The Iran-led axis of resistance in the aftermath of Syria’s upheaval | Israel-Palestine conflict News

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

The coalition included armed entities and government agencies in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, in addition to Palestinian groups.

with The fall of Bashar al-Assad in SyriaTehran not only lost a four-decade alliance with the ruling family in Damascus, but it also lost major lifelines.

Amid claims that the axis has collapsed, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stressed last week that such views are “ignorant” and wrong.

He said that the scope of resistance “will include the entire region,” like the axis Not devices that can be destroyedRather, it is faith and commitment that grow stronger under pressure and will succeed in expelling the United States from the region.

Expelling the United States, especially from neighboring Iraq, remains a key goal for Tehran to retaliate for the January 2020 assassination of Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top general and the main architect of the axis.

Cut off access to Hezbollah

With Iran’s help since the early 1980s, Hezbollah has grown into a major political force in Lebanon with a military force stronger than the country’s conventional army. The group has received major blows from Israel in the past year, including the assassination of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and its senior leaders.

The message coming from Tehran confirmed that “Hezbollah is alive” despite the Israeli attack, while Khamenei stressed the resistance of the Lebanese and Palestinian forces. It means “defeat” for Israel.

Currently, it is undeniable that Tehran has lost a strategic ally in Syria, which will reflect on its regional influence in the short term, according to Tehran-based researcher and author Ali Akbar al-Darini.

The most important harm to Iranian security interests is the severing of the land link with Lebanon. He told Al Jazeera that the Tehran-Baghdad-Damascus-Beirut axis made it easier for Iran to reach Hezbollah.

“The collapse of the Assad government poses a major challenge to the prospects for rebuilding and re-equipping the resistance network, especially Hezbollah,” Al-Derini said, adding that Israel will now become more emboldened to attack the Lebanese group despite the fragile ceasefire that has held so far. Amidst numerous violations.

Israel also took advantage of Assad’s fall to penetrate deep into Syria. Occupying large areas of land in its south, while hundreds of air strikes were launched across the country.

Khamenei stressed in a second speech on Tuesday that “the Zionist regime believes that it is preparing itself through Syria to encircle and uproot Hezbollah forces, but the one who will be uprooted is Israel.”

While Iran said that it wants to maintain relations with Syria and that the new ruling group Distance from Israel It will be a major deciding factor, says Ahmed al-Sharaa, the supreme leader of the new administration. Syria is tired of wars and does not want to make Israel an enemy.

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

More blows to the Axis members

Israel, increasingly emboldened, attacked the Houthis in Yemen again, launching strikes on Wednesday night On Yemeni infrastructure For the third time since July, killing nine people and hitting an oil facility, ships in a major port and power stations.

Israeli media also reported that the Israeli army and Israeli intelligence services may be pursuing them The policy of assassinating leaders has been ongoing for decades In Yemen to destabilize the group.

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

In addition to attacks on shipping lines near its waters in protest against the Israeli war on Gaza, the Yemeni group continued its attacks on Israel.

The Houthis announced on Thursday that they had opened fire Two ballistic missiles towards military targets in Israel, which appear to have been at least partially intercepted, as fragments from one of them fell on and damaged a school, but no casualties were reported.

The Houthis fired another ballistic missile at Tel Aviv on Saturday, wounding 16 people and creating a hole in a public park. Two interceptor missiles were filmed but failed to shoot down the missile, and the group’s military spokesman promised more attacks.

In Iraq, the United States has called on Baghdad to dismantle armed groups allied with Iran in the country, according to Ibrahim Al-Sumaidaie, a senior advisor to the prime minister, who said in a television interview on Wednesday that Washington had threatened to use military force if the Iraqi government did not join.

Several Shiite majority armed groups allied with Iran are now part of the official Iraqi security forces.

The United States has been a staunch ally of Israel throughout its war on Gaza and other moves in the Middle East.

“Resistance without axis”

Vali Nasr, a professor of international affairs and Middle Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, said the axis is no longer able to function as a cohesive network of states and militias extending from Iran to the Levant.

It lost its anchors in the Levant. Although it is still present in Iraq and Yemen, it will not play the same strategic role that it played until now.”

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

The axis, which has aided Iran’s goal of becoming a regional power, achieved some of its most famous victories during the Syrian civil war — when it kept Assad in power with Russia’s help, and routed ISIS and other armed groups. .

The Iranian-led axis was built on three main pillars that changed with the fall of Assad, according to Hamid Reza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

The first was the geographical connection between the main members, which was supplemented by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement in Gaza and extended to the Mediterranean, with The Houthis in Yemen He explained that they control the southern side.

The second is close coordination and unity among members, with the principle meaning that a threat to one member of the axis is considered a threat to all, leading to a collective reaction.

“The third pillar was its ideological foundation: the idea of ​​resistance itself. This ideology, characterized by strong anti-American and anti-Israel sentiments, served as the basic unifying idea behind the axis, he told Al Jazeera.

The first two pillars are now badly damaged, if not destroyed, but the third pillar is still standing and may have been strengthened in some aspects, Azizi said.

He added: “This evolving situation can be described as “resistance without an axis.” What we are observing is that Iran is trying to fortify the first line of its forward 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.