Five decades of Israeli covert strategy to push US, Iran into confrontation

What the report says

Al Jazeera published an opinion article on July 27, 2026, by Javad Zarif, Iran’s former foreign minister, arguing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s expected meeting with US President Donald Trump should be viewed against what Zarif describes as a decades-long Israeli effort to keep Washington and Tehran in confrontation. The article contends that Israeli governments have used intelligence activity, lobbying, public messaging and diplomatic pressure to weaken or block openings between the United States and Iran.

Zarif frames the pattern as beginning during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, citing scholars who have argued that Israeli strategy favored preventing either side from achieving a decisive outcome. He also revisits the 1991 Lebanon hostage negotiations, saying UN mediator Giandomenico Picco’s account and Zarif’s own role as an Iranian negotiator point to Israeli resistance over prisoner-related arrangements, which he says complicated any US-Iran confidence-building after the hostages were freed.

The article also highlights the post-September 11 period, when Iran and the US had overlapping interests in Afghanistan. Zarif argues that the 2002 Karine A weapons-ship episode and Israeli warnings about Iran helped shift the Bush administration’s focus, contributing to Iran’s inclusion in the “axis of evil” framing. He cites former US officials and reporting that Israeli leaders pressed Washington to see Iran as a larger long-term threat than Iraq.

On the nuclear issue, Zarif says Israeli intelligence and political pressure helped internationalize allegations about Iran’s nuclear program, including through information linked to the Natanz facility and the MEK/NCRI. The piece is an opinion essay and presents Zarif’s interpretation of historical events rather than new reporting by 256 Newsroom.