The Islamic Republic of Iran has long posed a multifaceted threat to regional stability, U.S. strategic interests, and vulnerable minority communities across the Middle East. While much of America’s foreign policy discourse focuses on Iran’s nuclear ambitions—which indeed seriously threaten international security—the regime’s use of proxy forces, particularly the Quds Force, the key element of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and other proxy terror groups—has been an underappreciated, yet equally insidious, danger. Among the principal victims of Iran’s proxy warfare are the ancient Christian communities of the Middle East, whose survival hangs in the balance as Tehran pursues its hegemonic ambitions.
The Trump administration’s maximum pressure strategy represents a much-needed recalibration of U.S. policy on Iran, reversing years of appeasing Tehran. As the geopolitical landscape evolves, the United States must ensure that any future negotiations with Iran categorically prohibit not only nuclear weapons development but also the funding, arming, and operational support of its proxy network. Failure to do so would repeat the mistakes of the Obama and Biden administrations, which allowed Iran’s terror apparatus to flourish under the guise of diplomatic engagement.
President Trump’s May 2025 Middle East diplomacy tour reignited global focus on Iran’s destabilizing role in the region. While much attention has been given to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Trump’s visit also underscored the need for a broader, more comprehensive U.S. strategy. In meetings with Saudi, Qatari and Emirati leaders, and before a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Trump emphasized that any future U.S.-Iran engagement must confront not only Iran’s enrichment activities but also its aggressive proxy warfare and regional destabilization. This declaration duly recognizes that Iran’s threat to U.S. interests extends far beyond its centrifuges in Natanz and includes its proxy militias operating from Baghdad to Beirut.
Iran’s Proxy Sphere
The Quds Force is the shadow army that lies at the heart of Iran’s regional influence. It is the elite expeditionary wing of the IRGC responsible for executing Tehran’s clandestine operations beyond the bounds of its sovereign borders. With Qassem Soleimani at the helm, the Quds Force built a sprawling network of proxy militias, leveraging sectarian and political division to project power and destabilize adversaries abroad, thereby creating an Iranian sphere of influence. Soleimani was killed in a targeted American drone strike, ordered by the first Trump administration, at Baghdad International Airport in January of 2020, which stoked a significant escalation in U.S.-Iran tensions.
From Hezbollah in Lebanon to the Houthis in Yemen, and from Shiite militias in Iraq to Sunni terrorists in Gaza, Iran’s proxies serve as force multipliers, allowing Tehran to wage asymmetrical warfare while maintaining plausible deniability. These groups serve not only military purposes but also as exporters of Iran’s brand of revolutionary Shiite Islam.
One of the most overlooked dimensions of this strategy is the systematic persecution of religious minorities—especially Christians.
Christians in the Crosshairs
Christianity has ancient roots in the Middle East, predating Islam by centuries. Yet today, Christian communities across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and elsewhere face existential threats—not only from Sunni jihadist groups like ISIS, but also Iran-backed Shiite militias.
In Iraq, since the territorial defeat of ISIS, the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have been responsible for violence, political intimidation, and land seizure against Syriac Christians (Chaldeans, Syriacs and Assyrians), particularly in the Nineveh Plains. These militias, while ostensibly created to fight ISIS, have morphed into instruments of Iranian influence, occupying historic Christian land and engaging in religious and ethnic cleansing. Despite Iran’s deceptive rhetoric of protecting minorities, its actions have exacerbated the flight of Christians from their ancestral homelands.
For over four decades, Hezbollah, arguably Iran’s most powerful proxy, has maintained a stranglehold over Lebanon, a nation that once served as a refuge and flagship for Christians in the Middle East. Hezbollah’s militarization of Lebanese politics and society has eroded the fragile sectarian balance, marginalizing Christian political influence and rendering the community increasingly vulnerable.
This systematic oppression aligns with Iran’s broader goal of reshaping the region’s demographic and political landscape. By displacing indigenous Christian populations, Tehran facilitates the creation of its land bridge, a contiguous zone of Iranian influence stretching from Iran to the Mediterranean Sea.
