Why are some key Tehran allies staying out of the Israel-Iran conflict?

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“Hezbollah has been degraded on the strategic level while cut off from supply chains in Syria,” said Andreas Krieg, a military analyst and associate professor at King’s College London.

Many Hezbollah members believe “they were sacrificed for Iran’s greater regional interests” since Hamas’ attack on Israel triggered the latest Israel-Hamas war, and want to focus on “Lebanon-centric” interests rather than defending Iran, Krieg said.

Both the Houthis and the Iraqi militias “lack the strategic deep strike capability against Israel that Hezbollah once had,” Krieg said.
That leaves the Houthis as the likely “new hub in the Axis of Resistance,” Krieg said. But he said the group isn’t strong enough — and too geographically removed — to strategically harm Israel beyond the rebels’ sporadic missile attacks.

Krieg said the perception that the “axis” members were proxies fully controlled by Iran was always mistaken, but now the ties have loosened further.

“It is not really an axis anymore as (much as) a loose network where everyone largely is occupied with its own survival,” he said.

Period	15 Jun 2025
Held at	Associated Press, United Kingdom