Iran-Backed Militias: The Arms Race in the Middle East

Profiles of 15 Iranian- backed Militias in the Middle East By Joe Truzman & Bill Roggio | October 31, 2023 |. Attacks by Iran-backed militant groups throughout the Middle East – including the first to kill U.S. Service members – have dramatically heightened the risk of a broader regional war. Iran ’s Revolutionary Guards and the elite Qods Force provided arms , training and financial support to militias and political movements in at least six countries: Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, Syria and Yemen. There are approximately 40 militant groups backed by Iran in the region , Baraa Shiban , an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a British defense and security think-tank,. If Iran pursues a nuclear weapon, it could trigger an arms race in the Middle East, prompting other nations to follow suit in a bid to maintain regional balance. Iran’s web of armed partners such as Hezbollah and the Houthis serves to strengthen its influence in the Middle East and could pose a significant threat to the United States and U.S. US President Joe Biden cast the blame on Iran-backed groups, promising retribution. An umbrella group of Iranian- backed militias in Iraq said it had attacked US positions along the. Militant groups backed by Iran , which supports Hamas and for years has engaged in a shadow war with Israel, have joined in. These groups — part of Iran ’s so-called axis of resistance — have. During this period, the purity of Iranian-backed militias such as Lebanese Hezbollah was horribly tarnished when they said they killed fellow Arabs and Muslims while attempting to prop up Tehran’s allies, most notably Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. This warning reveals the reality that Iran - backed militias remain the principal cause of unrest in the Middle East, irrespective of Iran’s stance toward them. Unless the militias are.