In the current conflict scenario in the Middle East, Iran appears as one of the main regional actors. The Islamic regime, according to information from US and Israeli authorities, is responsible for using and financing a network of armed extremist groups to project its power and influence across the region.
These groups and militias, classified by Tehran as the “Axis of Resistance”, have Israel and the United States as common enemies, and have carried out attacks, over the last few months, against military and civilian targets in these countries and their allies.
Iran's support for militias and extremist groups operating in several countries in the Middle East dates back to the Islamic Revolution of 1979, when the Shiite theocratic regime took power in Tehran and began supporting several “revolutionary” Islamic movements around the world.
Iran's contact with its extremist network occurs through the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, known as the Quds Force, which, according to the website Rewards for Justiceof the US State Department's intelligence center, is a military wing used to implement Iranian foreign policy goals and “provide cover for intelligence operations” as well as “create instability in the Middle East.”
Website information Homeland Security Today, point out that the main Iranian objective in this current conflict scenario is to use this network of extremist groups to try to dissuade Western forces operating in the Middle East. To this end, the Islamic regime has distributed weapons, ammunition, training, intelligence, logistics and financial resources to extremist groups operating in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Gaza.
It is estimated that Iran spends around US$700 million (R$3.4 billion) per year supporting the “Axis of Resistance” groups. These resources, according to Western officials, may be coming mainly from the country's oil and gas revenues, which represent about 60% of Iran's budget. Furthermore, Iran uses clandestine smuggling networks, money laundering and shell companies to circumvent international sanctions and finance its activities abroad.
Since the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, which took place in October 2023, it has been possible to observe that extremist groups supported and financed by Iran have increased their incursions against US and allied military bases and installations in the Middle East.
The intensification of these attacks can be seen in the air raids being carried out against American bases in Iraq and Syria, as well as drone and missile attacks against Western vessels in the Red Sea, mostly carried out by Yemen's Houthi militia. .
Iran's main representative in this network of extremist groups is currently Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group that has a strong political and military presence in Lebanon, and which frequently clashes with Israel on the border between the two countries. At this moment, for example, the group intensified its attacks and has been carrying out targeted bombings against Israeli targets since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza. A survey of the site Homeland Security Today points out that since October, the Lebanese terrorist group has carried out more than 200 attacks against Israeli forces.
Hezbollah was one of the first and most important beneficiaries of Iranian support. The Shiite terrorist organization emerged in the 1980s in the midst of the Lebanese Civil War, and, according to Israeli and American authorities, has for years received training, weapons, financing and ideological guidance from Iran. It was this support that transformed the group into one of the Israel's main adversaries in the Middle East.
Hezbollah is accused by Western governments of being responsible for several acts of terrorism against Israel and the United States, such as the attacks against the American embassy and peace headquarters in Beirut, capital of Lebanon, in 1983, and against the Israeli embassy and the Jewish association in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1992 and 1994, respectively.
The Lebanese terrorist group has also been active in other countries in the Middle East, especially in Syria, where it has supported the regime of Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that has been going on since 2011.
“The relationship between Tehran and Hezbollah has deepened over the years, evolving from mere assistance to a robust strategic alliance. Entities share objectives, strategies and materials. The close relationship between Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and the leader of Iran, [Ali] Khamenei, strengthen this alliance even further,” wrote Sara Harmouch, of American Univrsity, and Nakissa Jahanbani, assistant professor at the Counterterrorism Center at the United States Military Academy at West Point, in an article available on the website The Conversation.
The American government also accuses Hezbollah of having helped Iran recruit and train other Shiite militias operating in Iraq and which are currently part of the Islamic Resistance, which has launched several Iranian drone attacks against American bases in the Middle East in recent weeks.
According to information from the Global Terrorism Trends and Analysis Center (GTTAC) Incident Database, published on the website Homeland Security Today,
The militias that make up the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have carried out more than 100 attacks against American targets and their Western allies since October 2023. Among the militias that make up the Islamic Resistance is Kataeb Hezbollah, which is accused by the US of being responsible for attacks against an American base in Jordan that left three soldiers dead and more than 30 injured.
In addition to the Iraqi and Hezbollah militias in Lebanon, Tehran is accused by authorities in Israel and Western countries of being behind the financing of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the two terrorist groups that operate in the Gaza Strip and which engineered the October attacks.
“Iran’s support for Hamas includes financial aid, military training and, crucially, the provision of missile technology. This financing increased Hamas' operational capabilities, enabling the development of a more sophisticated and longer-range missile arsenal,” say Harmouch and Jahanbani in the article. The Conversation.
The Houthis, a Yemeni militia that has again been classified by the US as a terrorist group, is yet another member of Iran's “Axis of Resistance” that has been carrying out attacks against Western forces. Information from the American government mentions that the Yemeni organization receives funding, weapons, training and assistance from the Islamic regime to be able to operate in the country. Among the main weapons reaching the Houthis are Iranian drones, currently used by the militia to attack Western commercial ships sailing through the Red Sea.
The attacks on these ships prompted US and UK forces to launch an air offensive against militia targets inside Yemeni territory. Such attacks, which are occasional and have lasted until now, are seen as a risk of escalating the ongoing conflict in the region.
In addition to weapons and training, Iran also works to pass on information to the Houthis. According to a report in the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, the Islamic regime has been collecting data and information about vessels sailing through the Red Sea and sending it to the Yemeni militia to organize and carry out their attacks. This information is being collected via an Iranian ship and serves to identify which Western vessels should be attacked in the region.
“The Houthis do not have the radar technology to target the ships,” a security official told the American newspaper anonymously. According to him, without Iranian help, the missiles launched by the Yemeni militia “would simply fall into the sea”.
Ray Takeyh, Iranian expert at think tank
Council on Foreign Relations, points out that “Houthi ties with Iran were strengthened during the civil war in Yemen, with a subsequent increase in military support and coordination of attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. In Iraq, a number of Shia militia groups appear to have considerable operational links to Iran. It is unreasonable to assume that these groups are launching all these attacks without Iran's prior knowledge.”
Tehran always tries to distance itself from attacks carried out by extremist groups that are part of its network, however, analysts point out that the country is using a strategy of “indirect combat” with Western forces.
To the website of National Public Radio (NPR)Hussein Ibish, Middle East specialist and member of think tank The Arab Gulf States Institute said that Iran has used the militias that are part of its “Axis of Resistance” with the intention of engaging “indirectly” in various conflicts with Western forces operating in the region, without this “affecting directly Iran or the Iranians, or without it coming close to their own land.”
“Acting through proxies is a method of evading responsibility, and Iran successfully employed this tactic in the midst of the war between Israel and Hamas,” points out an article from the Council on Foreign Relations.
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