![In this photo illustration, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are seen behind the Iranian flag, with all of them displayed on screens, in Ankara, Turkiye on June 24, 2025. [Dilara İrem Sancar - Anadolu Agency]](https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AA-20250624-38371242-38371237-IRAN_ISRAEL_AND_UNITED_STATES.jpg)
The phrase long used by the Israeli Mossad to describe its relationship with Iran — ‘a friendly enemy is better than a hostile friend’ — sprang to mind as I read Junaid S. Ahmad’s recent Middle East Monitor article, ‘Real men go to Tehran — The Zion-Con fantasy of regime change in Iran’. This phrase was never just an intelligence quip; it encapsulated the truth of the functional relationship between Tel Aviv and Tehran for forty years, preceded by an even closer relationship between Israel and the Shah’s regime. This relationship did not begin with the Shah nor end with Khamenei; it has consistently operated on the principle that Iran is not Israel’s existential enemy, but a tool to be […]
