Iran’s global terrorist ambitions must be crushed, before it’s too late

The international community must declare the IRGC as the world’s largest terrorist organization and impose crippling sanctions on Tehran

The recent elevation of Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the October 7 massacre, to Hamas’s top political position reveals two alarming truths. First, Hamas remains as extremist as ever. Sinwar’s rise – marked by his brutal hostile tactics, including mass rape, civilian hostages, and the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust – proves that Hamas endorses his war crimes and crimes against humanity. This move shatters any illusions about a moderate faction within Hamas or a distinction between its political and terrorist wings. The entire organization is a terror group under Iran’s control.
Second, Hamas functions entirely as an Iranian proxy. As reported in these pages, Sinwar’s promotion starkly reminds us that Hamas’s leadership has always been dedicated to actualising the Ayatollahs’ goal of wiping Israel off the map. Sinwar’s Hamas no longer hides behind the guise of fighting for Gaza’s people; instead, it proudly sacrifices them to Tehran’s relentless, genocidal war machine.
The past ten months have exposed Iran’s sinister strategy with brutal clarity. From Gaza to Lebanon, and across the Middle East, we’ve witnessed a coordinated Iranian assault on regional stability. This is no coincidence; it’s Iran’s playbook in action. From Lebanon to Yemen, Syria to Iraq, Iran ruthlessly undermines states and territories, weaponising extremist groups to serve its revolutionary zealotry.
Iran’s destabilisation efforts are increasingly evident in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Tehran is undermining the Palestinian Authority, supporting extremist groups with truckloads of weapons and money. If not for Israel’s vigilance, Judea and Samaria would quickly devolve into another Iranian stronghold, threatening both Israeli and regional stability. Iran’s ambitions extend further, as its attempts to smuggle arms through Jordan endanger this key moderate Arab state.
Furthermore ties such as those alleged by Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, between the Hamburg Islamic Center and Iran’s Supreme Leader and Hezbollah, illustrate a strategic effort by Iran to spread its revolutionary ideology globally.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is the primary driver of Iran’s strategy to encircle Israel with a ‘ring of fire’ and its terrorist proliferation in the Middle East and globally. The international community must declare the IRGC as the world’s largest terrorist organization and impose further crippling sanctions on Iran. These actions are essential to halting Iran’s destabilizing activities and ensuring global security.
The world must recognise that Israel’s fight against Hamas is about preventing Iran from establishing another terrorist launchpad on our borders – one that threatens the entire globe. Our security measures are essential to counter increasingly emboldened Iranian ambitions.
Looking ahead, any solution for Gaza, Judea, and Samaria must account for this reality. Palestinian self-governance in internal affairs, coupled with Israeli security oversight, offers the best near-term option to counter Iranian influence while allowing Palestinians the maximum opportunity to govern their own affairs. This arrangement is crucial to breaking the cycle of violence that fuels Iran’s ambitions. History proves that whenever Israel steps back from overseeing security, the first to fill the vacuum is an Iranian-controlled terror proxy.
The stakes in this struggle extend far beyond Israel. Iran’s unchecked expansionism threatens to derail normalisation efforts with our Arab neighbors, undermine global energy security, and international counterterrorism. The economic toll of Iran’s war-mongering is already frustrating global trade and spiking commodity prices.
Israel is at the forefront of the free world’s fight against Iranian encirclement. Supporting Israel against the Ayatollahs in Tehran, Sinwar’s Hamas in Gaza, and Nasrallah’s Hezbollah in Lebanon is an act of self-preservation for all free states. The world must recognize that today’s battle against Iran’s construction of a “ring of fire” around the Middle East may well be a prelude to broader confrontations. The writing is on the wall; the question now is whether the world will heed its warning before it’s too late.
Israel Katz is the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs