Iran quietly built one of the most powerful armed groups in West Asia named the Axis of Resistance. This network spread from Lebanon to Yemen, allowing Iran to project power all over West Asia without even putting the Iranian military there. Once, this network was heavily funded, linked by land routes, and led by the best strategic persons. However, today this network is falling because of heavy military actions, economic sanctions, and the elimination of its top leadership.
The death of the golden link
Iranian strategists called Syria the ‘golden link’ because it provided a direct land route from Iran through Iraq into Lebanon. This route was the backbone of the Iran project, which was used to send factory machines to Hezbollah so they could build smart weapons by themselves. This road was very important because Israel spent many years launching airstrikes so they could destroy this route. Ultimately, this route was destroyed.
On October 4, 2024, Israel bombed the Masnaa border crossing and created a 12-foot hole, which made it impossible to supply weapons from that route. Along with this, Israel also bombed the Damascus and Aleppo airports and destroyed their runways. To destroy the top leadership of this route, Israel launched airstrikes on April 1 and killed Mohammad Reza Zahedi in Damascus, who personally managed the supply chain.
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The main problem came on December 8, 2024, when the Assad government fell. The new Syrian government under Ahmad al-Sharaa turned against Iran by intercepting Iranian weapons. According to the Times Of Israel, by January 2025, the Syrian government seized massive amounts of rifles, drones, and rockets near the Lebanon border. As a result of this action, Hezbollah’s leader publicly admitted his group had lost the Syrian military supply route.
At the same time, under the Homeland Shield plan, the Lebanese army destroyed Hezbollah’s remaining infrastructure. That resulted in a massive humanitarian crisis, which the U.N. OCHA Relief Web April 2026 report documented: over 1.2 million people were displaced across 680 overcrowded shelters, which broke the domestic political support for Hezbollah.
Draining the wallet
The Axis of Resistance required massive funding to survive. But Iran’s financial support has been destroyed. According to the U.S. State Department, Iran funds 700 million dollars to Hezbollah, 100 million dollars to Hamas, and millions of dollars to Iraqi and Houthi rebels. To stop this, Israel heavily bombed the Kharg Island oil terminal, which contributes 90 percent of Iran’s crude exports. Simultaneously, the U.S. also blocked the Persian Gulf. The result of these actions is that the Iran National Oil Company shut down up to 1.5 million barrels of oil per day of production, and there was a 45 percent drop in total exports after Iran’s smuggling ghost fleet and the Marinera tanker were destroyed.
The economic war extended into digital through the U.S. Treasury Operation Economic Fury. This operation seized 500 million dollars in Tehran cryptocurrency; among them, 344 million dollars were directly linked to Hezbollah-linked addresses. This financial cutoff was finalized by an OFAC designation that banned 35 shadow banking entities that used to transfer money to these terrorist groups. As a result, according to the Belfer Center report by Lina Khatib, these militants are now prioritizing survival over Iran’s command.
Killing the architects
Beyond money and land routes, the axis also heavily depended on the leaders, but now they are killed. Qasem Soleimani, killed by the U.S. in January 2020, was the grand architect of the entire network.
The assassinations of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut suggest that the attacker may have received secret information from inside. The loss of these two leaders resulted in a massive communication and coordination challenge between Iran and its proxies. At the same time, according to ISW’s 2026 Political Fracture Tracker, Iran lost its geopolitical architect Ali Shamkhani; without his diplomatic cover, the Iraqi P.M. disarmed major proxy bases in Iraq. This leadership problem was created all across the region. Hassan Nasrallah led Hezbollah for 32 years and was killed in an Israeli air strike. Along with this, Israel killed Yahya Sinwar, Mohammad Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Marwan Issa, which led to the massive destruction of Hamas leadership. Other important leaders were also eliminated, which led to the isolation of proxies. Muhammad Jafar Qasir, commander of Unit 440 who handled the receiving of the Iranian weapons in Lebanon, and Muhammad Pakpour, commander of the IRGC ground forces who handled proxy training and smuggling routes, were also eliminated in Iraq.
Meanwhile, in Yemen, the Houthis under Abdul-Malik al-Houthi remain geographically isolated; without the Iranian weapon supply, they cannot project meaningful power. These total losses are confirmed by the February 2026 FDD report.
Destroying weapon factories
To stop the supply of weapons in the future, the USA and Israel launched an operation on 28 February called Operation Epic Fury. In March 2026, according to the CENTCOM assessment, these strikes destroyed over two-third of Iran’s missile and drone production facilities. The White House confirmed on April 8, 2026, that within 38 days the operation destroyed 85 percent of Iran’s entire industrial base, clearly showing Iran can no longer arm its proxies.
At the same time, Operation Economic Fury sanctioned companies supplying nitrocellulose (a core ingredient for Fateh-110 rocket fuel) and servomotors needed for Shahed drones. Under this condition, sending missiles to its proxies becomes strategic suicide.
Conclusion
The Axis of Resistance is still active in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Syria. However, the funding by Iran has collapsed because Iran has lost its financial capacity, weapon factories have been destroyed, and many top leaders are eliminated. Because of these reasons, Iran is now focusing on its own problems instead of these proxies.
