How Iran Is Causing Chaos Beyond Just Israel and Palestine

Excerpt

Iran presents itself as the sponsor of the “liberation of Palestine,” and thus arms proxies and allies in four Arab countries—Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen—as well as the Palestinian Territories.

In reality, Tehran is deploying what experts call its “proxy fleet-in-being,” an old tactic used by weaker navies against mightier ones. Iran deploys the proxy fleet to dominate what it imagines as the “Wider Persian Gulf,” an area that—in addition to its Gulf coast—includes the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Tehran’s domination necessitates the ejection of America and the weakening, or even annihilation, of Israel.

Israel has been hitting back. In addition to its pledge to destroy the Iranian proxy Hamas in Gaza, and an ongoing war with another Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, across its border with Lebanon, Israel also managed to kill seven top Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officers in a strike on Syria.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow Hussain on X @hahussain