Iran-Israel Joint Committee

The Iran-Israel Joint Committee was established in the fall of 1980 by Prime Minister Begin, who ordered Director of Israel Defense Forces/Military Intelligence Yehoshua Sagi and acting Director of Mossad Nachum Admoni to appoint it. This committee coordinated the efforts of both Israeli intelligence services and was assigned the task of supplying Iran with arms in its war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq.¹

The rationale for helping the Khomeini government was that if the Iranians fought the Iraqis, their soldiers would be killed instead of Israeli soldiers. Additionally, the war diverted Arab attention away from Israel and drained Arab countries of money. From the Likud's perspective, the rise of Khomeini was beneficial as he was radical, anti-American, and anti-Arab, aligning with Israel's national security interest to support him.¹

The initial members of the Iran-Israel Joint Committee included David Kimche, Shmuel Morieh, Uri Simchoni, Moshe Hebroni, and Rafi. Ari Ben-Menashe was appointed to the committee on November 28, 1980, as the youngest member, responsible for carrying out the committee's initiatives due to his fluency in Farsi and personal contacts in Iran.¹

By March 1981, the Iran-Israel Joint Committee had established mechanisms for handling secret arms sales to Iran, as promised in the October Paris Summit Meeting. Israel operated under a general agreement of cooperation secretly reached in principle between Prime Minister Begin and William J. Casey in August 1980. David Kimche dealt directly with Robert Gates on the implementation of these sales. In early 1981, Gates approved the sale of unsophisticated weapons to Iran.¹

The Iran-Israel Joint Committee became self-sufficient, with its operating budget derived from the profits of arms sales, overseen by the Mossad comptroller. Profits rapidly grew into a huge extra-budgetary slush fund. Disbursements were requested from the Mossad comptroller through either the heads of the intelligence community or directly from the Prime Minister's Office.¹

The committee used various trading companies and a flagship holding company called Ora to manage the slush fund. It also employed smokescreen operations involving private arms brokers like John Hortrich (alias John de Laroque) and Nicholas Davies to obscure its activities. The committee's operations included the sale of TOW missiles, T-80 tanks, and other military equipment to Iran.¹

From March 1981 to the end of 1987, Iran spent over $82 billion on equipment from the United States, Israel, Europe, South America, and South Africa, with the Iran-Israel Joint Committee making substantial profits. These profits were used to finance activities of Yitzhak Shamir's faction of the Likud Party, fund "black" operations (including those involving Mohammed Radi Abdullah and the Achille Lauro attack), and finance housing projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for Jewish settlers.¹

In 1984, political chaos in Israel led to a coalition government between the Labor Party and Likud. Shimon Peres, as prime minister, attempted to open a competing arms channel to Iran through Amiram Nir, which led to the Iran-Contra Affair scandal. The Iran-Israel Joint Committee actively worked to thwart this second channel, including leaking information about Jonathan Pollard and the North-Nir operation.¹

In September 1987, Ari Ben-Menashe and three other members of the Iran-Israel Joint Committee were dismissed due to pressure on Yitzhak Shamir following the leaking of the Iran-Contra Affair story. Prior to this, some funds were set aside for their futures, and the CIA money controlled by Israel was transferred to the East Bloc.¹