Azerbaijan.US
The Iranian regime is maintaining power by relying on foreign militant groups, Azerbaijani political analyst Eldar Namazov said, describing the current situation in Iran as an unprecedented systemic crisis.
Speaking on ITON-TV, Namazov argued that recent unrest in Iran goes far beyond previous protest waves and represents what he called an “ideal storm,” combining economic collapse, governance failure, social unrest, and deep national grievances.
According to Namazov, for the first time in the country’s modern history, Tehran resorted to using foreign proxy fighters to suppress domestic protests. He said militants from Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Pakistan – previously deployed by Iran in regional conflicts – were brought in to help security forces contain demonstrations.
“This was a move born of desperation,” Namazov said. “The regime was no longer confident that its own security structures could carry out mass repression against the population.”
He stressed that the economic dimension of the crisis is critical, noting that sanctions and internal mismanagement have pushed nearly half of Iran’s population below the poverty line. At the same time, large segments of the economy remain outside effective government control, weakening the state’s ability to respond to mounting pressure.
Namazov warned that the pause in street protests should not be interpreted as stabilization. In his view, the use of foreign fighters against Iranian citizens has crossed a psychological red line and will have long-term consequences for the legitimacy of the ruling system.
“The regime may have survived the first wave, but it has lost something far more important – public trust,” he said, predicting that renewed unrest is likely and could be more severe.
The analyst did not rule out scenarios ranging from elite fragmentation and negotiated change to deeper political destabilization, adding that Iran’s current trajectory poses risks not only domestically but also for the wider region.
