Iran’s attack on Israel: three questions about "proxies" of Tehran, these groups which allow it to wage a proxy war
Cairo: Hani Kamal El-Din
Valuable allies. To carry out its offensive against Israel, on the night of Saturday April 13 to Sunday April 14, Iran once again counted on its proxies. This is a strategy aimed at relying on local allies, such as the Yemeni Houthis or Lebanese Hezbollah, in order to avoid becoming directly involved in a conflict.
These two groups thus participated this weekend in sending some 350 drones and rockets towards Israel. If, this time, Iran chose to get involved directly in the attack against Israeli territory, Tehran was until then more accustomed to relying on its local allies to reach its enemy. Franceinfo returns to this strategy in three questions.
The term proxy designates the use, during an intermediary conflict, of third parties by a country. Iran is not the first state to turn to this strategy. The United States used proxies, especially during the Cold War. For its part, the Iranian Islamic Republic sought to weave its web immediately after the 1979 revolution, due to its diplomatic isolation and ongoing conflicts with its neighbors. Iran “was able to call upon various foreign armed groups across the Middle East (Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Persian Gulf States, Palestinian territories) and Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan), as political and strategic relays”explain researchers Morgan Paglia and Vincent Tourret, in a report (PDF document) for the Observatory of Future Conflicts.
Iran first attempted to recruit these groups in countries “with significant Shiite minorities”add the same authors in a report for Ifri (French Institute of International Relations). Iranian strategy “relies on political, capability and sometimes operational support to non-state actors, some of which may have been created by Iran while others are partners of circumstance”, they continue. This “axis of resistance”according to the expression disseminated by Tehran, unites in particular through its opposition to Israel and the United States.
