The fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad was the crescendo of a remarkably unhealthy yr for the Iranian regime.
The Islamic Republic suffered main blows in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, diminishing the ability of its so-called Axis of Resistance. Its foreign money formally turned the bottom valued on this planet and when Israel decimated its proxy forces, the U.S. elected a president whom Iran so despises that it spent years making an attempt to assassinate him.
Here’s a glance again at blows suffered by Ayatollah Ali Khameini and his regime over the previous yr:
April: counter-attack on Israel fails to inflict harm
In April, Israel bombed the Iranian embassy in Syria, prompting Iran to strike again with greater than 300 drones and missiles aimed into Israel. But Israel labored with the U.S., Jordan and Saudi Arabia to shoot down practically each missile and drone.
May: president dies in helicopter crash
The late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash whereas visiting a distant space. Iran has blamed the crash on dense fog. Raisi was a protégé and potential successor of Iran’s supreme chief, Khameini.
July: high Hamas commander taken out
While Iran inaugurated a brand new president this summer time, Israel infiltrated to take out Hamas commander Ismail Haniyeh whereas he was visiting Tehran for the inauguration. While Haniyeh was staying in a VIP authorities visitor home, Israel detonated a remote-controlled bomb.
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October: Hamas head and architect of October 7 assault killed
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) took out Hamas head Yahya Sinwar after encountering him on a routine patrol within the Gaza metropolis of Rafah. Sinwar was the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, assaults on Israel and was one of the vital needed males of the battle.
Hamas has misplaced hundreds of fighters and far of its management ranks to Israel’s assaults and is nowhere close to the threatening drive on Israel’s borders Iran hoped it might be.
November: Trump elected
Iran’s foreign money tanked to an all-time low upon information of the Trump election, and the expectation that he may deliver again a “most strain” coverage.
The Iranian rial is down 46% this yr, making it formally the least-valuable foreign money on this planet.
Iran has lengthy vowed revenge for Trump approving the 2019 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani – and U.S. intelligence revealed Tehran plots to kill the president-elect.
After the Trump administration pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, it imposed harsh sanctions on the regime to cease its funding of proxies overseas, banning U.S. residents from buying and selling with Iran or dealing with Iranian cash.
It additionally punished entities in different international locations that did enterprise with Iran, by chopping them off from the greenback.
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President Joe Biden usually waived enforcement of such sanctions, eager to deliver Tehran again to the negotiating desk to forestall it from buying nuclear weapons and scared of driving up international oil costs.
Iran gained entry to greater than $10 billion by a State Department sanctions waiver that allowed Iraq to proceed shopping for vitality from Iran, which the Biden administration argues is critical to maintain lights on in Baghdad.
November: Hezbollah indicators ceasefire with Israel
In the autumn, Israel reoriented a lot of its efforts towards pummeling Hezbollah after a collection of cross-border assaults from the Lebanese militant group. Israel focused Hezbollah’s management and detonated a whole lot of pagers the group had been utilizing to speak. At the tip of November, Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire the place it and Israel should each finish their armed presences in southern Lebanon.
Both sides have claimed the opposite has damaged the delicate truce, nevertheless it has ostensibly held for weeks.
December: Assad falls
Syrian rebels despatched Iran’s Quds forces, an extension of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, working as they captured Damascus and pushed out President Bashar al-Assad. Iran’s forces had been in Syria propping up Assad since civil battle broke out in 2011, however had been diminished for the reason that outbreak of battle elsewhere within the Middle East.
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Syria’s new authorities is about to be run by Sunni Muslims, hostile to Iran’s Shiite authorities. And Iran lost a key supply line by Syria it had used to arm Hezbollah in its battle in opposition to Israel.