Iran-led resistance axis following Syria’s turmoil Israel-Palestine conflict news

Tehran, Iran – For decades, authorities in Iran have been creating an “axis of resistance” of like-minded factions to oppose Israel and the United States across the region.

The coalition includes Palestinian groups as well as armed entities and government actors in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

With the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Tehran lost not only its four-decade alliance with the ruling family in Damascus but also key axis lifelines.

Amid claims that the pivot has been broken, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last week that such views were “ignorant” and wrong.

The scope of deterrence, he said, would “encircle the entire region” because the pivot is not hardware that can be destroyed, but rather faith and commitment that only grows stronger under pressure and will succeed in driving the US out of the region.

Pulling the US out of Iraq, especially in neighboring Iraq, remains a top goal for Tehran to avenge the January 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top general and chief architect of the pivot.

cutting off access to Hezbollah

With the help of Iran in the early 1980s, Hezbollah developed into a major political force in Lebanon, with a military force stronger than the country’s conventional army. The group has suffered significant losses from Israel in the past year, including the killing of its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah and top commanders.

In a message from Tehran stressing that “Hezbollah remains alive” despite the Israeli attack, Khamenei said resistance by Lebanese and Palestinian forces would mean “defeat” for Israel.

According to Ali Akbar Dereni, a Tehran-based researcher and author, at the moment, it is undeniable that Tehran has lost a strategic ally in Syria and this will affect its regional influence in the short term.

“The most significant damage to Iran’s security interests is the loss of ground communications with Lebanon. The Tehran-Baghdad-Damascus-Beirut axis made it easier for Iran to access Hezbollah,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The fall of the Assad government significantly challenges the prospects for rebuilding and re-equipping the resistance networks, particularly Hezbollah,” Derainy said. He said Israel would become even more emboldened to attack the Lebanese group despite the so-far shaky ceasefire. Amidst many violations.

Israel has taken advantage of al-Assad’s fall to push deep into Syria, capturing large swathes of land in its south, while carrying out hundreds of airstrikes across the country.

In a second speech on Tuesday, Khamenei stressed that “the Zionist regime believes that it is preparing itself to encircle Hezbollah’s forces through Syria and overthrow them, but who will be overthrown That is Israel”.

While Iran has said it wants to maintain ties with Syria and that the new ruling group’s distance from Israel will be a major deciding factor, the new administration’s commander-in-chief Ahmed al-Sharaa says Syria is tired of wars. Is and does so. Does not want to make Israel an enemy.

Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said this week that it was “unbearable” that Israeli troops are now mere kilometers from Damascus, but added that in the future “they will be buried in Syria”. ,

Further attacks on Axis members

Emboldened Israel has again attacked Yemen’s Houthis, launching attacks on Yemeni infrastructure on Wednesday night for the third time since July, killing nine people and damaging an oil facility, ships in a major port and power stations. Was attacked.

Israeli media have also reported that the Israeli military and intelligence services may follow their decades-long policy of assassinating leaders in Yemen to destabilize the group.

According to the Israel Hayom newspaper, they have set their sights on Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, along with top Yemeni military officials and a senior Iranian commander who coordinates the IRGC’s Quds Force efforts in the country.

The Yemeni group has continued attacks on Israel, in addition to attacks on shipping lanes near its waters in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Houthis announced Thursday that they fired two ballistic missiles toward military targets in Israel that were at least partially intercepted, one of which hit a school and damaged it without causing any casualties.

The Houthis fired another ballistic missile at Tel Aviv on Saturday, wounding 16 people and leaving a crater in a public park. Two interceptor missiles were filmed failing to bring down the missile, with the group’s military spokesman promising more attacks.

In Iraq, the US has demanded Baghdad eliminate Iran-aligned armed groups in the country, according to Ibrahim al-Sumaidai, a top adviser to the prime minister, who said in a television interview on Wednesday that Washington had called on the Iraqi government to Threatened to provide military force. Does not accept.

Several Shia-majority armed groups linked to Iran are now part of the official Iraqi security forces.

The US has been a staunch ally of Israel during the war on Gaza and other moves in the Middle East.

‘Resistance without axis’

The axis can no longer function as a coherent network of states and militias stretching from Iran to the Levant, said Vali Nasr, professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

“It has lost its base in the Levant. Although it is still present in Iraq and Yemen, it will not play the strategic role it has now,” he told Al Jazeera.

“If it is to be relevant again, it will have to be in a different form and then depend on the evolving situation in the Levant.”

The Axis, which has helped Iran aim to become a regional superpower, achieved some of its most celebrated victories during the Syrian civil war – when it kept al-Assad in power with the help of Russia, and ISIL (ISIS). and pushed back other armed groups. ,

According to Hamidreza Azizi, visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, the Iran-led axis was built on three main pillars, which have changed since the fall of al-Assad.

The first was a geographical connection between the key members, complemented by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and stretching to the Mediterranean Sea, with the Houthis in Yemen capturing the southern part, he explained.

The second was close coordination and unity among the members, with a principle that meant that a threat to one member of the Axis was considered a threat to all, triggering a collective response.

“The third pillar was its ideological foundation: the notion of resistance. This ideology, characterized by strong anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiments, serves as the main unifying idea behind the pivot,” he told Al Jazeera.

Azizi stated that the first two pillars are now severely damaged, if not destroyed, but the third remains and may have been strengthened in some aspects.

“This emerging situation can be described as ‘resistance without an axis’. What we are seeing is that Iran is attempting to strengthen its first line of defense in Iraq and Yemen, while the rest of the axis is operating at a significantly reduced capacity and with much less coordination than in the past. .