In a recent piece written for The Guardian explaining that Ansar Allah can't "be bombed into extinction" because of being part of a regional tenacious coalition, Amal Saad attends to the general structure of the axis of resistance. 

In the article, Saad reaffirms her argument of the symbiotic relation between the party members of the Axis of Resistance: which she had unpacked in an academic article published back in 2019 titled "Challenging the sponsor-proxy model: the Iran–Hizbullah relationship".

Vulgar and exaggerated versions of the proxy narrative have often been used in smear campaigns aiming at discrediting resistance movements, but this article points out how this model (of the resistance axis being a network of Iranian proxies) persists as a misconception in Western policy-making which has recurrently been proven false in the Iran nuclear deal negotiations, the ceasefire in Yemen, the war on Syria, the operations against the American occupation in Iraq, etc. 

Read more: Eyes on the South: Low intensity conflict & escalation-risk in Lebanon

Reductive Western Policy

Saad explains that the US, UK, and "Israel" are reductive in their approach to dealing with the resistance. They expect that they can threaten them or bomb them into submission because they consider proxies acting according to Iranian diktats, but in fact, these resistance movements, Saad argues, have motives and interests of their own at stake in these battles. Saad reaffirms that Ansar Allah, like other resistance movements party to the Axis, is self-interested and driven by ideological motives in the burgeoning conflicts to which they're party. 

What Western policy fails to grasp is that all of the resistance Axis party members are stakeholders and not just Iran. The Yemenis' blockade in the Arabian and Red Seas is driven by their ideological commitments to the Palestinian cause and their belief in their intersecting internet between Yemeni national interest and Palestinian national interest. 

"This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the underlying dynamics within the axis and of the unshakeable unity of its members, all of which could make Western powers’ intervention in the region even more costly," she writes. 

Synergistic alliance of state and non-state parties

Saad goes on to explain that the resistance axis is essentially an alliance, that includes state and non-state party members, that also currently functions as a wartime coalition. 

Before 2024, the first time the resistance axis mobilized concertedly into a wartime coalition was in 2013 during the war in Syria. 

The alliance effectively works as a multilateral mutual relation of support. Saad explains: 

• Iran, specifically through the IRGC, has consistently supported the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance with military and financial assistance. 
• Syria has long been a persistent and secure supply route to the Lebanese resistance (delivering Iranian weapons and even supplying Hezbollah with weapons from Syrian stocks notably Kornet missiles). 
•  Syria has also been a safe refuge for Palestinian resistance factions: hosting senior Palestinian resistance leaders and training camps. 
• The Lebanese resistance has provided technical and military training to the Palestinian resistance, including bomb and tunnel-making expertise, and along with Iran, smuggled weapon-manufacturing technology to the West Bank and Gaza. 
• The Yemeni resistance received military and political assistance from Iran, and even according to some reports they had received military training from Hezbollah operatives in their war against the Saudi-led aggression coalition aggression. 

Shared Ideological Pillars and Strategic Goals 

Saad pinpoints two factors that serve as the basis for the symbiotic relationship between the parties of the Resistance Axis which makes it a cohesive and durable alliance: deep-seated ideological pillars (i.e. motives) and shared strategic objectives (i.e. interests).

In regards to ideology, Saad explains that all resistance axis actors "subscribe to anti-imperialists and an anti-Zionist agenda, with the Palestinian cause as the focal point", and consequently conceive their strategic objectives from this lens. 

They understand that their national interest is conditioned upon the imperialist fallback from the region, the defeat of "Israel", and the liberation of Palestine. 

"Today, it [the resistance axis] shares two common aims: to force Israel into an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and to expel US troops from Iraq and Syria," Saad adds

"In pursuing these aims, the non-state actors in this alliance are acting in accordance with their own political beliefs and strategic interests rather than following Iranian diktat."

