Presenting his plans as foreign minister at a parliament session to review proposed cabinet members Sunday, President Ebrahim Raisi’s candidate for the post, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, told lawmakers that the government will strive to strengthen Iran’s allies in the region.
“The resistance movement is Iran’s allies that were freely formed to ensure sustainable security in the region and in their countries and are a great potential for establishing national security in regional countries,” Amir-Abdollahian, a former deputy foreign minister and Raisi’s foreign policy advisor told lawmakers. “We will support [our] allies and the resistance movement with pride and strength to help maximal security and cooperation in the region.”
‘Resistance movement’ is a term coined by the Islamic Republic to label its regional allies, such as Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, and a number of militant movements in neighbouring countries including Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and Palestine, all funded, armed and trained by Iran’s terrorist designated Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Houthis of Yemen and Palestinian Hamas.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas have openly admitted to being funded by Iran, while Shiite paramilitary brigades in Iraq have frequently been visited by the Iranian army and security officials. Meanwhile, a UN report recently found that Iranian missiles were being provided to Houthi militias to launch attacks on Saudi Arabia. Liwa Fatemiyoun, composed of Afghan refugee recruits, has been fighting in Syria for years, said Zohair Mojahed, a cultural official in the brigade.
It is noteworthy that Hossein Amir Abdollahian was Deputy Foreign Minister in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government for Arab affairs, and after his dismissal in 2017 by Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iranian media wrote that he was close to the Quds Force, Iran’s extraterritorial operations arm of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Source » iranbriefing