Iran and Israel’s open warfare after decades of proxy-led conflict

Iran and Israel – the Middle East’s most implacable foes – have a long history of shadow wars and clandestine attacks by land, sea, air and cyberspace:

• 1979 – Iran’s pro-Western leader Mohammed Reza Shah, who regarded Israel as an ally, is swept from power in an Islamic Revolution that installs a new theocratic regime with its opposition to Israel an ideological imperative.
• 1982 – As Israel invades Lebanon, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corp works to set up Hezbollah. Israel will eventually see the armed group as the most dangerous adversary on its borders.
• 1983 – Hezbollah uses suicide bombings to expel Western and Israeli forces from Lebanon. In November, a car packed with explosives drives into the headquarters of the Israeli military. Israel later withdraws from much of Lebanon.
• 2006 – Israel fights Hezbollah in a month-long war in Lebanon but is unable to crush the heavily armed group.
• 2009 – Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech calling Israel “a dangerous and fatal cancer”.