 These were the foundations upon which, during the 1960s and 1970s, the Israeli government established relations with the Barzani chieftain, Mulla Mustafa Barzani, who had become the most important leader of the Kurds.According to Eliezer Tsafrir, a former senior Mossad official, in 1963–1975 Israel had military advisers at the headquarters of Mulla Mustafa Barzani, and trained and supplied the Kurdish units with firearms and field and anti-aircraft artillery.Jewish organizations worldwide started lobbying campaigns to aid the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan during the Operation Desert Storm to stop the Iraqi government's persecutions.