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** Urgent: Cut Off Iran's Foreign Support ([link removed])
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by Majid Rafizadeh • December 20, 2025 at 5:00 am
* Iran uses Iraq not just as a military platform but as a financial artery, moving funds through banks, exchanging currencies, and availing itself of corrupt networks to bypass sanctions. Without pressure on Iraq to clean up these financial tributaries, Iran enjoys a back door that keeps it stomping ahead even while under international pressure. It is a door the West has left open for far too long.
* Lebanon's weakness has allowed the Iranian regime to turn the country into its most important forward base – felicitously right on the border of Israel.
* By buying vast amounts of Iranian oil at discounted rates, Beijing gives Tehran the hard currency it needs to fund Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and other regional militias. The oil exports also permit Iran to stave off an economic crisis at home and avoid the financial collapse that sanctions on Iran alone were supposed to produce.
* Turkey, Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, China and other states that allow Iran to maneuver are providing Tehran with exactly what it needs to get back on its feet: safe geography, cash, energy markets, financial loopholes, proxy shelters, and diplomatic cover.
* Stopping the bellicosity of Iran's regime requires a broader vision. Only when the external lifelines of Iran's regime are cut will it finally feel the full weight of international pressure. Only then can the Iranian people and the region move toward stability, security and freedom, safe from Iran's destructive reach.

By buying vast amounts of Iranian oil at discounted rates, Beijing gives Tehran the hard currency it needs to fund Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and other regional militias. The oil exports also permit Iran to stave off an economic crisis at home and avoid the financial collapse that sanctions on Iran alone were supposed to produce. Pictured: The Iran-flagged oil tanker Clavel, docked at Shahid Beheshti Port in Chabahar, Iran on February 25, 2019. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)

While everyone is focusing on Gaza, Russia and Ukraine, Iran has stealthily been rebuilding its war machine.

One of the most effective ways to slow the remilitarization of Iran's brutal regime is not only to put direct pressure on the regime itself but also to target the countries that allow it to operate freely, fund its proxies, and expand its influence.

Iran's regime survives largely because it has external support that enables it to move money, find recruits, transfer weapons, and, after every round of sanctions, rebuild its war machine. If these countries that are allied with Tehran were to face real consequences for enabling Iran's ability to rearm and reassert itself, the threat it could pose would dramatically shrink. Disempowering Iran requires cutting off not just its internal power, but also the foreign platforms that help it to finance itself, operate, and grow.

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