The war between the United States and Israel and their enemy Iran marks the most consequential turning point in the 47-year history of the Islamic Republic. For decades tensions between Washington, Tel Aviv and Tehran played out across the Middle East through proxy conflicts, indirect confrontation and competing security strategies.
How Iran’s ‘forward defence’ became a strategic boomerang
Tehran’s decades-long cultivation of the ‘axis of resistance’ led to the war with US and Israel that it long sought to avoid – whatever the outcome, the regime is weakened, writes Sanam Vakil.
The World Today
Published 16 March 2026
Updated 15 April 2026 — 4 minute READ
Image — Hezbollah supporters hold a memorial rally in Beirut the day after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's assassination in Iran. Photo: Anwar Amro/ AFP via Getty Images.
