Iran’s supreme leader denied Sunday that militant groups around the region functioned as Tehran’s proxies, warning that if his country chose to “take action,” it would not need them anyway.The remarks came after a year in which Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza suffered heavy losses in wars with Israel, and two weeks after the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who had been a key link in Tehran’s so-called “axis of resistance.”Another member of that axis, Yemen’s Houthi militia, has been repeatedly targeted by the United States and Britain over their attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes, launched in solidarity with Palestinians.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“The Islamic Republic does not have a proxy force. Yemen fights because it has faith. Hezbollah fights because the power of faith draws it into the field. Hamas and (the Islamic) Jihad fight because their beliefs compel them to do so. They do not act as our