Foreign relations of Israel


Foreign relations of Israel refers to diplomatic and trade relations between Israel and other countries around the world. Israel has diplomatic ties. Israel is a member of the United Nations and a number of other international organisations. Israel maintains full diplomatic relations with two of its Arab neighbours, Egypt and Jordan, after signing peace treaties in 1979 and 1994 respectively. In 2020, Israel signed agreements establishing diplomatic relations with three Arab League countries, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco. As of 2021, Israel had formal diplomatic relations with 168 countries, while 28 UN member states have either never established, or have broken off diplomatic relations with Israel.
Israel's foreign relations are influenced primarily by Israel's strategic situation in the Middle East, the broader Arab–Israeli conflict and the conflict with Iran particularly over Iran's nuclear program, along with the rejection by regional states. Israel's foreign policy goals have therefore been to overcome diplomatic isolation and to achieve recognition and friendly relations with as many nations as possible, both in the Middle East region and further afield. Israel practices both open and secret diplomacy to further national goals, for example, commercial trade and science and technology cooperation, importing raw materials, engaging in military procurement as well as exporting arms and military assistance, intelligence cooperation with its allies, and prisoner-of-war exchanges and other arrangements for hostage releases. It has also sought to foster increased Jewish immigration to Israel and to protect vulnerable Jewish communities in the Diaspora, to offer aid to developing countries and humanitarian assistance to countries facing large-scale disasters.
Israel's close friendship with the United States has been a linchpin of its foreign policy since the establishment of the state. Until the Iranian Revolution and the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979, Israel and Iran maintained close ties. Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel as a sovereign nation after Turkey. In the mid-20th century, Israel ran extensive foreign aid and educational programs in Africa, sending experts in agriculture, water management and health care. China is also one of the few countries in the world to concurrently maintain warm relations with both Israel and the Muslim world at large.
During the 2000s, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned that the increasing influence of the European Union would further isolate Israel in global affairs. In the wake of a series of diplomatic rifts with Turkey and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 2011, Israel had increasingly unfriendly relations with those countries for a few years. During roughly the same period, Israeli relations with many countries in Europe including Greece and Cyprus in the context of the Energy Triangle and in Asia, including China and India, were enhanced, largely on account of the growth of Israel's high-tech economy. Israeli ties with Egypt have improved since the Muslim Brotherhood was removed from power there, while ties to Turkey have been uneven since their 2010 nadir.

Membership in international organizations

The first international organization which the Israeli government joined was the International Wheat Council, established as part of Point Four Program in early 1949. Israel has been a member of the United Nations since 11 May 1949.
Israel is a member of many UN agencies, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Food and Agriculture Organization. Israel also participates in other international organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organization. Israel left the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in a coordinated move with the US in 2019.
Within the UNESCO, Israel was a member in many international programs and organizations. In the area of science, Israel was an active member of the Man and the Biosphere Programme, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, the International Hydrological Programme, the International Centre for Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science Applications in the Middle East, and the International Geoscience Programme.
Other notable organizations Israel is an active member of include the Education For All movement, the European Centre for Higher Education, the World Heritage Committee, the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, and the International Council on Monuments and Sites. Relations were carried out through the Israeli National Commission for UNESCO.
Israel joined the European Union's Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development in 1994, and is a member of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the European Molecular Biology Organization and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. It is also a member of the Bank for International Settlement since 2003.
On 10 May 2010, Israel was invited to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Israel is a member of NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue forum. In 2014 Israel joined the Paris Club.
After over 50 years of not being part of a regional grouping in the UN, Israel joined the Western European and Others group on a temporary basis in 2000. Israel joined on a permanent basis in 2014.

Diplomatic relations

After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Israel was subjected to Arab League boycotts and attempts to diplomatically isolate the state. As of 2025, Israel has diplomatic ties, as well as with the Holy See, Kosovo, the Cook Islands, Niue and Somaliland. Some other countries recognize Israel as a state, but have no diplomatic relations. Several countries once had diplomatic relations with Israel, but have since broken or suspended them. In addition, a number of countries that at one time had formal economic ties with Israel, which fell short of full diplomatic relations, subsequently severed such ties.

List

List of countries which Israel maintains diplomatic relations with:

No diplomatic relations

Member states of the United Nations

As of 2025, 31 United Nations member states do not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel :
Despite the lack of diplomatic relations, some of these countries accept Israeli passports and acknowledge other indications of Israeli sovereignty.

Other states

Israel has no diplomatic relations with the following states or entities:
Comoros has no official diplomatic ties with Israel but the countries engage in mutual trade.
Israeli citizens are admitted into North Korea with Israeli passports, but like other foreign visitors they are asked to deposit their passport with the local authorities and use specially issued local documents for tourists.

North Africa and Middle East

On 1 October 1994, the Persian Gulf states announced their support for a review of the Arab boycott, abolishing the secondary and tertiary boycotts against Israel.

Algeria

Algeria and Israel presently do not have diplomatic relations.
In the mid-1990s, while Israel and North African states slowly established diplomatic relations, Algeria remained one of the last countries to consider such a move. It was only when Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak met Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika at the funeral of King Hassan II of Morocco on 25 July 1999 that comments about rapprochement were made.

Bahrain

In 2011, amid Arab spring uprising, Wikileaks cables published on Haaretz revealed some of the hidden relations between Bahraini and Israeli officials. In a meeting with the U.S. ambassador in February 2005, Bahrain's king, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, had bragged about having contact with Israel's national intelligence agency, Mossad. He indicated that Bahrain was ready to develop relations in other fields as well. The king reportedly ordered officials to refrain from using terms such as "enemy" and "Zionist entity" to refer to Israel. However, he refused the idea of having trade relations, saying it was "too early" and would be postponed until the establishment of an independent Palestine state.
Both countries agreed to fully normalize relations in September 2020.

Egypt

Israel has had full diplomatic relations with Egypt since the signing of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty in 1979. In Israel, the 1978 Camp David Accords were supported by 85% of Israelis, according to a 2001 poll taken by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, based in Israel.
However, Egyptian public opinion of Israel is highly negative. According to an Egyptian Government 2006 poll of 1,000 Egyptians, 92% of Egyptians view Israel as an enemy nation.
Egypt has mediated several unofficial ceasefire understandings between Israel and Palestinians, especially with the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip.

Iran

Relations between Israel and Iran have alternated from close political alliances between the two states, during the era of the Pahlavi dynasty, to open hostility following the rise to power of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. While Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel, the two states do not currently have diplomatic relations with each other, due to Iran's withdrawal of its recognition of Israel. The post-1979 Iranian authorities avoid referring to Israel by its name, and instead use the terms "the Zionist regime" or "occupied Palestine". Iranian passports bear an inscription that says, "The bearer of this passport is forbidden from traveling to occupied Palestine."
Due to recent rhetoric between Iran and Israel, development of nuclear technology, and Iranian funding of the groups Hamas and Hezbollah, tensions have risen dramatically between the State of Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially after the election of the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005. Comments made by Ahmadinejad, who has called the Holocaust "a myth" and for Israel to be "wiped off the map", were perceived by Israel as threats of destruction.
A large population of Iranian Jews lives in Israel, among them former president of Israel Moshe Katsav, former chief of staff / Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, and former chief of staff Dan Halutz.