The Iranian regime’s meddling in the other countries’ affair is an important pillar for its existence.

The Iranian regime is the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism. For the past four decades, it has based its foreign policy on expanding throughout the Middle East. Most of its efforts have been centered around Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq where the Iranian regime has established and provided extensive support to numerous militia groups.

The Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime insisted decades ago that these militias were necessary, describing them as essential for “resistance”. Over the years, these militia groups have participated in numerous wars and conflicts across the region.

In Lebanon, the Iranian regime established Hezbollah during the start of the eighties. The Lebanese Hezbollah group has been fighting on Iran’s behalf since then. For just over 10 years, the Iranian regime has been enjoying increased political influence in Lebanon and it has significantly contributed to political turmoil and conflict in the country. The Lebanese Hezbollah group has been heavily involved in a number of conflicts in the region, particularly in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria. During these conflicts, the militia was being directed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself. Also on the orders of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Hezbollah has been spreading chaos and interfering in the internal affairs of Kuwait and Bahrain.

In Syria, the Iranian regime got involved in the civil war starting in 2011. The regime sent a huge number of Iranian forces as well as numerous foreign militias. This gave Iran an increasing amount of leverage. It has been estimated that the regime sent around 60,000 forces to fight in Syria. Many of these came from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Lebanon. A large number of foreign fighters were killed while fighting on Iran’s behalf.

The Iranian regime is also largely responsible for fuelling the conflict in Yemen. It is responsible for some of the humanitarian crises that the country faced. The Iranian regime partnered with the Houthi rebels that had control of the country’s capital, Sana’a. The Iranian regime and the Houthis have been cooperating since the mid-nineties. The Houthis have enjoyed a huge amount of financial support from Iran, as well as diplomatic assistance. After the Saudi-led attacks on the Houthis, Iran ramped up his support even further. Scores of ships brought the Houthis ballistic missiles, drones and a lot of other military supplies.

Iraq has also been of strategic interest to Iran for many years. When the United States took its troops out of Iraq at the end of 2011, the Iranian regime quickly seized the opportunity to set up new militia groups. Iran sent top commanders to oversee Iran’s presence in Iraq. Iran has strong ties with the Popular Mobilization Force (Hashd al-Shaabi) – an Iraqi military force. The group is supposed to be under the control of the Iraqi Defense Ministry, but it is actually Iran’s Supreme Leader that gives it orders.

Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK Iran) times and again stressed that the Iranian regime is founded on the spread of chaos and without these pillars, the regime will collapse. Iran is so entwined in the conflict in the region that resolutions cannot even be thought about until the Iranian mullahs are out of the picture.