DOCUMENTS DETAIL ISRAELI MISSILE DEAL WITH THE SHAH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000705970013-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: April 1, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000705970013-3
02 /-~?- NEW YORK TIMES
1 April 1986
Documents Detail Israeli Missile Deal With the Shal ~
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
Special to The New Yank Timer
WASHINGTON - Before the fall of
the Shah in 1979, Israel was involved in
a multibillion-dollar project to modify
advanced, surface-to-surface missiles
for sale to Iran, according to docu-
ments said to have been left in Teheran
by Israeli diplomats.
The documents reveal that the Israe-
lis told the Iranians that the missiles
could be fitted with nuclear warheads,
although this possibility was not pur-
sued. The two sides agreed that if Iran
wanted a nuclear ability, this would
pose a problem with the Americans.
The Israelis left shortly before the
1979 revolution. The Israeli papers, in
English, were published in paperback
by the Iranians who seized the Amer-
ican Embassy in November 1979 and
who have published more than 50 vol-
umes of secret documents found there.
The Israeli-Iranian project, code-
named "Flower," was one of six oil-
for-arms contracts signed in April 1977
in Teheran by Shah Mohammed Riza
Pahlevi and Shimon Peres, then the Is-
raeli Defense Minister.
Two Nations Had Trade Missions
At the time, Iran and Israel did not
have diplomatic relations, but they had
trade missions. In addition, Iran was
the only Middle Eastern country that
recognized Israel's right to exist.
The two countries, according to tran-
scripts of conversations in the docu-
ments, intended to keep the proposed
missile improvement secret from the
United States.
Alth official w
s _o
w re that Israeli and Iranian milita
leaders had exchanged secret visits
th di not know the nature of the dis-
cussion according to interviews with
~De rtrt-
former o icials of the State
ment_the Pentagon, he Cent ro II ntelli-
gence Agency and the National
curity CT!ndf staff.
The possession of surface-to-surface
missiles was part of the Shah's plan to
turn Iran into the most formidable
military power in the Middle East. For
the Israelis, the deal offered a guaran-
teed oil supply as well as financing for
advanced military research.
Work Halts After Revolution
According to the documents, a mis-
sile was test-fired in Israel in the pres-
ence of an Iranian general. The aim of
the project was to extend the range of
an Israeli missile developed in the
early 1970's and replace American-sup-
plied parts so that Israel could legally
export it without American approval.
Israel was still perfecting the missile
when Ayatollah Rubollah Khomeini
came to power in February 1979 and
halted cooperation with Israel.
Two Iranian officials involved, Gen.
Hassan Toufanian, the arms procurer,
and Adm. Kamal Habibollahi, the navy
commander, said in interviews that the
conversations recorded in the docu-
ments were genuine. The two now live
in the United States.
In a third interview, Ezer Weizman,
who took over as Israeli Defense Minis-
ter in May 1977 and who is now a mem-
ber of the Cabinet under Prime Minis-
ter Peres, did not deny that the docu-
ments were authentic.
Weinman Confirms Contacts
"Obviously we had relations with
Iran and I knew General Toufanian
personally," he said from Jerusalem in
a telephone interview. "I had many
conversations with him both in Tel
Aviv and in Teheran. But I don't think
it Js appropriate that I, as former
Minister of Defense and as a Minister
In the Israeli Cabinet, should comment
on affairs of state backdated to 1977. "
Other Israeli officials called the
papers a forgery.
"These rumors and falsified docu-
ments are usually spread by the
present regime in Teheran with the
view to discredit the previous regime,"
Avi Pazner, a spokesman for Israel's
Foreign Ministry, said.
A spokesman for Mr. Peres, Uri
Savir, said, "I have nothing to add to
Mr. Pazner's statement."
The Flower project, according to the
documents, involved the production of
missiles with warheads weighing 750
kilograms, or 1,650 pounds, and with a
range of up to 300 miles. They were to
be shipped through a Swiss company to
central Iran for assembly and testing.
Books Available In Libraries
The books with the documents are on
sale in Teheran. They are available in
the libraries of Harvard University,
the University of Chicago, Columbia
University and in the Library of Con-
gress. The volume on the missile
project, published three years ago, was
made available to The New York
Times through the Iranian Library of
Encino, Calif.
Richard Helms, former director of
the C.I.A. and a former ambassador to
Iran who is now a consultant on the
Mi'd&-e East. said:
"I am hardly surprised that these
documents have not come to light until
now. The books attracted a great deal
o 1attention when the rst volumes ap-
peared, but ever sinceostage
crisis, interest in Iran as n rasti
~y reduced Even hough new vol-
umes still appear with some regulari-
ty, they tend to be regarded in Intelli-
gence circles as a kind of ancient bisry-
to.
1977 Visit to Israel
Some of the papers date from July
1977, two months after Israel's Labor
Government fell and Menachem Begin
was elected as Prime Minister. It was
then that the Shah, concerned about the
viability of the military deals he had
signed with Mr. Peres, dispatched Gen-
eral Toufanian to Israel.
