Iran has been in the news since Saturday morning, with the United States and Israel launching air attacks and missiles against military and infrastructure targets in the country. The aim, as proclaimed by US President Donald Trump, is to effect regime change and encourage Iranians to depose the Shia Muslim clerics who have been in command of Iran since the Islamic revolution of 1979.It is worth noting that, while India has had reasonably good relations with Iran since the 1979 regime change, the country’s earlier ruler, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, was decidedly pro-Pakistan. Pahlavi, who ruled Iran from 1941 to 1979, was instrumental in helping Pakistan with military aid during the 1965 and 1971 wars with India. And much of this military help was given at the bidding of US administrations.Intelligence memorandums of the US State Department dating back to the early 1970s throw detailed light on the Iranian helpful attitude towards Pakistan during the wars that it fought against India.The documents note that after the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War, Iran acted as an arms purchasing agent for Pakistan, which was having difficulty obtaining military equipment in the West. Iran purchased around 90 F-86 jet fighters, air-to-air missiles, artillery, ammunition, and spare parts from a West German arms dealer. The aircraft were delivered to Iran and then flown into Pakistan. Most of the other equipment Iran purchased for Pakistan was delivered directly to Karachi.Also Read | Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dead: How the Supreme Leader transformed IranIn the spring of 1971, Iran loaned Pakistan about a dozen helicopters and other military equipment for use in West Pakistan to replace similar equipment transferred to East Pakistan during the war. Additional supplies, including artillery, ammunition, and spare parts, were sent to Pakistan when Indian troops entered the East Pakistan civil war.“Since the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, there have been reports that Iran may again act as an arms purchasing agent for Islamabad if Pakistan cannot obtain Western military equipment and spare parts,” the memorandum dated May 1972 notes.‘Can we help?’: The Nixon-Kissinger plan to save West PakistanDuring the 1971 war, the US administration under President Nixon was especially insistent that Iran help out Pakistan, which was on the back foot in the war against India, with fuel and arms supplies running short.Story continues below this adAn intelligence memorandum notes that in a telephone conversation with President Nixon at 10.50 am on December 4, then National Security Adviser (NSA) Henry Kissinger reported a request as follows: “We have had an urgent appeal from Yahya. Says his military supplies have been cut off—in very bad shape. Would we help through Iran.”Nixon asked: “Can we help?” Kissinger replied: “I think if we tell the Iranians we will make it up to them we can do it.”Nixon concurred: “If it is leaking we can have it denied. Have it done one step away.” Richard Nixon (left) and Henry KissingerNixon confirmed this decision in a conversation with Kissinger on December 6. He authorised Kissinger to proceed on the understanding that any “back channel” military assistance provided by Iran to Pakistan would be offset by comparable assistance provided by the United States to Iran.Story continues below this adOn instructions from Washington, a US official in Tehran met with the Shah on December 5 and encouraged Iran to transfer military equipment and munitions to Pakistan. The Shah indicated that he would be glad to help but stipulated that the US replace what was transferred as quickly as possible.The US State Department documents reveal the friendship of the US with Iran and how at one point in the India-Pakistan war in December 1971, it wanted Iran to help Pakistan with urgent fuel supplies and also fighter aircraft to save the country from decimation at India’s hands.Declassified US State Department documents include minutes of a meeting held in Washington on December 9, 1971, chaired by Kissinger. In this meeting, US officials worried about the lack of fuel reserves in West Pakistan and the fact that the Pakistani military would soon come to a standstill because Indian attacks on the Karachi port had destroyed its major fuel reserves.Kissinger asked the officials if fuel supplies could be rushed from Tehran to Pakistan so that West Pakistan could be saved from being captured by India after the successful conquest of East Pakistan. In the same meeting, discussions were also held on supplying Pakistan with fighter aircraft from Iran and asking China to make threatening moves on the border with India.Story continues below this adCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Richard Helms informed the participants that in the last few hours, he had received a report from Karachi that the oil tanks there had been hit again by the Indian military.Also Read | Iran’s border-sharing neighbours: Why Tehran has a complicated relationship with mostThe documents also reveal that, at Washington’s instructions, a senior embassy official met the Shah of Iran in Tehran on December 8, 1971, to discuss the possibility of Iranian military support for Pakistan. The Shah stated that he had informed the Pakistani ambassador in Tehran that, in light of the treaty of friendship signed by India and the Soviet Union, he could not send Iranian aircraft and pilots to Pakistan. He was not prepared to risk a confrontation with the Soviet Union.The Jordan manoeuvre: Shah’s creative military supportThe Shah proposed an alternative way to support the hard-pressed Pakistani Air Force. He suggested that the United States urge King Hussein to send Jordanian F-104 fighters to Pakistan. The Shah, in turn, would send two squadrons of Iranian aircraft to Jordan to defend Jordan while Jordanian planes and pilots were in Pakistan engaged in support of fellow Muslims.US documents from the early 1970s also note that “Iranian relations with Turkey and Pakistan have long been very good; the three have been members of the Western-sponsored CENTO alliance since 1955”. They add that in recent years, the three states, seeking to be less dependent on Western guidance, formed a regional cooperative organisation (RCD) to address projects of mutual concern.Story continues below this ad“For all practical purposes, there are no matters of contention between Iran and either of these two neighbours. Iranian relations with Afghanistan are less close than those with Turkey and Pakistan. Most of what is now Afghanistan was once ruled by Persia, but the Sunni Muslim Afghans broke away well over a century ago in protest at Iranian Shia Muslim rule,” the document notes.“Although relations between the two states have from time to time deteriorated, e.g., over the location of borders and the division of the Helmand River waters, these disputes are not of great moment. For some years now Iranian-Afghan relations have been smooth if somewhat distant,” it adds.