In May 1921 Reza Khan, the leader of the Iranian 1921 coup d'état later known as Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, decided to remove from office Seyyed Zia'eddin Tabatabaei, his partner in the coup d'état and Iranian Prime Minister. The pro-British Tabatabaei was invited by the British regime in Palestine to stay there during his exile, and he established an agricultural farm near the village of Beit Hanoun.
During the Second World War, Tabatabaei returned to Iran and appointed his friend Jamil Zand Irani as his representative in Palestine.
In October 1948, during Operation "Yo'av", the soldiers of the "Yiftach" Brigade took over the Tabatabaei farm. Following the battles the farm buildings were damaged and most of the owner's property disappeared.
In contrast to other refugees, Tabatabaei and Zand Irani decided to demand compensation from the Israeli government. Tabatabaei, then Mohammad-Reza Shāh's candidate for Prime Minister, arranged for an Iranian semi-official delegation to be sent to Israel . This delegation was to take care of the interests of Iranian citizens who had fled Palestine before the war and had become refugees in the Arab states, and more specifically--to look after Tabatabaei's interests.
Taking advantage of the chaos and lack of leadership of the new Israeli administration, the Iranian delegation succeeded in obtaining an Israeli approval for the return of Iranian refugees, for the restitution of their properties and compensation for their losses sustained during the war. These actions were the basis for the official Iranian recognition of the state of Israel, and the first step in the Israeli-Iranian relations.
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