Artist: Ahmad Barakizadeh
By Kayhan Life Staff
Two years after the flames of October 7 lit up the region, the Islamic Republic, the self-proclaimed architect of an “Axis of Resistance, finds itself marooned on the shrinking sandbar of its own ideology.
In Sharm el-Sheikh, Hamas and Israel signed a peace deal, precisely one day after the second anniversary of Hamas’s terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. As Israel prepares to pull back and hostages are exchanged, the region seems to be moving on — without the theocratic state that once fancied itself the region’s indispensable disruptor.
The grand “Axis” was meant to project the Islamic Republic’s “strategic depth.” Today, it has morphed into its “pivotal vulnerability.” Hezbollah’s top commanders were killed, and its depots destroyed. Hamas’s political and military leaders were wiped out. The Houthis suffered crippling losses. Bashar al-Assad fled Damascus for Moscow’s protection. Even within the Islamic Republic, the short but devastating 12-day war stripped the regime of key military figures and nuclear personnel — along with its illusion of strategic control.
After four decades of exporting revolution and underwriting proxy warfare, the Iranian regime’s return on investment has been grim: trillions of dollars in nuclear program, missiles, militias, and martyrdom traded for renewed sanctions and deepening isolation.
And so, on his deserted ideological island, sits Ayatollah Khamenei — haggard, isolated, his revolution’s tide long receded. Around him, the waves murmur the same refrain now echoing across the region: the resistance has resisted itself to death.
