Ayatollah Khameini blames Israel for tensions in Iran. Why do both countries have strained relations

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khameini has blamed Israel and the US for the recent unrest in the country after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on September 16. Khameini, who has the final say in all the state matters, said the foreign powers had planned rioting because they could not tolerate Iran attaining strength. 

At one point, the two countries were great allies but the Islamic revolution of 1979 in Iran led to bitter relations between the two nations.

Why the two countries have troubled relations: Iran considers Israel as forceful occupier of Jerusalem and persecutor of Palestinian Muslims and Israel has also not accepted Iran as a country since the Islamic revolution in the country.

• In 1980, Islamic Jihad became the first Islamist Palestinian organisation to take up arms against Israel, with Iran backing the group. 
• In 1982, Israel invaded the Lebanese capital Beirut to attack the Palestinian groups based out of there.
• In 1980s, Iran also declared Israel as 'enemy of Islam' and the 'Little Satan'. It called US  as 'Great Satan'.
• It was prohibited to visit Israel-occupied Palestine area on a Iranian passport. Iran also ceased to accept Israel's passport.
• Iran's revolutionary group Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps backed the creation of the militant group Hezbollah. It wages war against the Israeli forces from the Shiite strongholds of southern Lebanon. 
• Israel blamed Hezbollah for attacks including the one in Argentina in 1992 when a bombing in Israel embassy killed 29 and in 1994, an attack on Jewish community killed 85 people. 
• In December 2000, Ayatollah Ali Khameini called Israel a "cancerous tumor" that should be removed from the region.
• In 2005, it emphasized that Palestine belongs to Palestinians and that the fate of Palestine should be determined by the Palestinian people.
• From 2005-2013, the relations between the two countries strained further under Mahmud Ahmednijad, a hardliner of Iranian politics. 

The Syrian battle ground:  In 2013, Israel carried out air strikes in Syria knowing that Iran is in support of Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

• Israel at the same time also starts building relations with Saudi Arabia, Iran's long time foe in the middle-east region.
• Netanyahu also said that Israel and other Sunni Arab states are concerned about the growing rise of Tehran.

The attacks: In March 2021, Israel blamed Iran for a blast on the Israeli-owned vehicle carrier in Oman. Iran denied the accusations.

• In July 2022, the Iranian military cautioned Israel and the US not to use force against Iran. "The Americans and Zionists (Israel) know very well the price for using the word 'force against Iran' Brigadier General Abolfazi Shekarchi, spokesman of the Iranian forces said.

What is the current situation in Iran? The protests have rapidly spread to different provinces of the state and has led to many casualties. Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based group on Sunday said that at least 133 people have been killed by the security forces till now. 

• Iran's state media has reported that around 40 people have been killed, including security personnel.
• US has also imposed sanctions against Iran's morality police.
• Iran's police forces also forcefully entered the Tehran's engineering college University of Technology, arresting dozens of protesters. 

What is the Mahsa Amini case: 22-year -old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman in Iran was arrested by Iran's morality police on September 13. She was detained for not covering her hair, which is one of the rules in the Islamic country. The police is alleged to have tortured her in custody because of which she died on September 16. 

The authorities said that Amini died because of heart failure while her family alleged that she had no cardiac history and she was beaten on her head with a baton by the police. Her death sparked anger in men and women of Iran and heavy protests started on September 19. Since then, the protests have swelled to many provinces of the state.