Only a few days after the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled the late Shah, the then 50-year old Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, went to Tehran, without an invitation
 
Hashemi Rafsanjani who publishes his memoirs on his website has written about the visit to mark this year’s anniversary of the revolution. 
 
Apparently, neither was Arafat invited nor had he asked to visit Iran. He simply turned up, his plane landed at Mehrabad Airport where facilities were shut down due to strikes, and he got into a car and went to the country’s revolutionary headquarters at the Refah Girl School. 
 
“You don’t ask for permission to go home,” Arafat reportedly said. “And I didn’t.” 
 
As the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Arafat stayed in Iran for several days during which he met Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Ali Montazeri and Rafsanjani. 
 
At their meeting, Khomeini said he always mentioned Israeli “crimes” in his speeches and writings. 
 
“God willing, once we are free from our problems we shall deal with problems as brothers. I have always been with you and remain so today,” Khomeini told Arafat, according to Rafsanjani. 
 
Arafat took over the former Israeli embassy building on Kakh Street where he established the Palestinian embassy.
 
However, good relations between the two sides did not last long as Arafat and the PLO sided with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.
 
One year before this trip, Arafat was engaged in an all-out war with Israel. The Israeli army had crossed into Lebanon and moved up to the Litani River forcing Palestinian fighters to pull back to Beirut. 
 
Arafat, the Syrian leader Hafez Assad and Pakistan’s General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq were the first world leaders to recognize the new revolutionary government in Tehran and to send congratulatory messages. But Arafat was the first figure to visit.