The End of the ‘Axis of Resistance’?
The End of the ‘Axis of Resistance’?
As of Dec. 8, 2024, Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria is obsolete. Hamas and Hezbollah have been decimated by Israel. These were the main players in Iran’s “axis of resistance” against Israel, the United States and the rest of the West. Is Iran’s “axis of resistance” history?
Breaking the Axis
The “axis of resistance” is Iran’s portrayal of itself and its proxies as the united entity against “Western imperialism.” Most of its proxies are Shia Muslims. Some, like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are Sunni. Assad’s Syria was socialist and secular. And for Iran’s Shiite militias in Iraq, the “resistance” is against U.S. forces and influence there. Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and others are “resisting” Israel in the Palestinian territories. Yemen’s Houthis mainly “resisted” Saudi Arabia.
The common goal shared by the members of this axis is to make Iran the ascendant power in the Middle East—using terrorism as its tool. Their belief, whether in pretense or reality, is that America, Israel and Saudi Arabia are oppressive, foreign, blasphemous forces subjugating the Middle East, and that the only source of liberation from that bloc is the radical Islamist regime in Iran.
“Liberating” Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Israel remains one of the axis’s most important goals, if not the most important. That is why Hamas launched its massacre against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023. That is why Hezbollah and the Houthis joined the war soon after, and why Iran launched its first-ever direct attacks against Israel. As a means to this end, Iran hoped the United States under Joe Biden, despite the horrendous butchery of October 7, would pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stand down under threat of sanctions and war crimes charges, getting Israel to sign a treaty with Hamas and thereby giving the terror group international legitimacy.
None of this worked. Instead, Netanyahu struck back. He sent troops into Gaza, destroying, dismantling and exposing Hamas. He killed Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, Hassan Nasrallah and other top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. The Israel Defense Forces (idf) whittled down the number of Hezbollah fighters by the thousands, destroyed its military infrastructure throughout Lebanon, and wiped out its leadership. Its execution of the September 2024 pager attack, incapacitating thousands of Hezbollah fighters, was a watershed moment in the history of warfare. The Houthis’ attack on Red Sea shipping rallied the world not against Israel but against the Houthis. Israeli ships and planes struck Iranian military sites, including an important nuclear site, with apparent impunity. As icing on the cake, after Assad’s defeat, the idf destroyed much of the Syrian Army, including entire squadrons of fighter planes, and much of the Syrian Navy. In a little over a year, Israel has seen all of its most immediate threats either defeated or severely humiliated.
Syrian rebels took advantage of the chaos to finally uproot the Assad regime from Damascus for good—after nearly 14 years of civil war and massive assistance from Iran and Russia for Assad.
Israel may not have expected this big of a victory, especially over Assad. Nevertheless, for Iran’s current battle plan, it is catastrophic.
Syrian territory is Iran’s link to Hezbollah in Lebanon. As Israel scored win after win, Hezbollah urgently needed supplies and intervention from Iran. Now, if any group, domestic or foreign, launches the final move to extinguish Hezbollah, Iran can do far less about it.
Iran’s whole strategy against Israel depended on its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. All those proxies have been nearly wiped out. Over the past 15 months, the entire western side of Iran’s “Shia crescent” has been smashed. As the Institute for the Study of War put it, Assad’s fall “marks the end of the greater Iranian project in the Levant for the foreseeable future,” amounting to “the collapse of the axis of resistance’s western front” (Dec. 10, 2024).
Is this the end of Iran as a regional power? Has the axis of resistance irreversibly been erased from the picture?
Saving the Axis
The year 2024 was a disaster for Iran’s proxies. But the Trumpet forecasts that Iran will recover with a hegemony in other nearby nations. More than that, we expect Iran to soon become one of the world’s dominant powers.
Iran’s military losses in Syria have been minimal. Tehran’s regime still stands. Its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps remains strong enough to stamp out internal opposition and threaten external enemies. It continues to develop its nuclear weapons program. Its economy remains massive compared to others in the region. It continues to receive economic, military and political support from Russia and China.
And Iran remains fixated on destroying Israel and taking Jerusalem.
The Trumpet has forecast since 1993 that “radical Islam, headed by Iran” would become “king” in the Middle East. In the decades since Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry predicted this, the world has seen Iraq fall, Iran rise, terrorist proxies thrive, and other world powers—especially the U.S. under Barack Obama—accommodate and empower it further. Then came 2024. But the Trumpet still asserts that Iran will remain the Middle East’s dominant power.
If Iran still wants Jerusalem but can no longer attack from the north, what is its next move?
After growing in power for decades, radical Islam has suffered significant setbacks in the Levant. But the story is different in a nearby region with a heavy Islamic tradition: Northeast Africa. Iran already has links with terror groups in places like Somalia and Djibouti. But in north and east Africa, nations with strong Muslim traditions are experiencing instability that Iran could take advantage of.
Egypt had its own Islamic revolution in 2011, which quickly fizzled out. But the regime that replaced it faces bankruptcy and a collapsing economy. Ethiopia recently endured a brutal civil war (during which it depended on Iran for weapons). Libya is still in political paralysis and could become more chaotic at any moment.
Iran has tried to export its influence to countries like these before, but with limited success. However, the entire region is weaker today than it has been in years. If Iran is looking for new ground—in the case of Egypt, ground that borders Israel—Northeast Africa is the place.
The Axis in Prophecy
The Trumpet expects Iran to shift from attacking Israel from the north to attacking from the south. This is based on a prophecy in Daniel 11: “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. … He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps” (verses 40, 42-43).
This prophecy dates to the “end time”—our day. The principal characters are two power blocs: a “king of the north” and a “king of the south.” The king of the north, as biblical and secular history demonstrate, is a German-led European power in the process of uniting today. (Our free booklet History and Prophecy of the Middle East elaborates.)
The other bloc, meanwhile, is located to the south of Europe. It has a pushy, provocative foreign policy. Verse 41 mentions the glorious land, or the Holy Land, in the context of their clash—meaning the two blocs will fight over Jerusalem. Verses 42-43 suggest the king of the south would command a powerful alliance of proxies in the Middle East and Northeast Africa. Mr. Flurry has identified the king of the south as a radical Islamist bloc, led by Iran.
Until recently, Iran’s axis of proxies consisted of Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. Daniel 11 mentions none of these as part of Iran’s alliance. Instead, they are mentioned in another prophecy, Psalm 83, under the names of their ancestral peoples: the Philistines, Gebal, Tyre and the Hagarenes. There they are allied with Assur (Germany). Based on this prophecy, the Trumpet has forecast that Iran will lose its proxies north of Israel and instead focus on building a new alliance to the south.
“Losing Syria will be devastating to Iran,” Mr. Flurry wrote in our August 2024 issue. “Consider what happens if Germany wrangles Syria out of Iran’s hands. The Iranian terrorist regime would rightly fear that its dominance in the region was under threat. It would be concerned about preserving its alliance with Lebanon and Gaza and the Arab nations. This may cause Iran to heighten its aggression around Jerusalem and the crucial trade routes while it still can. In short, Syria’s shift away from Iran could trigger the events of Daniel 11:40!”
Iran lost this battle, but it is not out of the fight. It still has options, and retains its motivation to conquer Jerusalem. Bible prophecy tells us to expect Iran to surge back from its 2024 losses and accumulate power and aggression to the point that it sparks world war.
