This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Former Non-state opponents The Axis of Resistance[a] is an informal coalition of Iranian-supported militias and political organizations across the Middle East.

[32][9] It most notably includes the Lebanese Hezbollah, Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the Popular Mobilization Forces, the former Syrian government, and the Yemeni Houthi movement.

[40][38] Through its Quds Force, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran has provided extensive military and logistical support, with an estimated $700 million spent annually on these groups before sanctions affected its resources in 2019.

[9][41][41] The conflicts engulfing the Middle East in 2023–2025, beginning with the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, have weakened the Axis of Resistance and the strategy behind it, according to an analysis by Associated Press.

"[47] In 2006, the Palestinian minister of the interior, Said Saim, used the term during an interview at Al-Alam television to refer to common political goals among Arabs in opposition to those of Israel or the United States.

[50]In the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, some of the most radical founders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps such as Mohammad Montazeri (who had been trained by the Palestinian Fatah in Southern Lebanon and maintained close relations with Gaddafi's Libya) and Mostafa Chamran (who had visited Cuba and was influenced by revolutionary internationalism) strove to create what is often called an "Islamic Internationale",[52] drawing upon Ali Shariati's and Ayatollah Khomeini's notions of the "solidarity of the oppressed".

[56][56]: 25  With Hezbollah's intensifying participation in the Syrian civil war following the years after 2013, the coalition has become explicitly Khomeinist and anti-Sunni; with the Assad regime becoming beholden and subservient to Iran and its proxies for continued existence.

[42][39][44][32] Additionally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's fall, marked by rebel forces capturing Damascus and ending over five decades of Assad family rule, further disrupted the network.

[32] Other significant participants include Hamas,[32][9][61] Palestinian Islamic Jihad,[9] the Yemenite Houthi movement,[9][61] and several Shi'ite militias in Iraq and Syria.

[66] Iranian officials claimed on 30 October 2023 that attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and other parts of the region were the consequence of "wrong American policies", which included Washington's backing of Israel during the Israel–Hamas war.

[67] Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the commander of the Houthi movement in Yemen, declared on 10 October 2023 that the organisation would retaliate by using missiles and drones in addition to other military measures if the United States got involved in the Gaza conflict.

The Houthis then launched attacks on ships they claim are linked to Israel in a self-proclaimed bid to end the war, prompting a military response from a number of countries led by the United States.

[76][77] According to Jubin Goodarzi, an assistant professor and researcher at Webster University, the Iranian–Syrian alliance that was formed in 1979 is of great importance to the emergence and continuity of the axis of resistance.

[78] According to Marisa Sullivan, the programme and aims of the Axis have three main pillars; shared regional objective in preserving the Assad regime, maintaining access to supplies of weapons and money from Iran, and stopping a Sunni-majority government from ever coming to power in Syria.

[80] The Syrian state-run news agency, SANA, has stated that the two governments discussed their "strategic cooperation relationship" and "attempts by some Western countries and their allies to strike at the axis of resistance by targeting Syria and supporting terrorism there".

[81][82][83] The fall of the Assad regime in 2024 was described by several Western media as a crippling blow to the Axis of Resistance: the collapse of the Ba'athist government in Syria undermining Iran's ability to supply Hezbollah.

[89][56]: 5 The axis claims to be against Israel in order to shore up popular support across the Islamic world, according to Tallha Abdulrazaq, writing in the Middle East Monitor, and it took a severe blow after the Israeli Mazraat Amal air strike.

[92] As a result of the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war on 7 October 2023, Hezbollah of Lebanon, the Yemeni Houthis, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, and other factions in Syria have launched drone and missile attacks on Israel.

In April 2024, Iran launched a missile and drone attack against Israel with its supporting factions in response to the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus.

Additionally, the Yemeni Houthi movement have engaged in attacks in the Red Sea on commercial vessels allegedly linked to Israel, incurring a US-led military response.

[38] According to the Los Angeles Times Amirli was the first city to successfully resist an ISIS offensive and was secured thanks to an unusual cooperation between Iraqi and Kurdish troops, Iranian-backed Shia militias and US warplanes.

[66] In 2014, Hezbollah rejected the idea of Lebanon helping in the US-led intervention in Iraq, against the Islamic State arguing that it may lead to the U.S. domination in the region or "substituting terrorism with flagrant US occupation".

[98] The IRGC Quds Force leader claimed: "the resistance of the Iraqi and Syrian governments and the perseverance of the armies and young men of these two countries ... played an important role in overturning this dangerous event … [I can announce] the termination of the rule of this vicious cursed entity, following the liberation operation of Abu Kamal, as the last fort of ISIS, bringing down the flag of this US-Zionist made terrorist group and raising the flag of Syria".