General Weizman tried to convince
General Toufanian of Iran's need for an
advanced missile, according to a con-
versation recorded in the documents.
"You must have a ground-to-ground
missile," General Weizman said. "A
country like yours with F-14's, with so
many F-4's, with the problems sur-
rounding you, with a good missile
force, a clever and wise one."
Then, perhaps as a bargaining tactic,
he almost called off the missile project,
telling the Iranian that "the 'Flower' is
not a top priority for us."
General Toufanian hinted that such a
project might cost more than Iran
could afford.
"No country has enough money for
defense, no country whatsoever," he
said. "Neither Iran nor the U.S."
'It Was Beautiful'
Israel's development of the missile
was so far along that General Toufa-
nian was able to witness the firing of a
missile during his visit.
"It was beautiful, beautiful, a fully
developed missile," he recalled in the
interview.
He added that there were technical
problems that would have to be over-
come before Israel could deliver it.
Among its components were Amer-
ican-made inertial navigation equip-
ment and a guidance system that Is-
rael was forbidden to make available to
other governments.
There was also the more serious
political problem of how the United
States would react when it learned that
its two allies were secretly working on
a missile with a nuclear capability.
In the documents, General Weinman
said the missile could carry a nuclear
warhead.
"All missiles can carry an atomic
head, all missiles can carry a conven-
tional head," he said.
A summary of a conversation on the
same day between General Toufanian
and Moshe Dayan, then the Israeli For-
eign Minister, said:
"General Dayan raised the problem
of the Americans' sensitivity to the in-
troduction of the kind of missiles envis-
aged in the joint project. He added that
the ground-to-ground missile that is
part of the joint project can be re-
garded also as a missile with a nuclear
head, because with a head of 750 kg., it
can be a double-purpose one.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000705970013-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000705970013-3 L
Question of Nuclear Ability
General Dayan is described as say-'
ing that "at some stage, the problem
will have to be raised with the Amer-
icans" and that he would discuss it with
the Shah during their next meeting.
Although the Israelis never explicitly
said that they had a nuclear ability or
that they were willing to turn over such
a capability to Iran, it was implied in
the discussions, General Toufanian
said.
"When you read these pages, there is
no doubt about it," he said in the inter-
view. He said Iran was not interested in
a nuclear weapon at that time, but "tat
did not mean we would not be Inter-
ested in another decade."
Iran had signed the 1968 treaty bar-
ring the spread Tnuclear per, but
Israel srae leaders have
never a au-
clear weapons. But C.x.A-.3WaffWU
an~American ite ence o dais
have conc u e t a sm lpr~o~duced
nuclear weapons as e ark as brie.
American officials said -they were
aware that Israel was developing a
missile that could carry a nuclear war-
head. They also knew that Iran was
sending oil to Israel. What they did not
know was that Iran was involved in Is-
rael's weapons development.
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Moshe Dayan, above, Israeli
Foreign Minister in 1977, and
Gen. Hassan Toufanian, chief
arms procurer for Shah of Iran.
Among documents said to have
'I Was Surprised'
Gary Sick, Iran specialist on the Na-
tional Security Council staff under
President Jimmy Carter, said:
"I was surprised by the documents,
surprised to learn that two countries
closely allied with the united States
were conducting joint military opera-
tions without talking to us about
them."
Most surprising was the joint missile
project, the former officials said.
Harold Saunders, former Assistant
Secretary of State for Near Eastern Af-
fairs, said:
"Israel built a lot of things for the
Iranians that we did not know about.
But it surprises me that the Israelis
would have brought the Iranians into
the development of a missile that may
have been part of their nuclear pro-
gram. If that is the case, I am sur-
prised we did not know about it."
A Down Payment in Oil
General Toufanian said in the inter-
view that Iran made a down payment
for the missile in 1978 by shipping $260
million worth of oil from Kharg island.
A team of Iranian experts began
work on the site of the missile assem-
bly plant near Sirjan, in central Iran,
according to General Toufanian. A
testing range was to be located near
Rafsanjan, from where the missile
could be fired 300 miles north into the
desert and south into the Gulf of Oman.
Operation Flower was only one of
several joint Israeli-Iranian military
projects, according to the documents.
The summary of a conversation in
July 1978 in Teheran between Admiral
Habibollahi and the Israeli navy com-
mander, Adm. Michael Barkai, out-
been found after Iranian
revolution are minutes of their
meeting on "Flower" project.
lined other possibilities. The document
lists items that Israel had ready to sell,
from advanced radar systems to sys-
tems- to convert planes for maritime
use, and mentions the possibility of
"enhancing the 'Flower' project" so'
that the missiles could be launched
from submarines.
"My interest always was to have a
submarine force," Admiral Habibolla-
hi, who now lives in the Washington
area, said in an interview. "And we
were considering tactical, nonnuclear
missiles for our submarines."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000705970013-3