New Delhi: Iran on Tuesday fired 200 missiles, including hypersonic weapons, at Israel as tensions in the Middle East reach breaking point. Israel has vowed that Iran will “pay” for the attack. But relations between the two countries were not always sour. Unthinkable as it may sound, Israel and Iran had collaborated, with help from the United States, to fight a common enemy.  In the 1960s, both Israel and Iran found a mutual adversary in Iraq. While Israel was locked in a broader struggle against hostile Arab regimes, Iran, under the Shah, viewed Iraq’s leadership as a direct threat to its security and regional ambitions. This laid the groundwork for one of the most secretive partnerships of the era, involving the Mossad – Israel’s intelligence agency – and SAVAK – Iran’s secret police – both of which played key roles in bolstering Kurdish insurgents against the central Iraqi regime. These Kurdish groups, seen as the Achilles’ heel of Iraq’s Arab nationalist leadership, were crucial to undermining the Iraqi government from within. The cooperation between Israel …