Is Iranian Triumph a Result of China and Russian Help?

By Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, New Age Islam

26 April 2026

Iran's Defiance: Beyond Sectarian Myths

Main points

·         Wahhabi backlash meets growing Sunni admiration

·         Exposed Muslim fault lines: Iran's resistance to US-Israel aggression highlights Shia triumph where Sunni states collapsed swiftly.

·         Sectarian venom escalates: Wahhabi clerics label Shias as kafir amid rising Sunni support for Iran's stand.

·         Proxy narrative debunked: Russia-China aid acknowledged but Iran's agency and self-reliance emphasized over puppet claims.

·         Global hypocrisy unmasked: Western human rights rhetoric ignores subservient Sunni regimes while punishing defiant Iran.

·         Historical double standards: Mujahideen aid celebrated as Islamic jihad, but Iran's fight dismissed due to Shia identity.

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The unjustified attacks against Iran by U.S.A and Israel are resulting in the fault lines among Muslims getting exposed. The adherents of Saudi sponsored Wahabism cannot digest the fact that among the whole Muslim world, it is only the Shia Iran that has successfully rebutted and resisted the onslaught and attacks of Western imperialism as a state. Other Sunni states like Afghanistan and later Iraq ruled by a Sunni minority Baath party fell like a pack of cards in few weeks. Iran has survived and even triumphed and made U.S to come to the negotiation table, making it realize that it cannot be brushed aside.

Sectarian Backlash Intensifies

This fact is not digested and acknowledged by the Wahabi fringe group sponsored by family of Saud, because accepting that a Shia country whom they considered as deviated and even Kaafir and for whose martyred Supreme leader Syed Ali Khamenei and others they could not condemn their targeted killings or name them as martyred have appeared triumphant is too much for the Salafi clique to digest and believe. In view of the growing support for Iran among Sunnis, Wahhabi-supported clerics have started spewing venom against the Shia belief system and trying to depict them either as kafir or hypocrites. Videos circulating online show these clerics reviving old accusations—hostility toward the early caliphs, claims of Qur’anic distortion, and exaggeration of the Imams’ status—to frame Shias as outside the fold of Islam, while one even warns of Shia ambitions to reshape sacred spaces like Mecca and Medina. It is because of such bias and deep hatred for Shias more than they harbour for enemies of Islam, that many fringe Salafis are ready to reject heaven if Syed Ali Khamenei is bestowed and rewarded a space in heaven. This hatred for Shias is one of the basic doctrines of Saudi sponsored Wahabism.

Contest for Muslim Leadership

This hate is reserved for other Sunni schools of thought too who do not subscribe to Wahabi school but the hate is more manifest and articulated against Shias because it is the Shia strand of Islam after 1979 Iranian Revolution that got prominent and emerged as a competitor against Wahabi creed of Saudi Arabia. So, in this hate there is a struggle and contestation for claiming the mantle of leadership of Muslims world... In the current crisis the struggle for claiming the mantle of leadership has tilted towards Iran and it has emerged as the triumphant leader of the whole Muslim world, a claim that is contested by the fringe Saudi sponsored Wahabis. They do not subscribe to the fact that Iranian resistance has empowered and offered a glimpse of hope to all Muslim masses who are fighting against oppression. This glimmer of hope that disempowered small nations too can resist the hegemony and attacks by superpowers was unheard of till recent times.

Misrepresenting Iranian Missiles

They claim that Iran has launched more missiles against Sunni Muslim countries than Israel, forgetting the fact that in order for the Iranian missiles to reach Israel, they have to pass through Iraq, Jordan, many times Syria depending upon the trajectory and these countries mostly try to destroy them particularly Jordan before the fall on Israel. Further, the basic question to be asked is why are the American bases present in these Sunni countries? The history may not offer clear lessons, but the reality is that Sunni monarchs trust USA more than their own people. So, to guarantee the stability of their rule they have offered USA bases. If any public uprising against them takes place they do readily call upon these forces to quell the same. Also, each nation is apprehensive of their neighbours, as all these nations have been created by the European imperialist powers for their own vested interests, so when Iraq claims and tries to annex Kuwait which was its own territory before, it has to be annulled and attacked. However, on the other hand, Kurds are to be armed to help them create Kurdistan by violent means...

Hypocrisy of Global Narratives

In the whole world, narrative of Democracy, freedom of speech, women rights, dignity, right to life and human rights are to be peddled but in Muslim countries if they are subservient and assure a constant supply of oil on cheap rates and terms dictated by these powers, then every vice of the rulers is to be turned a blind eye to. However, if they start to question or change these terms and call the system exploitative then every sanction of the world bodies is to be enforced against them. A daily peddling of antagonistic narrative against them is enforced that justifies the violent aggression against them. A country like Iran stood against this systematic de-development and exploitation, sanctions and narrative war.

Iran's Self-Reliance Under Siege

Now they have braced sanctions for more than four decades and able to develop their missile programme and that helped them survive the war alongwith the pressure they built through the blockade of Strait of Hormuz. The Iran bashers instead of acknowledging the superiority of Iran and how much they have invested in education and progressed scientifically, are criticising it for attacking the bases of neighbouring Muslim countries. These attacks in most cases failed and they avoided attacking the civilian areas, so we witness a contrast... In the U.S-Israeli attacks, hospitals, universities and civilian residential areas were targeted immensely, however Iran restrained its attacks to military bases and energy infrastructure were targeted particularly in retaliation only when such Iranian energy producing sites were targeted. Now, when the ceasefire has been announced only when U.S and Israel acknowledged not publicly that their targets in Iran cannot be achieved, how hard they try.

Dismantling the Proxy Narrative

Now, these fringe elements have nothing to bash Iran with, so they start peddling the narrative that in reality it is the Russia and China who are fighting the war, otherwise Iran does not have the mettle and power to resist and target back at those sites which are attacking it. There certainly is some truth to it, and big countries certainly need to invest in other countries who then fight as its proxy. However, Iran is not a proxy of Russia or China, with whom it maintains very good cordial relations. Same was the case with India as both had civilizational ties, which the current Indian regime has undermined. This narrative believes that this war is basically between China-Russia on one hand with USA on the other. So, they are using Iran as proxy. It is a far-fetched claim, with some truth as China is an economic super power and Russia a political super power.

Iran’s resilience should not be reduced either to sectarian prejudice or to external patronage alone. Even if China and Russia provide political or material support, that does not cancel Iran’s own agency; it reflects a broader reality where resistant states leverage external ties without becoming puppets. The real measure is Iran’s internal capacity to convert decades of pressure into deterrence and endurance.

Historical Parallels and Distinctions

Erstwhile, USSR had great stakes in Middle East during the Cold War, and even now intends to wrest control from the US hegemony and its military bases... Being proxy or becoming one is a consequence of an attack, intimidation or threat of being annexed. When USSR attacked Afghanistan, the mujahedeen became proxy for USA through Pakistan. Then the Mujahideen were declared and supported as fighting for the cause of Islam, however in this case because Iran is majority Shia, no one peddles the same narrative because for them Shias cannot be fighting for Islam, but everything else. This lays bare the hate many Sunnis have for Shias of Iran embedded among them by the fringe Saudi sponsored Wahabi mullahs.

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M H A Sikander is Writer-activist based in srinagar kashmir

URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/is-iranian-triumph-result-china-russian-help/d/139801

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