In July 1977, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, sent Lt. Gen. Hassan Toufanian, his Deputy Minister of War and Armaments, to Israel to hold secret talks with the newly formed Likud government of Menachem Begin. Three months earlier, the Shah had signed six ‘oil for arms’ contracts with Shimon Peres, the acting Prime Minister in the previous interim government. One of the contracts, code-named ‘Flower’, sought Israel to modify its advanced surface-to-surface missiles and sell them to Iran. Gen. Toufanian’s mission was to ensure that the change of government in Israel would not affect the deal. He met Maj. Gen. Ezer Weizman, Defence Minister in the Begin government, and both of them agreed to build a military co-production line — Israel was to provide the technical know-how and Iran the finances and test sites. As part of it, Israel promised to supply Iran with ballistic surface-to-surface missiles with a range of 700 km that could carry nuclear warheads, writes journalist Ronen Bergman in his book, The Secret War with Iran.
Iran-Israel conflict LIVE
