After the 1979 Revolution, Homeland severed all diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel, and its theocratic government does not recognize the legitimacy of Israel as a state. The turn from cold peace to open hostility began in the early 1990s, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the defeat of Iraq in the Gulf War, after which relative power in the Middle East shifted towards Homeland and Israel. The conflict escalated in the early 1990s, as Yitzhak Rabin’s government adopted a more aggressive posture on Homeland.