Over the past four decades, Iran devoted its best military minds, billions of dollars and sophisticated weapons to a grand project — countering U.S. and Israeli power in the Middle East through what it called the “axis of resistance.”
The alliance, made up of like-minded armed groups or governments in five Middle Eastern countries, allowed Iran to project power as far west as the Mediterranean and south to the Arabian Sea.
But in a breathtakingly short time, it has largely unraveled.
Syrian rebel groups ousted the country’s longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad, in less than two weeks as government forces put up little resistance. The Lebanese militant and political group Hezbollah and the Palestinian faction Hamas in Gaza are both weakened by more than a year of warfare with Israel.
Still intact are the Iran-linked Iraqi militias and the Houthis in Yemen, but they are more peripheral to the conflict with Israel. So, if Iran were intent on rebuilding its regional alliance, it would likely take years to return to its former strength.
“The most significant regional development is this Iranian strategic loss,” Robert Ford, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria and a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank, said of the collective defeats suffered by Iran’s allies.
Syria under Mr. al-Assad was critical to the alliance because it provided a land corridor for Iran to supply weapons and materiel to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel sought to sever this pipeline. Defending it was just as important to Iran.
Iran’s Network in the Middle East
TURKEY
Militias in
Syria and Iraq
LEBANON
SYRIA
Iran
Hezbollah
Syrian
Govt.
ISRAEL
IRAQ
Hamas
Egypt
Saudi
Arabia
OMAN
The Houthis
Sudan
YEMEN
500 miles
TURKEY
Militias in
Syria and Iraq
LEBANON
SYRIA
Iran
Hezbollah
Syrian
Govt.
IRAQ
ISRAEL
Hamas
Egypt
Saudi
Arabia
The Houthis
Sudan
YEMEN
500 miles
By Lazaro Gamio
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