As Iranian domestic authorities stand accused of gunning down protesters at home, the Islamic Republic’s proxy armies are reportedly setting their sites on Israel’s allies in the Gulf.
By United with Israel Staff
On Sunday, an pro-Iranian Iraqi group called Alwiyat al-Waad al-Haq (AWH) threatened to attack “companies that work on the [Arabian] Peninsula.”
In an official statement translated and published by Hamdi Malik of the Washington Institute, AWH warned, “The temporary truce between the people of Yemen and [Saudi Arabia] has ended. We confirm that we are going to stand with the brothers in Yemen in glory, heroism, and jihad to the end. Let the ill-fated alliance know that if its wickedness does not stop, it will receive from us what pleases the friend and enrages the enemy. As for companies operating in the land of the Jazira [the Arabian Peninsula] we say: make up your mind before it is too late; this round, if it happens, is not going to be like the previous ones.”
According to Malik, AWH hadn’t taken action since been January 2022, “when it claimed a drone attack against the United Arab Emirates,” one of Israel’s primary allies in the Arab world since the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020.
AWH’s takes its orders either from Kataib Hezbollah, a “de facto branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF),” or directly from IRGC-QF, according to the Washington Institute’s analysis of various media links.
Iranian proxies such as AWH destabilize the region through terror activity, anti-government militias, and even through political systems.
Indeed, Iran’s tentacles extend throughout the Middle East, with their proxies Palestinian Islamic Jihad threatening Israel, Hezbollah destroying Lebanon from within, and the Houthis waging war on Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
According to security experts in Israel, when unrest exists in the region, Iran’s fingerprints are generally close by.
The recent Washington Institute report added, “Iran is under huge pressure internally and no doubt feels the need to redirect that pressure externally. The recent heavy bombardment of positions held by Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in Iraqi Kurdistan is a testament to that. The Islamic Republic wants to point to external parties as the cause of the protests back home.”
The Washington Institute also warned that AWH has a “very credible track record regarding such threats,” attacking Saudi Arabia in 2021 and then UAE earlier this year.