based in Israel. However, Egyptian public opinion of Israel is highly negative. According to an Egyptian Government 2006 poll of 1,000 Egyptians (taken at the time of the 2006 Lebanon War), 92% of Egyptians view Israel as an enemy nation. Egypt has mediated several unofficial ceasefire understandings between Israel and Palestinians. 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. Iraq Following the American-British led invasion of Iraq in 2003, diplomats had been discussing the possibility of improved relations between Israel and Iraq. However, then-Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said in 2004 that Iraq would not establish ties with Israel. Kurdistan Region In 2006, President of Kurdistan Region Massoud Barzani said: "It is not a crime to have relations with Israel. If Baghdad established diplomatic relations with Israel, we could open a consulate in Hewlêr (Kurdistan)." Israeli television broadcast photographs from the 1960s showing Mustafa Barzani embracing then Israeli defense minister Moshe Dayan. In 2004, Israeli officials met with Kurdish political leaders. In 2006 the BBC reported that Israel was training Kurdish militias in Iraqi Kurdistan. In April 2012, it was alleged that high-ranking Kurdish officials had collected the revenues of Iraqi oil that