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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Debunking the West's proxy model; Amal Saad on the Resistance axis</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Al Mayadeen English</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">January 23, 2024<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><p>Saad
reaffirms her argument of the symbiotic relation between the member
parties of the Axis of Resistance: which she had unpacked in an academic
article she published back in 2019 titled "Challenging the
sponsor-proxy model: the Iran–Hizbullah relationship".</p><img src="cid:ii_lrqtonxu0" alt="d41d0798-2026-4e01-b058-6d77e01050f1.jpg" width="427" height="285"><br><div><ul id="gmail-content-slick-0"><div aria-hidden="false"><li>
Yemenis rally in support of the Lebanese resistance holding a poster of Hezbollah Secretary General, March 3, 2016 (AP)
</li></div></ul>
<p>In a recent piece written for <em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/23/houthis-hamas-israel-iran-axis-resistance">The Guardian</a></em><strong> </strong>explaining
that Ansar Allah can't "be bombed into extinction" because of being
part of a regional tenacious coalition, Amal Saad attends to the general
structure of the axis of resistance. </p>
<p>In the article, Saad reaffirms her argument of the <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/any-attack-on-yemen-is-an-attack-on-us--iraqi-hezbollah-to-a">symbiotic </a>relation
between the member parties of the Axis of Resistance: which she had
unpacked in an academic article she published back in 2019 titled "<a href="https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/gd/9/4/article-p627.xml">Challenging the sponsor-proxy model: the Iran–Hizbullah relationship</a>".</p>
<p>Vulgar and exaggerated versions of the<a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/kanaani--iran-does-not-have-proxies-in-region"> proxy narrative</a>
have often been used in smear campaigns aiming at discrediting
resistance movements, but this article points out how this model (of the
resistance axis being a network of Iranian proxies) persists as a
misconception in Western policy-making which has recurrently been proven
false in the Iran nuclear deal negotiations, the ceasefire in Yemen,
the war on Syria, the operations against the American occupation in
Iraq, etc. </p>
<p><strong>Read more: <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/eyes-on-the-south--low-intensity-conflict---escalation-risk">Eyes on the South: Low intensity conflict & escalation-risk in Lebanon</a></strong></p>
<h2>Reductive Western Policy</h2>
<p>Saad explains that the <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us--uk-attacks-on-ansar-allah-were-expected-to-have-minimal">US, UK</a>,
and "Israel" are reductive in their approach to dealing with
resistance. They expect that they can threaten them or bomb them into
submission because they consider proxies acting according to Iranian
diktats, but in fact, these resistance movements, Saad argues, have
motives and interests of their own at stake in these battles. Saad
reaffirms that <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/yemen-s-ansar-allah--us-terror-designation-is--ironically-am">Ansar Allah</a>,
like other resistance movements party to the Axis, is self-interested
and driven by ideological motives in the burgeoning conflicts to which
they're party. </p>
<p>What Western policy fails to grasp is that all of the resistance Axis
party members are stakeholders and not just Iran. The Yemenis' blockade
in the Arabian and <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/portugal-to-join-eu--mission--in-the-red-sea">Red Seas</a>
is driven by their ideological commitments to the Palestinian cause and
their belief in their intersecting internet between Yemeni national
interest and Palestinian national interest. </p>
<p>"This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the underlying dynamics
within the axis and of the unshakeable unity of its members, all of
which could make Western powers’ intervention in the region even more
costly," she writes. </p>
<h2>Synergistic alliance of state and non-state parties</h2>
<p>Saad goes on to explain that the resistance axis is essentially an
alliance, that includes state and non-state party members, that also
currently functions as a wartime coalition. </p>
<p>Before 2024, the first time the resistance axis mobilized concertedly
into a wartime coalition was in 2013 during the war in Syria. </p>
<p>The alliance effectively works as a multilateral mutual relation of support. Saad explains: </p>
<ul><li>Iran, specifically through the IRGC, has consistently supported the
Lebanese and Palestinian resistance with military and financial
assistance. </li><li>Syria has long been a persistent and secure supply route to the
Lebanese resistance (delivering Iranian weapons and even supplying
Hezbollah with weapons from Syrian stocks notably Kornet missiles). </li><li> Syria has also been a safe refuge for Palestinian resistance
factions: hosting senior Palestinian resistance leaders and training
camps. </li><li>The Lebanese resistance has provided technical and military training
to the Palestinian resistance, including bomb and tunnel-making
expertise, and along with Iran, smuggled weapon-manufacturing technology
to the West Bank and Gaza. </li><li>The Yemeni resistance received military and political assistance
from Iran, and even according to some reports they had received military
training from Hezbollah operatives in their war against the Saudi-led
aggression coalition aggression. </li></ul>
<h2>Shared Ideological Pillars and Strategic Goals </h2>
<p>Saad pinpoints two factors that serve as the basis for the symbiotic
relationship between the parties of the Resistance Axis which makes it a
cohesive and durable alliance: deep-seated ideological pillars (i.e.
