Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’ are keeping out of the fight with Israel: experts

Iran’s once-feared “Axis of Resistance” has appeared to have turned its back on the Islamic Republic — leaving the theocracy high and dry as it fights for its survival and waning influence in the Middle East, according to experts.

While Tehran has spent decades building up militias in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria, most of the groups have found themselves battered in recent years, making them unable and unwilling to take on the Jewish state and support Iran.

Instead, the once-devoted Iranian proxies — which include Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and Shiite militias — are focused on their own survival.

Some have even lost their faith in Iran’s ability to protect them.

“For all of these networks right now, it’s about survival. They all understand the wrath of these types of military campaigns,” Renad Mansour, a senior fellow and Iraq Initiative project director at the Chatham House think tank told the Wall Street Journal.

“Many of them question if this is the time for resistance or whether it’s the time to keep your head down and try to stay out of this conflict,” he added.

The ongoing war in Gaza has claimed about 20,000 Hamas fighters and destroyed the vast majority of its terror infrastructure, according to the Israeli military — with the group only launching a few missiles over the border following the start of the conflict with Iran.

Hezbollah — which was once considered Iran’s most powerful proxy — has been similarly crippled following last year’s war campaign in Lebanon, which saw the Israel Defense Forces wipe out nearly all of the terror group’s leaders, including founder Hassan Nasrallah.

Israel’s surprise pager attack last September, which killed dozens of Hezbollah militants and wounded thousands more, also left a lasting chilling effect, with Arab diplomats telling the WSJ that the group is prioritizing its recovery rather than jumping into another conflict.

Some members of the paramilitary group also feel that Iran did little to protect them from the pager attack, with some Hezbollah figures going so far as to blame the intelligence failures in part on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the diplomats said.

While Hezbollah had fired nearly daily missiles at Israel following the start of the war in Gaza, the group has yet to fire a single rocket after its patrons in Iran were attacked last week.

Lebanese officials, who are maintaining the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, have also warned the group to stay out of the conflict after Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam publicly stated on Monday that their nation will not be dragged into another war.

Tehran also lost another of its major supporters late last year when Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was ousted from office in a lightning revolution.

Assad’s toppling marked a huge blow to Iran’s influence in the Middle East, which was only further emphasized after reports emerged that Iran did not order its allied militias to help Assad, a long-time ally, and instead called on the groups to evacuate.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, Iranian-backed Shiite militias have yet to target US military bases like they’ve done so in the past.

The groups are allegedly wary of entering war now that several members of their leadership have entered the government and are enjoying a lucrative period under the country’s oil-based economy, according to Arab diplomats with knowledge of the internal discussions.

“They’ve been sort of benefiting from Iraq’s stability, in a way, and the high oil prices to develop economic empires,” said Mansour of the dozens of Iran-backed groups.

Only a single group in Iraq, Kataeb Hezbollah, has issued a statement on the conflict, warning that it would only get involved if the US were to directly join the fray.

The Yemen-based Houthi rebels have expressed support for Iran publicly, stating that they will target Israeli and US ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden over the missile attacks on Tehran.

The terror group has also fired missiles at Israel in response to the new conflict, with the rebels touting that future attacks will be held in direct coordination with Iran.

Analysts, however, believe the show of force is only to maintain appearances.

“It’s a Houthi-first policy,” Elisabeth Kendall, a Middle East expert and the head of the University of Cambridge’s Girton College, told the WSJ.

“They’re not going to put their own necks on the line for the supreme leader. They’re going to figure out what’s actually best for them,” she added.

The Houthis’ terror infrastructure has been decimated over the past year by repeated American and British airstrikes.

The US attacks in March and April, which were the subject of the SignalGate controversy, left the Houthis missile and drone launch sites significantly degraded, according to US officials.