For the United States, safeguarding these ancient communities is both a strategic and moral imperative.
Threats to U.S. Regional Interests
Iran’s proxy warfare poses a direct threat to U.S. national security interests and as well as allies like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf states. Tehran’s destabilizing activities undermine U.S.-backed governments, endanger American personnel, and threaten the free flow of energy and commerce through vital chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.
The Quds Force and its proxies have targeted U.S. forces in Iraq with rocket and drone attacks, disrupted maritime security, and armed Palestinian factions in Gaza, thereby fueling endless cycles of conflict. Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen have launched missile and drone strikes against Saudi Arabia and the UAE, threatening the broader security architecture of the Gulf.
By enabling this proxy network, Iran effectively wages a low-cost, high-impact war of attrition against the United States and its allies. This strategy allows Iran to exert influence far beyond its conventional military capabilities, while thus far avoiding the consequences of direct confrontation.
The Failure of Past Diplomatic Engagements
The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, brokered under the Obama administration, epitomized the strategic miscalculation that Iran’s behavior could be moderated through economic incentives and engagement. By front-loading sanctions relief and failing to address Iran’s regional aggression, the JCPOA provided Tehran with a financial boost that directly empowered its proxies.
Under the Obama and Biden administrations, an estimated forty-five billion dollars in unfrozen assets and sanctions relief was funneled into Iran’s terror network, financing Hezbollah’s missile arsenals, the expansion of PMF militias in Iraq, the Houthis’ missile programs, and even Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel. This shortsighted foreign policy move undermined U.S. interests and betrayed vulnerable communities across the region, including the Middle East’s threatened Christian communities.
The Biden administration’s attempts to revive the JCPOA, and even remove the IRGC’s designation as a Foreign Terror Organization while Iran’s proxies continued their belligerence, reflected a similar diplomatic naivety and signaled weakness, emboldening Tehran.
The Imperative of Maximum Pressure
The Trump administration’s maximum pressure policy aims to reverse this trend, reimposing comprehensive sanctions. Maximum pressure will disrupt Iran’s revenue streams, curtail its operational capabilities, and reassert America’s credible deterrence.
However, pressure must not be viewed as an end in itself, but as a means to force behavioral change. Any future negotiations with Iran must adopt a holistic approach that addresses the full spectrum of Iranian malign activities—not just its nuclear ambitions.
Specifically, the United States must:
- Enforce sanctions to target proxy networks: Sanctions must explicitly target Iran’s network of proxy militias, as well as financial institutions and front companies facilitating their operations. This includes sanctioning individuals and entities involved in persecuting religious and ethnic minorities.
- Make human rights a diplomatic priority: The preservation of Christian minorities and other vulnerable communities should be a non-negotiable element of U.S. Middle East policy. U.S. foreign aid and diplomatic engagement must be conditioned on demonstrable improvements in human rights, particularly concerning religious freedom.
- End financial handouts for Iran: Any economic relief must be strictly contingent upon Iran’s verifiable cessation of support for proxy terrorism. If funds are diverted to support Hezbollah, PMF militias, or the Houthis, the U.S. must replace the carrot with the stick. Money is fungible, so this condition should be enforced to a very high, zero-tolerance standard.
- Empower regional allies against Iranian proxies: The U.S. must bolster the defensive capabilities of regional allies threatened by Iranian proxies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf states, while supporting grassroots initiatives that protect and preserve Middle Eastern Christian communities.
Iran’s proxy warfare represents a clear and present danger to U.S. interests, regional stability, and the very existence of Christian communities in the Middle East. The Quds Force and its network of militias function as instruments of ideological conquest, demographic manipulation, and perpetual conflict, as those elements will enable the Iranian revolution to thrive.
To safeguard U.S. interests and uphold the principles of religious freedom and human dignity, maximum pressure must evolve from policy rhetoric to a sustained, strategic campaign targeting Iran’s nuclear ambitions and proxy war machinery alike. Anything less would not be diplomacy, but would amount to strategic capitulation.
