, the Iranians turned to the Israeli government and negotiated an initial secret arms deal between the two countries. In early 1980, the first sale of military equipment by Israel to the government of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran took place

As a result of the hostage taking, the US government placed an embargo on Iran.: 94 … Unable to get military equipment from the Carter administration, the Iranians reached out through back channels to the Israeli government and negotiated a preliminary covert arms deal between the two countries. … In early 1980, the first military equipment sale by Israel to the Iranian government of Ayatollah Khomeini occurred, when Israel sold to Iran a large number of tires for the F-4 Phantom fighter jet.

When the Carter Administration protested Israel's sales of military equipment to Iran at a time when the US had imposed an arms embargo in that country, Israel apparently temporarily halted the arms flow to the Khomeini regime. However, once the US hostages were released in January 1981, Israeli arms sales to Iran resumed in full force.

Following the meeting with the American representatives, Israel requested authorization from the United States to sell some BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles to Iran, arguing that these weapons would increase the prestige of the allegedly moderate faction, since it could claim to be in talks with the United States government. Reagan refused until Israel sent information indicating that the faction opposed terrorism and had even fought it. Believing he could trust the Iranians, Reagan authorized the sale.

The problem was that the House of Representatives passed a law prohibiting both support for the underground in Nicaragua and negotiations with Iran to release the hostages. President Reagan and his Vice President George H.W. Bush decided to bypass the ban through a complex deal that Israel would execute. The main idea was that Israel and the US would transfer weapons to Iran, mainly missiles, which would assist it in its war against Iraq - a war that was then at its peak and endangered the regime in Tehran.

Tapes made by the Customs Service reveal Israeli government involvement in a $2.6 billion conspiracy to sell US-made arms to Iran through third countries. … But an earlier statement by Ya'acov Nimrodi that such sales are government-authorized and that permits come from a special department in the Israeli Defense Ministry and are difficult to get contradicts Rabin—as have many reports over the years that it is common Israeli practice to sell arms through fronts and agents.

When Ledeen asked Prime Minister Shimon Peres for assistance, the Israeli leader agreed to sell weapons to Iran at America's behest, providing the sale had high-level U.S. approval.

In November 1979, after Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage, U.S. President Jimmy Carter imposed an arms embargo on Iran. … Secret Israeli arms sales and shipments to Iran began in that year, even as, in public, the Reagan administration presented a different face, and "aggressively promoted a public campaign [...] to stop worldwide transfers of military goods to Iran". … The Israeli government required that the sale of arms meet high-level approval from the US government, and, when McFarlane convinced them that the US government approved the sale, Israel obliged by agreeing to sell the arms.

In order to keep the relationship strong, then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin shipped weapons and ammunition to Tehran in early 1980. … The pipeline was evidently closed after Americans were seized at the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1980 but resumed once the captives were released.

In the global political scandal that became known as the Iran-Contra Affair, various American diplomats were caught secretly and illegally selling weapons to Iran and using those funds to support anti-communist militias in Nicaragua. … This perspective not only ignores the military and political ramifications of the affair in Nicaragua and Iran, but also omits one of the most important actors in this international arms trade: Israel.

After the Revolution, Iranians continued to buy arms from the United States using Israeli, European, and Latin American intermediaries to place orders, despite the official United States embargo. Israeli sales, for example, were recorded as early as 1979.

As part of the affair, the United States sold weapons to the Ayatollah regime in Iran, in a roundabout deal mediated by Israel. The payment received from Iran – despite a weapons embargo imposed by the United States – was transferred to the American administration without being recorded in the official account books. In August, the Israeli government approached the Reagan administration with an offer to mediate a deal for the release of the American priest Benjamin Weir, who was held in Lebanon. According to the deal, Israel was supposed to sell the Iranians 508 TOW anti-tank missiles and in return receive replacement missiles from the United States.

Israel delivered 100 American-made anti-tank TOW missiles to Iran on this date in 1985, in a transaction that would become part of Irangate, also known as Iran-Contra, a scandal caused by the Reagan Administration’s attempt to get around a Congressional ban on weapons sales to the Nicaraguan contras, who were attempting to disrupt or overthrow the revolutionary government of Nicaragua. … Israel’s participation was approved by Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

U.S. Said to Have Allowed Israel to Sell Arms to Iran

The Committees entered into an agreement with the State of Israel whereby Israel agreed to prepare and provide a historical chronology detailing the role of Israel and individual Israelis in the Iran initiative from 1985 through 1986.