IRAN-VENEZUELA: Alliance Problematic for the
U.S., But Not Threatening
By Danielle Kurtzleben
WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (IPS) - Some foreign
policy experts are saying that the deepening
relationship between Iran and Venezuela,
while worrisome, is not currently a major
threat to U.S. interests.
Speaking at the Centre for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS), three leading
academics in the fields of Iranian,
Venezuelan, and U.S. foreign policy examined
the relationship between Iran and Venezuela
- which has for years been among the most
vocally anti-American countries in the
world.
Over the past decade, Iran and Venezuela
have increasingly cooperated with each other
economically and militarily. President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and President
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela have expressed
support of each other’s most unpopular
policies - often while expressing antipathy
towards the U.S. as well.
David Myers, Professor of Political Science
at Pennsylvania State University,
characterised the relationship between these
two U.S. antagonists as potentially
problematic for U.S. interests, but not
immediately threatening.
"I would argue that there’s at least enough
there that it bears watching," said Myers,
adding, "I don’t think it’s a major national
security threat."
Since Chavez became President of Venezuela
in 1999, he has visited Iran seven times,
and Ahmadinejad has visited Venezuela twice
in the same period.
During this time, the relationship between
the two countries has extended into a wide
range of areas. Iran and Venezuela opened up
travel between the two countries in 2007 -
establishing weekly flights between Tehran
and Caracas.
Economic cooperation between Venezuela and
Iran has also grown. The two countries in
April inaugurated the Iranian-Venezuelan
Development Bank, a joint venture to fund
development projects in both countries.
Together, both countries pledged 200 million
dollars towards the effort.
In addition, Iran has begun manufacturing
operations in Venezuela - establishing
plants there that produce bicycles,
tractors, cars, and cement.
The two countries also enjoy significant
military cooperation - Iran provides
training and support to the Venezuelan
military, having embedded its officers with
Venezuelan units since 2006. Myers also
noted that, in part due to Iran’s influence,
Venezuela’s military has adopted asymmetric
warfare as its official doctrine.
This military relationship was further
cemented in April, when, on a visit to
Caracas, Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa
Mohammed-Najjar pledged, "full support to
promote the Venezuelan military’s defence
capabilities in the framework of mutual
defensive agreements."
Iran and Venezuela have a history of
advocating for each other’s interests even
when most other countries disapprove.
Chavez, for example, has voiced support for
Iran’s uranium enrichment programme. This
programme causes fears among the U.S. and
many other countries about Iran’s potential
for building nuclear weapons - though Iran
insists that it is purely for civilian
purposes.
Chavez also congratulated Ahmadinejad on
being declared president after June’s
Iranian presidential elections, the results
of which are widely disputed, both within
and outside of Iran.
The U.S. and Venezuela have had a chequered
relationship in recent years. Chavez often
refers to the U.S. as the "evil empire" and
has accused it of orchestrating the 2002
Venezuelan coup that removed Chavez from
power for a short time.
Relations between the U.S. and Venezuela
appear to have softened somewhat since the
inauguration of Barack Obama as the U.S.
President. Obama and Chavez exchanged a
handshake and engaged in polite conversation
at the Apr. 2009 Summit of the Americas in
Trinidad, where Chavez also presented Obama
with a book.
The U.S. and Venezuela also reinstated their
ambassadors to each other’s countries this
year. Venezuela had expelled the U.S.
ambassador in 2007, and the U.S. pulled its
ambassador out of Venezuela in response.
More significantly, the U.S. and Venezuela
found some common ground in opposing the
June coup in Honduras that removed President
Manuel Zelaya from office.
Yet, last week saw more anti-American
rhetoric from Chavez. At the news of the
expansion of the U.S. military presence in
neighbouring Colombia - ostensibly for
counter-narcotic purposes - Chavez called
the U.S. "the most aggressive nation in the
history of humanity."
U.S. relations with Iran are even rockier.
The U.S. does not currently have diplomatic
ties with Iran - considering the Islamic
Republic a state sponsor of terrorism and
opposing its uranium enrichment program.
Obama has extended an invitation to
Ahmadinejad to talk about Iran’s nuclear
program, and has set September as the
deadline for Iran to accept or decline.
In its attempts to extract change from Iran
on its nuclear policy, the U.S.’s main tool
has been economic sanctions - limiting
Iranian purchase of U.S. food and medical
products. Several Iranian banks are also
prohibited from transferring money to or
from U.S. banks.
Since June’s elections, the U.S. has
considered even stricter sanctions that
would cut off Iran’s imports of gasoline and
other refined oil products. A bill allowing
the imposition such sanctions was the topic
of a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing
last week.
The Venezuela-Iran alliance serves in part
to undermine U.S. economic sanctions on
Iran. By cooperating with or buying
Venezuelan businesses, the Iranian
government can effectively do business with
U.S. companies or even within the U.S.
Myers in particular cited the Iranian
government’s May 2008 purchase of Venezuelan
bank Corp Banca CA, thus circumventing the
U.S. embargo and effectively allowing Iran
to conduct business within the U.S.
The military cooperation between Iran and
Venezuela is even more troubling to top
Defence officials in the U.S., who have
expressed dismay at Iran establishing a
military presence in the U.S.’s own
"strategic back yard."
Given the flurry of activity between Iran
and Venezuela in the last six months alone,
Myers said, it would appear that this
alliance can only grow: "I think the
prognosis is that the ties between Venezuela
and Iran are going to be strengthened in the
future, not weakened."
Yet, the Iran-Venezuela alliance’s
significance in terms of U.S. interests is
questionable.
Mohsen Milani, Professor and Chair of the
Department of Government and International
Affairs at the University of South Florida,
said at CSIS that Iran currently has more
important issues than its relationship with
Venezuela to consider - such as the
continuing unrest caused by the June
elections and a steadily worsening economic
situation.
"Venezuela is not at the top of Iran’s
priorities," said Milani. "If I were to
grade it, I’d give it a C+/B-."
John Walsh, a Senior Associate at the
Washington Office on Latin America, a
Washington-based NGO that promotes human
rights and democracy in the region,
characterises Iran’s benefits from its
relationship with Venezuela as mostly
strategic.
"My sense, with regard to Iran’s interests
in a more high-profile relationship with
Venezuela, is that it is part of [Iran’s]
strategy of balancing its own geopolitical
prospects," Walsh told IPS. "If it feels
hemmed in, which it does, and insecure at
home, it is another card to play, in terms
of how it relates to, in particular, the
U.S."
Chavez’s benefits from Iran also go beyond
economic and military interests. "If you
believe, as Chavez does, that we are now in
a multipolar, as opposed to a unipolar
moment, then relationships among countries
normally considered peripheral are going to
take on increasing importance," said Walsh.
He added, "Venezuela is involved with Iran,
so then Venezuela has more play with the
U.S."
Walsh said that the U.S. should exercise
care that its rhetoric regarding Latin
America’s relationships to Iran does not
become reductive. "There is a lot of talk in
Washington that suggests a new Cold War
mentality," wherein Latin American countries
can easily be broken down and categorised by
their political affiliations, he said.
"I think that the issue of Iran’s
relationship with certain countries is used
to persuade people that that is the case. I
think it is much more complicated," said
Walsh.
He added that he considers such thinking to
be not only simplistic, but wrongheaded.
"Just consider how Latin American countries
view the Iranian regime, and how some feel
that Iran has supported terrorism on their
own soil. So it is not like people are
lining up to align themselves one way or the
other." |
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