many of these states and their governments are openly hostile to communist elements, but a communist party actively opposing their government would risk destabilising it and then playing themselves directly into the hands of the imperialist states. an indefinite “united front” would be desirable, especially in countries like iran, but it seems all leftist organisations in these states have either decided to fully support the government in everything, becoming controlled opposition (KPRF in Russia) or western puppets like (MEK) or whatever the fuck the “leftist opposition” in russia, belarus is.
This is just me thinking out loud, but i think this highlights how socialism can only really work as an international movement. If the communist party tries to destabilize its country, the imperialists will fill in the power gap. If their country is already imperialist then they must fight against their government (as we theoretically should be doing in the imperial core).
Its somewhat of a miracle that some states have achieved dictatorship of the proletariat stage, but i think its because they fought off the imperialist forces in their own country and didnt have an anti-imperialist bourgeoisie or whatever you’d classify the Iranian government.