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Iranian Lawmakers Push Bill to Formalise Anti-Israel ‘Axis of Resistance’ Military Alliance

© AP Photo / Aziz TaherA supporter of Lebanon's Hezbollah gestures as he holds a Hezbollah flag in Marjayoun, Lebanon May 7, 2018
A supporter of Lebanon's Hezbollah gestures as he holds a Hezbollah flag in Marjayoun, Lebanon May 7, 2018 - Sputnik International
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The ‘Axis of Resistance’, also known as the ‘Resistance Front’, is a loose political alliance that includes Iran, Syria, Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces militias, and the Lebanese political and militant group Hezbollah. In recent years, these forces have cooperated in combatting a host of terrorist threats including Daesh (ISIS)* and al-Qaeda.*

Iranian lawmakers have proposed a motion to formally establish a military alliance among Resistance Front countries and groups, Abolfazl Aboutorabi, a senior MP from Esfahan province, has told Tasnim.

The bill, dubbed the "Defence and Security Treaty of the Resistance Group," is said to have been signed by 34 lawmakers, and to have been submitted for review to the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission and for consideration in a public session of parliament.

The draft treaty’s language includes the provision that “if the Zionist regime [i.e. Israel] attacks any of the Resistance Front’s countries or takes action against them, the other member states or liberation movements of the Treaty will make every military, economic, and political effort to counter the threat.”

The bill reportedly includes the obligation to provide "comprehensive support" to alliance members in the event that Israel occupies their nation’s territory. Tel Aviv is known to be in possession of a 1,150-square-kilometre piece of Syrian territory known as the Golan Heights, as well as the Shebaa Farms, an 11km x 2.5km strip of territory seized from Lebanon. Damascus has repeatedly vowed to free the occupied territory. The Trump administration recognised Israel’s control of the Golan Heights in 2019. The United Nations responded by saying that the “status of Golan has not changed,” with a 1981 Security Council Resolution dubbing Tel Aviv’s seizure of the territory as “null and void and without international legal effect.”

© AP Photo / Oded BaliltyDruse participate in a rally, demanding the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967, close to the Syrian border in Buqata in the Golan Heights, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016.
Iranian Lawmakers Push Bill to Formalise Anti-Israel ‘Axis of Resistance’ Military Alliance - Sputnik International
Druse participate in a rally, demanding the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967, close to the Syrian border in Buqata in the Golan Heights, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016.

The Axis of Resistance has spent much of the last decade fighting Sunni terrorists, first in Syria (starting in 2011) and then in Iraq (from 2014). Before that, Iran provided advisory and arms assistance to Hezbollah in the 2006 Lebanon War, in which the militia group fought the Israeli military to a stalemate before the UN brokered a ceasefire.

A silhouette of tribesmen loyal to Houthi rebels raise their weapons as they chant slogans during a gathering against the agreement to establish diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020.  - Sputnik International
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Along with Iran, Syria, Iraqi Shia militias, and Hezbollah, the Axis of Resistance sometimes includes the Houthis – the Yemeni militia group fighting a David and Goliath-style battle against a Saudi-led coalition for control of the southern Arabian country. Iran has provided moral support to the Shia militia group, but has denied assisting it militarily, citing the severity of the Saudi coalition’s blockade against the country.


* Terrorist groups outlawed in Russia and many other countries.

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