Kuala Lumpur, Jan 12, 2026: The Majlis Perundingan Pertubuhan Islam Malaysia (MAPIM) has released an analytical brief asserting that decades-long efforts by the United States and its Zionist allies to destabilise the Islamic Republic of Iran have failed, exposing what it calls an “exhausted playbook” of external coercion.
Authored by MAPIM President Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid, the brief states that for more than 40 years Iran has been subjected to sustained economic warfare, military intimidation, covert operations, information campaigns, diplomatic isolation, and political delegitimisation—aimed at weakening the state internally and dismantling its sovereign political order. Despite this, MAPIM argues, Iran’s political system and strategic posture remain intact.
According to the analysis, economic sanctions have been the cornerstone of this pressure campaign. These measures, the brief contends, go beyond targeted restrictions to encompass wide-ranging constraints on oil exports, banking access, and international trade, deliberately raising living costs and straining civilian life to provoke internal unrest. MAPIM characterises this approach as collective punishment, arguing it has been normalised through terms such as “maximum pressure,” while its humanitarian impact is routinely downplayed.
The brief also highlights persistent military pressure on Iran, including the presence of foreign military bases in the region, repeated testing of air and maritime space, cyberattacks, sabotage operations, and assassinations of scientific and military figures. MAPIM describes these actions as undeclared warfare that has not produced submission but instead strengthened deterrence, strategic adaptation, and national cohesion within Iran.
On covert and information warfare, the analysis notes sustained cyber operations and intelligence activity aimed at eroding infrastructure and public confidence, alongside what it calls a continuous narrative assault in international media. Protests and dissent, MAPIM argues, are amplified without context, while the effects of sanctions are obscured and political grievances reframed as evidence of regime illegitimacy.
The brief further criticises efforts to promote exile figures and alternative leadership models, including monarchist narratives, describing them as disconnected from Iranian society and lacking domestic legitimacy. Regionally, MAPIM says containment strategies and proxy conflicts have failed to isolate Iran, instead fuelling instability across West Asia.
Despite the intensity of these measures, MAPIM concludes that the core objective of regime change has not been achieved. The organisation attributes Iran’s resilience to strong institutions, historical memory of foreign intervention, and a political culture that frames resistance as dignity and sovereignty as a unifying principle.
MAPIM warns that with traditional tools exhausted, external rhetoric has grown more reckless, signalling a shift from calculated coercion to impulsive escalation. It argues that continued destabilisation will not produce compliance but risks deeper regional instability, global polarisation, and erosion of international law.
The brief concludes that Iran’s future must be determined by its own people, free from sanctions, threats, and foreign manipulation, asserting that “destabilisation is not diplomacy” and that the failure of the current strategy reflects a broader crisis of credibility in a global order that prioritises power over law.