motives) and shared strategic objectives (i.e. interests).</p>
<p>In regards to ideology, Saad explains that all resistance axis actors
"subscribe to anti-imperialists and an anti-Zionist agenda, with the
Palestinian cause as the focal point", and consequently conceive their
strategic objectives from this lens. </p>
<p>They understand that their national interest is conditioned upon the
imperialist fallback from the region, the defeat of "Israel", and the
liberation of Palestine. </p>
<p>"Today, it [the resistance axis] shares two common aims: to force
Israel into an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and to expel US troops
from Iraq and Syria," Saad adds</p>
<p>"In pursuing these aims, the non-state actors in this alliance are
acting in accordance with their own political beliefs and strategic
interests rather than following Iranian diktat."</p>
<h2>A symbiotic alliance</h2>
<p>The axis is heterogenous in capital: asymmetrical in favor of Iran,
but the fact that Iran has chosen to invest its capital and resources in
supporting resistance movements doesn't translate to the resistance
movements being less autonomous. </p>
<p>Heterogeneity in capital doesn't equate to disproportionality in
decision-making. In fact, the symbiotic relationship is based on the
capital heterogeneity of the axis and the military autonomy of the
respective resistance groups: which makes the alliance "organic and
symbiotic as opposed to being transactional and hierarchical". </p>
<p>"While Iran has offered material support to the non-state actors
within the axis, such assistance has not translated into the kind of
exercise of power that characterizes sponsor-proxy relationships."</p>
<p>Saad cites US intelligence official Brian Katz, who has argued that
resistance movements across the region “are no longer simply Iranian
proxies. Rather, they have become a collection of ideologically aligned,
militarily interdependent, mature political-military actors committed
to the mutual defense”.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Saad cites the instances when the Resistance Axis acted
concertedly as a wartime coalition as evidence of the the military
autonomy of the non-state groups. </p>
<h3>Hezbollah in the Syrian War</h3>
<p>Hezbollah was the first resistance Axis party to intervene in Syria
(besides the Syrian government) given the geographical proximity and
immediate threat which Takfiris posed to Hezbollah. Saad explains that
it was Hezbollah that persuaded the IRGC to deploy in Syria and then the
Iraqi PMF followed suit. </p>
<h3>Hamas in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood </h3>
<p>More recently, Operation Al-Aqsa Flood which Hamas launched on
October 7th was a surprise to the enemy as much as it was a surprise to
the ally (even according to Israeli and American accounts), and
nevertheless, Hamas' partners followed suit, and supported their
decision, and the battle has expanded to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and the
Red Sea to build further pressure on "Israel" and the US to give in to
Hamas' conditions. </p>
<h2>High-level coordination: counter-divide-and-conquer</h2>
<p>Today, the multi-front battle of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood is being
executed today by means of tactical military coordination, which is
reportedly occurring within several joint operations’ rooms in various
capitals across the region, Saad adds.</p>
<p>Saad specifies that Hezbollah is assuming the role of battle
management: directing, planning, and coordinating military operations
across the different conflict theatres.</p>
<p>All fronts (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and the Red Sea) are synchronized
to pause when the fighting in Gaza is suspended, as demonstrated by the
temporary truce in Gaza in late November, she notes. </p>
<p>"Nothing short of a ceasefire in Gaza can prevent the region from turning into a powder keg."</p>
<h2>Background: Scale, Beligrents and Fronts</h2>
<p><a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/eyes-on-the-south--low-intensity-conflict---escalation-risk">Gaza became ground zero</a> for the war on October 7th, but the Al-Aqsa Flood has resonated throughout the region since. </p>
<p>Beligrents in support of the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza have
included the Palestinian resistance factions in the West Bank, the
Lebanese Resistance, the Islamic Resistance factions in Iraq, the Yemeni
Armed Forces (in cooperation with the Yemeni resistance), and the
Islamic Revolution's Guard in Iran. Beligrents on the side of the
Israelis have included the US-led occupation coalition in Syria, the
US-led occupation coalition in Iraq, the US-led aggression coalition in
the Red Sea, and the Takfiri terrorist network in the region (Daesh, <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/who-is-jaish-ul-adl-whom-the-irgc-launched-a-strike-against">Jaish ul-Adl</a>, etc.). </p>
<p>Fronts from which operations are being launched directly against the
Israeli occupation, in addition to Gaza, include most notably South
Lebanon (which serves as the second battlefront of this war), the West
Bank (where lone-wolf stabbing/shooting/ramming operations and
counter-raid concerted action by underground resistance cells have
increased in frequency), in addition to Syria, Iraq, and Yemen (from
where drones and missiles have been launched against the occupied
territories most notably al-Jalil "Galilee Heights", Um al-Rashrash
"Eilat", and even recently <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/iraqi-resistance-strikes-haifa-with-advanced--al-arqab--crui">Haifa</a>).</p>
<p>Complimentary fronts, from where operations don't directly target
"Israel" but rather aim to build up pressure on "Israel" and its
imperialist proppers to consolidate a ceasefire in Gaza. These
complimentary fronts include the Red and Arabian Seas (where the Yemeni
Armed Forces and Resistance have enforced a naval blockade against
Israeli and "Israel"-bound ships), <a href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/3-us-bases-in-iraq--syria-under-iraqi-resistance-rockets--dr">northeast Syria</a>
(where the US-led coalition occupation bases are being shelled by the
Islamic Resistance in Iraq), and Iraq (where, similarly, US-led
coalition occupation bases are being shelled by the Islamic Resistance
in Iraq).</p></div></div></div>
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