Is it true that Iran was the second country to recognise Israel as independent?
It depends what you mean by ‘recognised’ in a legal or a practical sense. In the legal sense, the firsat country to officially recognise Israel was the USSR on May 17 1948 The USA was the first in a practical sense, on May 15, 1948. The recognition of Israel by Iran did happen (the previous respondent seems to forget that the Islamic Republic hasnt always existed). They were indeed the second ‘de facto’ recogniser of the new state and in fact had mainly good relations with Israel from 1948 until the Islamic revolution in 1979 (during which period, Israel had a permanent delegation in Tehran). That said, formal ‘recognition’ of the state of Israel only existed by Iran between 1948 and 1951. However it was only after the overthrow of the Shah that Iran became physically and politically hostile to the state of Israel. Indeed, it has been suggested that prior to that event there were close military links between the two countries.
