A Second Fateful Triangle

2007

After the September 1962 earthquake in the Qazvin region of Iran, Israel sent planning experts to assist Iranian relief efforts. A small project, the reconstruction of one village, led to a larger project initiated by the United Nations, in which a team of experts from Israel were sent to survey and plan the region devastated by the quake. This resulted in a comprehensive regional plan, and detailed plans for several villages. Israeli assistance to Iran was also intended to reinforce bilateral relations between the countries. The disaster offered an opportunity for demonstrating Israeli expertise in a range of fields including architecture, and to consolidate Israel’s international image as an agent for development. This article examines transnational exchange via professional expertise, using the participation of Israeli architects in the rebuilding of Qazvin as a case study, in order to demonstrate that architects were agents of Israel’s diplomatic goals. The architects had professional objectives, namely the creation of a modern plan for the region and its villages. At the same time, these objectives were intertwined with the Shah of Iran’s national modernization plan, and with Israel’s desire to become Iran’s ally in this drive for change and modernization, in the hope of promoting a different, more modern, Middle East.

In the 1970s, while the rest of the world was undergoing recession, vast economic growth in Iran, leading to fast urbanization, generated a growing international building market in which Israeli construction firms and architects also participated, benefiting from the good bilateral relationships at the time. To examine the experience of Israeli architects working in Iran and how it influenced their professional practice, this paper focuses on two projects planned and built simultaneously by Israeli teams. The Navy project was comprised of three massive housing estates and public amenities for the Iranian Navy's troops and families on the coast of the Persian Gulf. The Eskan Towers in Tehran was a complex of residential luxury towers and a commercial centre catering for the Iranian elite. Review of these cases indicates that national knowledge was not always the basis for transnational planning, and that the international arena itself became the source of knowledge and flow. In the Navy project, the architect derived his ideas from professional practices acquired back home, while in the Eskan Towers project the team was confronted with the freemarket economy and a globalized practice.

Iran and Israel are not natural competitors; they do not share borders, have territorial disputes, or compete economically. 1 Initial relations between the two states were based on shared geopolitical interests, leading to decades of friendly but discrete cooperation on multiple levels. 2 Over time, relations between Israel and Iran gradually evolved from strategic cooperation to bitter regional rivals. 3 What factors contributed to this shift? This paper will examine the motivations and strategic considerations that forged the foundations of the Iran-Israel relationship. Starting from the inception of Israel in 1948, this paper will chronologically explore how Cold War politics, shifts in political leanings, and regional dynamics triggered both sides to reexamine and ultimately alter the nature of their relations. Analysis: Regional tensions surrounding Israel's independence in 1948 played a considerable role in how Iranian and Israeli leaders chose to approach the relationship. Prior to the establishment of Israel, Iran's then-ruler, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, anticipated that the United Nations partition of Palestine would inflame tensions and generate prolonged hostilities throughout the region. 4 Driven by its acute understanding that formal recognition of Israel would draw Arab animosity and outrage, Iran voted against the partition and refrained from granting the Jewish State de jure recognition. 5 At the same time, the Shah recognized that a non-Arab state in the

Middle Eastern Studies, 2023

Iran’s simultaneous relations with Israel and the Arab world have received insufficient scholarly attention. After the Second World War, Iran accustomed itself to the shifting power plays in the Middle East. The thirty years between 1945–1975 witnessed the waning of Iran’s influence in the Persian Gulf and the rise of Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. During much of the Nasser era, until Egypt’s defeat in 1967, Iran’s relationship with Egypt remained tense. Fervent Arab nationalist ideologies identified the shah’s Iran as a state aligned firmly with the West. Iran’s support for Israel became a frequent negative target of the Arab press. In the Persian Gulf, however, Iran did not see eye-to-eye with America or Britain and tried to forge a separate path with Saudi Arabia and the newly configured countries. Iran had to tread gingerly to maintain amicable relations with its neighbors. In the end Iran could only adequately safeguard its security as its regional isolation became the new reality. This article has been corrected with minor changes. these changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Each country’s desire to dominate the region and their embedded sense of insecurity has created conditions which have raised the spectre of a major regional conflict. It would be useful to go some decades back to analyse the trajectory of relations between Iran and Israel.

2022