By Ben HubbardDespite long being treated as a pariah by the West and isolated by US sanctions, Iran’s revolutionary Islamic govt maintained diplomatic, commercial and military ties with a range of countries.Turkiye and India engaged with it on trade and security. China looked to it for cheap oil. North Korea, Venezuela and Russia considered it an ally in their struggle against the West and conspired with it to develop military technology and subvert sanctions. Now that Iran finds itself under attack by, those friends, neighbours and partners have little more than words to offer the Islamic Republic. They, in turn, could become targets. That is a product, experts say, of Iran’s foreign policy, which has shied away from commitments to other countries while investing in militias that share its religiously-fuelled hatred of the US and Israel. Those militias can’t help Iran now. The most formidable of them, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, have been ground down by wars with Israel. The Houthi militia in Yemen and Iraqi armed groups backed by Iran can target ships in the Red Sea or American forces in Iraq. But such attacks are unlikely to change the course of a war inside Iran. Most countries that maintain relations with Iran do so out of strategic, geographic or economic necessity, giving them little reason to sacrifice when Iran comes under fire, experts said. India engaged with Iran as an important player in its region and to seek economic advantages, according to Kabir Taneja, executive director of the Observer Research Foundation Middle East. “There was definitely no overlap as far as world-view is concerned,” he said. “It was always a transactional relationship, but a functional and a useful one as far as New Delhi was concerned.” Ties with Iran did not stop India from becoming Israel’s largest arms customer, with Indian purchases making up 34% of Israel’s total sales between 2020 and 2024, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. India’s balancing act between Israel, Iran and others meant it would steer clear of the war in Iran, Taneja said. “Indian foreign policy is clear in that matter, that it does not enter into other people’s business,” he said.North Korea condemned the war but has done little else, and Venezuela’s posture has changed since the US ousted President Nicolas Maduro in Jan. China remains Iran’s largest trading partner, mostly because it buys more than three-quarters of Iran’s oil. China has called for restraint, criticised the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei as “unacceptable” and appointed an envoy to mediate. It is unlikely to directly challenge the US, analysts said, so as not to disturb Trump’s expected visit to China in April.Russia has been Iran’s closest state ally in pushing back against the West. “You have this growing alignment and grievance over the global order and the US alliance system,” said Hanna Notte, the Eurasia programme director at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Military cooperation between Russia and Iran grew during the conflict in Syria, where both countries propped up President Bashar al-Assad before he was ousted in 2024. Russia-Ukraine conflict further solidified the relationship as Russia needed Iranian drone technology, which it deployed against Ukraine. In Jan 2025, Russia and Iran signed a major cooperation treaty that deepened their defence ties but did not include a requirement to come to each other’s defence in case of an attack.Russia has given Iran some military equipment but its support has been limited, Notte said, in part because Russia did not want to complicate its ties with Israel. Russia will likely stick to its policy of avoiding direct military conflict with Israel and the US, Notte said.
