Iran is losing its proxies and winning time for the bomb – opinion

The weakening of Iran's regional proxies, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, is being misinterpreted by Washington and European capitals as a sign of diminished Iranian influence. This perspective, however, overlooks Iran's strategic objective: to use these proxies to create distractions and crises, thereby diverting attention from its nuclear program. The article argues that the attrition of these peripheral assets is an acceptable cost for Tehran if it allows the regime to advance its nuclear capabilities, which it views as its ultimate guarantee of survival. The author contends that the true measure of success is not the damage inflicted on Iran's proxies, but whether the time spent doing so has made Iran's nuclear program harder to stop. Furthermore, intelligence successes, while valuable, can expose sources and methods, potentially narrowing future operational windows. The article concludes that a diminished proxy network will be inconsequential if it brings Iran closer to an irreversible nuclear threshold, emphasizing that "tactical disruption is not strategic resolution."