viewing his survival as key to its regional “axis of resistance,” a network conceived by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the late IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.

The Iranian government began allotting oil, instead of cash, to the IRGC and Quds Force around 2013, according to Nephew. The government was under budgetary pressure then because it was struggling ...