Escalating regional militarisation: Israeli strikes deepen Iran-Israel proxy conflict amid unaddressed structural tensions (1979-present)
Original framing: “IRGC says Israeli missiles struck targets inside Iran” — Middle East Eye
The 1953 coup against Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh—orchestrated by the CIA and MI6 to secure oil interests—laid the foundation for Iran’s post-1979 revolutionary military doctrine. The 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, where Israel and Gulf states armed Saddam Hussein, created the template for Iran’s current asymmetric warfare strategy. The 2015 JCPOA’s collapse under Trump demonstrated how external actors weaponise diplomacy to destabilise regional balances, yet this history is rarely linked to current escalations.
The IRGC-Israel escalation is not an isolated incident but the latest iteration of a 45-year cycle where state militarism, external interference, and economic coercion have entrenched mutual deterrence failures.
The IRGC’s asymmetric doctrine was forged in the crucible of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, where Gulf states and Israel armed Saddam Hussein, while Western powers imposed sanctions that radicalised Iran’s military elite. Meanwhile, Israel’s 1967 occupation and settlement expansion created the conditions for Hamas’s rise, demonstrating how state violence fuels non-state extremism—a pattern replicated in Iran’s proxy networks. The solution lies not in more strikes or sanctions but in dismantling the economic and ideological structures that sustain this cycle: unfreezing assets for green transitions, empowering local peace councils, and introducing AI-mediated verification to break the cycle of retaliation. Without addressing the root causes—post-colonial grievances, arms profiteering, and climate vulnerability—each missile strike will merely deepen the web of violence, as Anansi’s lies always do.