A symbiotic alliance

The axis is heterogenous in capital: asymmetrical in favor of Iran, but the fact that Iran has chosen to invest its capital and resources in supporting resistance movements doesn't translate to the resistance movements being less autonomous. 

Heterogeneity in capital doesn't equate to disproportionality in decision-making. In fact, the symbiotic relationship is based on the capital heterogeneity of the axis and the military autonomy of the respective resistance groups: which makes the alliance "organic and symbiotic as opposed to being transactional and hierarchical". 

"While Iran has offered material support to the non-state actors within the axis, such assistance has not translated into the kind of exercise of power that characterizes sponsor-proxy relationships."

Saad cites US intelligence official Brian Katz, who has argued that resistance movements across the region “are no longer simply Iranian proxies. Rather, they have become a collection of ideologically aligned, militarily interdependent, mature political-military actors committed to the mutual defense”.

Furthermore, Saad cites the instances when the Resistance Axis acted concertedly as a wartime coalition as evidence of the the military autonomy of the non-state groups. 

Hezbollah in the Syrian War

Hezbollah was the first resistance Axis party to intervene in Syria (besides the Syrian government) given the geographical proximity and immediate threat which Takfiris posed to Hezbollah. Saad explains that it was Hezbollah that persuaded the IRGC to deploy in Syria and then the Iraqi PMF followed suit. 

Hamas in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood 

More recently, Operation Al-Aqsa Flood which Hamas launched on October 7th was a surprise to the enemy as much as it was a surprise to the ally (even according to Israeli and American accounts), and nevertheless, Hamas' partners followed suit, and supported their decision, and the battle has expanded to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and the Red Sea to build further pressure on "Israel" and the US to give in to Hamas' conditions. 

High-level coordination: counter-divide-and-conquer

Today, the multi-front battle of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood is being executed today by means of tactical military coordination, which is reportedly occurring within several joint operations’ rooms in various capitals across the region, Saad adds.

Saad specifies that Hezbollah is assuming the role of battle management: directing, planning, and coordinating military operations across the different conflict theatres.

All fronts (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and the Red Sea) are synchronized to pause when the fighting in Gaza is suspended, as demonstrated by the temporary truce in Gaza in late November, she notes. 

"Nothing short of a ceasefire in Gaza can prevent the region from turning into a powder keg."

Background: Scale, Beligrents and Fronts

Gaza became ground zero for the war on October 7th, but the Al-Aqsa Flood has resonated throughout the region since. 

Beligrents in support of the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza have included the Palestinian resistance factions in the West Bank, the Lebanese Resistance, the Islamic Resistance factions in Iraq, the Yemeni Armed Forces (in cooperation with the Yemeni resistance), and the Islamic Revolution's Guard in Iran. Beligrents on the side of the Israelis have included the US-led occupation coalition in Syria, the US-led occupation coalition in Iraq, the US-led aggression coalition in the Red Sea, and the Takfiri terrorist network in the region (Daesh, Jaish ul-Adl, etc.). 

Fronts from which operations are being launched directly against the Israeli occupation, in addition to Gaza, include most notably South Lebanon (which serves as the second battlefront of this war), the West Bank (where lone-wolf stabbing/shooting/ramming operations and counter-raid concerted action by underground resistance cells have increased in frequency), in addition to Syria, Iraq, and Yemen (from where drones and missiles have been launched against the occupied territories most notably al-Jalil "Galilee Heights", Um al-Rashrash "Eilat", and even recently Haifa).

Complimentary fronts, from where operations don't directly target "Israel" but rather aim to build up pressure on "Israel" and its imperialist proppers to consolidate a ceasefire in Gaza. These complimentary fronts include the Red and Arabian Seas (where the Yemeni Armed Forces and Resistance have enforced a naval blockade against Israeli and "Israel"-bound ships), northeast Syria (where the US-led coalition occupation bases are being shelled by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq), and Iraq (where, similarly, US-led coalition occupation bases are being shelled by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq).