Who are Iran’s allies in the Middle East against Israel?

On Thursday the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, launched an attack with “drones and missiles” against Israel.

According to Iranian state television, the attack was in response to the numerous crimes committed by the Zionist regime, including the attack on the consular section of the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus and the martyrdom of a group of Iranian commanders and military advisors in Syria.

US President Joe Biden said on Saturday that US forces helped shoot down “almost all” of the drones and missiles fired by Iran at Israel, and reaffirmed his “strong” commitment to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden announced in a statement that he would convene the leaders of the G7 – the group of the richest nations – to coordinate a “united diplomatic response” to Iran’s “brazen” attack.

In this regard, the Foreign Minister of Iran, Hosein Amir Abdolahian, once again warned the United States this Sunday that in the event that its military bases in the countries of the Middle East region are used to “defend and support” Israel, will “inevitably” attack those positions.

”We warn that in the event that the airspace or territory of the aforementioned countries are used by the US to defend and support the Tel Aviv regime, the US base in that country will inevitably be attacked,” Abdolahian declared, according to the ISNA agency.

Who are Iran’s allies in the Middle East?

Led by Iran from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean coast, the informal Axis of Resistance alliance has confronted Israel since the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip, a conflict that threatens to spread after the massive launch of missiles and drones by They will go to the Jewish State.

In its first attack against Israeli territory, Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones last night in retaliation for the bombing against its consulate in Damascus on April 1 in which six Syrians and seven members of the Revolutionary Guard died, and for which Tehran accused Tel Aviv.

According to the Pentagon, the Islamic Republic’s announced response was “launched from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen,” where Tehran leads a network of rebel groups and powerful militias that wage their war against Israel and the United States in different ways in support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

These are Iran’s main allies, possible targets of an Israeli response.

Hezbollah, the flagship

Considered Iran’s most powerful ally in the Middle East, the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah has been involved in a measured but intense exchange of fire with Israel mainly on the common divide since October 8, a day after the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

Coinciding with the Iranian attack against Israeli territory, the armed group announced the launch of “dozens” of rockets towards an important military base in northern Israel and, later, claimed responsibility for another barrage against three military posts in the northern Golan Heights.

Israeli aircraft, in response, bombed a building in the Bekaa Valley, a region in eastern Lebanon far from the common border where clashes usually occur and which has been attacked by the Jewish State several times in recent weeks. .

In Lebanon and Israel, six months of clashes have already left more than 150,000 displaced on both sides of the border, as well as nearly twenty dead on the Israeli side and more than 330 on the Lebanese side.

The Houthis, in the spotlight

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have demonstrated their capabilities by launching missiles and drones against Israel, as well as attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea since late November to damage the Israeli economy and its Western allies.

The severe disruptions caused by these attacks and the Houthi threat to Israel caused the United States and the United Kingdom to begin a bombing campaign against insurgent positions in Yemen in mid-January, although the group assures that it will not deter them.

The Houthis have not claimed responsibility for launching projectiles simultaneously with Iran’s attack against Israel, although Washington and several organizations denounce that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has units deployed in several areas of Yemen controlled by the insurgents.

Iraq’s militias unleashed

Despite having more limited capabilities than Hezbollah and the Houthis, the so-called Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed responsibility for launching around 200 attacks against bases with a US presence in Iraqi and Syrian territory, although it has also occasionally targeted southern Iraq. Israel.

The group, made up of an amalgamation of militias loyal to Iran operating in Iraq and in the border area in eastern Syria, has kept a low profile after one of its drones killed three US soldiers on the border in January. Jordan and Syria.

This provoked an angry response from Washington, which heavily bombed positions of these armed groups in both Iraq and Syria, leaving dozens dead and setting off all the alarms about the opening of a new war front that would involve a direct confrontation with Iran. .

The Iraqi government, which maintains a delicate balance between Tehran and Washington, has warned its two allies that its territory is not a battlefield, after Iran also launched missiles against northern Iraq in January, alleging that they were targeting a headquarters. of the Israeli Mossad.