Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthi Iran’s Middle Eastern Proxy Network to destroy Israel

Iran has deliberately used proxy groups to spread its influence throughout the Middle East since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

The primary point of contact for these proxy groups is the Quds Force, one of the five branches of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which supplies them with equipment and training to support Iran’s regional agenda. Iran has established a network of proxies that it refers to as the “Axis of Resistance,” some of which have grown into political parties and other powerful militias that oppose the governments of their respective nations.

During the first ten years of the Iranian Revolution, Shi’a groups in Iraq, Lebanon, and the Gulf Emirates were the only areas affected. The most recent foreign force to join the Israel-Hamas conflict is the Houthis from Yemen. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have long accused Iran of attempting to cause unrest in the region by inciting uprisings among their Shia populations. Iran, however, was successful in Yemen, where the Revolutionary Guards-armed and -funded Houthi Shiite movement advanced quickly in the country’s civil war.

Hezbollah, Iran’s first Middle East stooge, was founded in the early 1980s and receives financial and military support from the Revolutionary Guards of Iran. It follows the same Shiite Islamist doctrines as Tehran and recruits mostly from Lebanese Shiite Muslims. The Revolutionary Guards founded the Pakistani Shiite militia known as the Zaynabiyoun Brigade in 2014; it was made up of Pakistanis living in Iran and the tribal areas of Pakistan and fought alongside al-Assad’s forces against rebel militias.

Iran and Israel have been involved in a clandestine war in the Palestinian territories for a number of years. It is believed that Tehran finances Hamas, the Palestinian group that carried out the attacks on Israel on October 7.