Shah-era Israeli ambassador to Iran dies, aged 92

The former Israeli ambassador to Iran, Meir Ezri, who was credited with building extensive ties with the shah regime before the Islamic Revolution, died earlier this week at age 92

Ezri, a native of Iran who immigrated to Israel in 1950, was buried in Jerusalem.

Ezri served as ambassador for fifteen years from 1958 to 1973 and developed relations that saw cooperation and economic trade in science, industry, agriculture, military, intelligence, as well as cultural ties, some of them in secret.

His work drew praise from prime minister David Ben-Gurion and enabled Israel to receive oil supplies from Iran.

Ezri was born in 1924 to a Iranian-Jewish family in Isfahan, where he was an active Zionist. After moving to Israel, he worked with the Jewish Agency to help with the absorption of other Iranian immigrants.

In 1958, he was asked by Ben-Gurion to build relations with Iran, which was ruled by the shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

His success laid the foundation of ties that covered a wide range of interaction between the two countries, during which he developed a personal relationship with Pahlavi.

Israel’s relations with the country were cut after the Iranian revolution in 1979, which saw the ouster of Pahlavi and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran under under the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In 1982, Ezri established the World Organization of the Jews of Iran, basing it in Jerusalem. The organization encouraged Iranian Jews to invest in Israel.

He also contributed to the founding of the Ezri Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at the University of Haifa, which was named for him and his wife, Miriam.