Iran's Global Ambition (very important article)

There has long been an Iranian presence in Latin America. Some time ago, Hezbollah established itself at the point where Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina meet.[2] Terrorists linked to Iran bombed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and a Jewish community center in the same city in 1994. In 2006, Argentine prosecutors issued warrants for former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven others on charges of ordering and masterminding the 1994 attack.[3] The Hezbollah presence in the region has remained a source of concern for policymakers to the present.[4]

Only under Ahmadinejad, though, has the Iranian government pursued a sustained effort to reach out to Latin American countries. Using hundreds of millions--if not billions--of dollars in aid and assistance, Ahmadinejad has worked to create an anti-American bloc with Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua. While Ahmadinejad's first priority may be to solidify diplomatic support among third-world countries, his baiting--and the subsequent baiting by his allies--of Washington and his efforts to further destabilize the neighborhood suggest that he now seeks a permanent Iranian presence on the U.S. doorstep.

The cornerstone of Ahmadinejad's Latin America policy is the formation of an anti-American axis with Venezuela, a goal driven as much by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez as it is by the Iranian leader. During a July 2006 visit to Tehran, Chávez told a Tehran University crowd, "We have to save humankind and put an end to the U.S. empire."[5] The two met again just two months later during the Non-Aligned Movement conference in Havana.[6] When Chávez again visited Tehran--just a year after his first visit--supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei granted him an audience,[7] an honor bestowed only upon political figures the Iranian leadership deems its closest partners. At the time, Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki quipped that "Hugo Chávez is becoming--or rather has already become--a household name in Iran and perhaps the region, thanks to his frequent trips to the Islamic Republic."[8] Ahmadinejad and Chávez used the visit to declare an "Axis of Unity" against the United States.[9]

Shuttle diplomacy has gone both ways. Just two months after fêting Chávez in Tehran, Ahmadinejad visited him in Caracas.[10] "Together we are surely growing stronger, and in truth no one can defeat us," he told the Venezuelan press.[11] Standing beside Chávez during a trip to Tehran just four months later--Chávez's fourth visit to the Iranian capital in just two years--Ahmadinejad declared, "The peoples of Iran and Venezuela will stand shoulder to shoulder with the disadvantaged nations of the world in spite of the opposition of World Imperialism," which is Ahmadinejad's moniker for the United States.[13]

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Both leaders use their mutual embrace to overcome international isolation and sanctions. During his July 2007 visit to Tehran, Chávez presented Ahmadinejad with an Airbus A340-200 as a sign of friendship[14] at a time when many Western countries looked askance at exporting modern aircraft to the Islamic Republic for fear that a plane might be cannibalized for spare parts in support of Iran's aging military fleet. Such cooperation has made moot the efforts of U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to offer such concessions in order to entice greater Iranian compliance toward its international commitments. For example, just months after she agreed that U.S. companies could export spare aircraft parts to Iran,[15] Ahmadinejad announced the commencement of scheduled passenger flights between Tehran and Caracas.[16]

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Besides hosting the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in 2006, however, Havana has joined Tehran and Caracas in efforts to form a joint shipping line[23]--an asset that, given the disorganization of U.S. and European sanctions enforcement, might help each country bypass certain sanctions. Not every shipping company, for example, may be as compliant with Tehran's sensitivities as one operated by Cubans and Venezuelans. There have already been reports--refuted by the Venezuelan ambassador in Tehran--that Venezuela has enabled Iranian scientists to conduct some nuclear work in the South American state, out of the view of international inspectors.[24]

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Bolivia, too, has become an important Iranian ally. Under the leadership of Juan Evo Morales, La Paz has welcomed alliance with Tehran. As with Nicaragua, Bolivia gets aid--upwards of $1.1 billion in "industrial cooperation"[38]--and Iran gets a diplomatic ally. On September 4, 2007, amid international efforts to augment sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Bolivian foreign minister David Choquehuanca Céspedes endorsed "Iran's nuclear rights" and called for international support for the Islamic Republic's position.[39] Tehran rewarded Bolivia with the opening of an embassy in La Paz,[40] certainly a sign that Tehran no longer saw the landlocked South American country as peripheral to its interests.

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The Islamic Republic's state broadcasting authority has in recent months established partnerships with its Bolivian and Nicaraguan counterparts, not only to help these countries expand their own messaging, but also to have a platform for Iranian-sponsored broadcasts "for all of Latin America."[41] The idea that Ahmadinejad might see Latin America as a beachhead from which to conduct an aggressive strategy against the United States and its allies gained further credence when, earlier this month, Colombian forces raided a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) encampment and seized a computer whose files referenced FARC plans to purchase fifty kilograms of uranium,[42] raising concern among some U.S. officials that the purchase may have been facilitated with Iranian money and offices.

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Africa: Iran's Next Frontier

With successive U.S. administrations and European governments effectively ignoring Africa, Tehran sees its fifty-two countries as diplomatic easy picking. On January 29, 2008, Mottaki declared that this year would mark a "milestone in Iran-Africa ties."[43] Three days later, while attending the Africa Union summit in Addis Ababa, Mottaki announced that Iran would soon host a summit of African foreign ministers in Tehran.

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The Islamic Republic has forged particularly strong ties with Senegal, once a Cold War ally of the United States but now quietly turning into West Africa's Venezuela.

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the Islamic Republic is willing to embrace any African state--Muslim or not--that finds itself estranged from the West in general and the United States in particular. Here, Sudan and Zimbabwe especially have been beneficiaries.

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South Africa has become another Iranian regional ally. Grateful for the Islamic Republic's opposition to apartheid, the two countries formally reestablished relations in 1994. While subsequent bilateral rhetoric was always warm, in recent years, Tehran has used oil and trade to develop its ties with Pretoria. The Iranian strategy is deliberate. "South Africa is a key member of the Non-Aligned Movement, a bloc of developing countries that has resisted the efforts to force Tehran to halt uranium enrichment," explained a commentary in Iran's official English-language newspaper.[63]

Having failed to get Venezuela onto the UN Security Council, the Iranian government has been anxious to exploit South Africa's rotating membership and its presence on the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board of governors.[64]

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Iranian officials have been just as energetic in cultivating smaller African states. In September 2007, interim Iranian oil minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari pledged cooperation to exploit Uganda's newfound oil field,[68] and two months later, the Export Development Bank of Iran pledged $1 million to underwrite microfinance in Uganda.[69] In November, Mottaki also announced an initiative to expand relations with Malawi[70] after that country's president endorsed Iran's right to pursue nuclear technology.[71] The same month, Mottaki welcomed the Côte d'Ivoire foreign minister to Tehran[72]--again, after the West African nation's ambassador threw his country's support behind Iran in the dispute with the UN Security Council over Iran's nuclear program.[73] Indeed, while the Iranian government spreads millions of dollars around Africa, its aid appears conditional upon support. In recent weeks, the Iranian government has used declarations by the leaders of Lesotho, Mauritania, Mali, and Namibia to bolster support for its nuclear program.[74]

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The Pentagon may have strengthened its facilities in the Persian Gulf, but Iran and its proxies may find U.S. interests in places like Cancun and the Caribbean more vulnerable.

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