By Thierry Meyssan
Voltairenet.org
March 14, 2026
The "Axis of Resistance," the most important military force in the Middle East, suddenly disappeared. We must understand the ideological reasons for its disintegration. What it had become bore no resemblance to what it was at its inception. We must examine its mistakes so that we do not suffer the consequences again.
Allow me, for once, not to offer you an analysis of the geopolitical situation, but a testimony and a reflection.
The "Axis of Resistance" is an Iranian defense concept based on the mobilization of Shiite minorities in the Middle East. Initially, it aimed to capitalize on the appeal of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolution by arming and organizing Shiite minorities. This revolution was a liberation from Anglo-Saxon colonialism. Protecting Iran was a necessity for all those fighting against colonialism. Imam Khomeini's interpretation of Islam transformed Shiite suffering into a force: Imam Ali had fought for justice. His example paved the way for all to reach paradise.
However, this system of proxies violated the sovereignty of the states where these minorities formed militias. It became intolerable to all states in 2011 with the uprising of the Shiite majority in Bahrain and the subsequent attempt to overthrow the ruling Sunni family, the Al Khalifa.
This was the moment when Qassem Soleimani was appointed major general. He then transformed the Axis of Resistance by offering each of its members the opportunity to become independent and lead, wherever they were, the anti-imperialist revolution of Imam Khomeini. Within a few years, Iran no longer had proxies, but rather allied foreign militias. Christians and Sunnis joined the historical fighters of the Shiite base. The fear that each of them inspired in the powers that be continued to grow. With Iran and Syria, Hezbollah and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Ansar Allah, and many others, the "Axis of Resistance" became the most significant armed force in the Middle East.
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pursuing his ambition to unite the entire Muslim world under his authority, began forging ties with all sorts of groups that did not share Imam Khomeini's conception of anti-imperialism. He began arming Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which admitted Palestinian resistance fighters into its ranks in 2014.
Historically, Hamas was formed when the followers of Izz al-Din al-Qassam (1882-1935) joined the Muslim Brotherhood (hence the name Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades chosen by Hamas fighters). Hamas's strategy is characterized by the absence of a distinction between military and civilian targets; a mode of military action that in the West is called "terrorism." It was Izz al-Din al-Qassam who organized the 1935 pogroms in Palestine.
In 2011 or 2012, I can't remember exactly, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei invited me to the pan-Islamic conference he had convened in Tehran. I am Catholic, but he considered me a "Muslim," given my struggle for truth. All the Muslim sects from around the world were represented, from the Ismailis to the Taliban, from the Wahhabis to the Sufis. During meals, I moved from table to table, following the discussions. Since I speak neither Arabic nor Farsi, I asked a few questions in English. I quickly realized how much everyone was badmouthing each other. The unity was just a facade. I was struck by the animosity that the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda displayed toward the Supreme Leader who had invited them.
Let's return to Hamas. It's absurd to judge it as a whole without understanding the two factions that have comprised it since 2014. It was very difficult for Palestinians to join clandestine resistance networks. Hamas had been elected in Gaza in 2007. It had become visible. Palestinians, disillusioned with Fatah, began to join it. In 2014, when it became clear that the jihadists had been defeated in Syria by Bashar al-Assad, the new Hamas recruits argued for the group to sever its ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, which had fought against the Syrian Arab Republic. The phrase "Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood" was removed from all the organization's letterhead.
Bashar al-Assad fought Hamas in 2012 when the group-accompanied by Mossad agents and al-Qaeda fighters-massacred Palestinian leaders who had taken refuge in Yarmouk (near Damascus). Yet, he invited the mayor of Gaza, Khalil Hayya, on October 19, 2022. But he has consistently refused to meet with the Muslim Brotherhood. It is crucial to understand this conflict: Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood are fighting to establish a caliphate, a Muslim state that would gradually encompass the entire world. Conversely, the anti-imperialists are fighting to establish a Palestinian state that would be included within a binational Jewish-Arab state. Hamas's official documents since 2014 remain vague on this point.
I met the Hamas ambassador in Tehran at a dinner hosted by the Iranian Foreign Minister in 2012 or 2013. He was seated to the minister's right, and I was opposite him. I began to challenge him, asking why his organization had assassinated my Palestinian friends from the PFLP in Damascus. He denied what I was saying. The argument escalated. The entire table fell silent. The minister watched, saying nothing, letting me speak at length. Then, suddenly, he brought the altercation and the lunch to an end.
On June 18, 2025, after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the interim Supreme Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Salah Abdel Haq, proposed to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the "unity of the Islamic Ummah" to confront the "common enemy," which he called "the Zionist entity." It is always important to prioritize. By accepting this compromise, Ali Khamenei certainly gained power and strengthened the unity of the Muslim world, but he abandoned his core ideal: equality for all people.
Israeli prisoners of the Palestinian resistance were generally well treated, as the hostages themselves attested. But in some cases, they were not treated at all. We now know that the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, had ordered them to be starved.
Pan-Islamist unity collapsed under its own contradictions with Operation Al-Aqsa. On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a massive attack against Israel, likely with the complicity of Benjamin Netanyahu. I immediately raised this possibility in articles and videos. In Israel, the Knesset forbade any mention of it, under penalty of five years in prison, and military censorship banned any article discussing this hypothesis. The truth will only be known when peace and democracy have returned to Israel.
Hezbollah and Ansar Allah initially refused to join Hamas in its fight against the Jewish state, but they eventually agreed to do so to stop the massacres of Palestinian civilians. The horror and dread we all experienced at that time were poor counsel. Once again, many of us have fallen back into a racist conflict between Jews and Arabs, when, in my view, the only just struggle is the fight for equality among all people.
Imperceptibly, the "Axis of Resistance" found itself fighting a battle that wasn't its own, against the existence of an exclusively Jewish state. It turned the United States against it and was ultimately crushed by them. What followed, with the assassination of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah-a secularist who didn't envision Lebanon as a religious state-was only the beginning of the end.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran's revolution, was assassinated by Israel, with the approval of President Trump, after he agreed to join the anti-Semites of Hamas.
We must learn from our experiences. Not all alliances are worth entering into: let us beware, we cannot win alongside individuals who differ from us on the crucial point of equality among all people. They are our enemies just as much as those we are fighting today.
It is no coincidence that elements of the European left, who supported Hamas as a whole, are now supporting anti-democrats, such as the so-called "anti-fascists": militiamen who kill those who do not think like them.
There is no dishonor in retreating before a militarily superior adversary and enduring years of resistance, but there is dishonor in fighting alongside the enemies of humankind.
This article was originally published on Voltairenet.org.
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