72621 Venezuelan Ambassador to Syria, Imad Saab Saab (right), meets with his counterpart from Iran, Ahmad Mousavi (center), at the Venezuelan Embassy in Damascus in May 2010. President Obama's trip to South America has showcased promising partnerships in Brazil and elsewhere. His visit, however, should also focus attention in the region and within his administration on the fact that Iran and Venezuela are conspiring to sow Tehran's brand of proxy terrorism in the Western Hemisphere. On...

Inertia is deceptive. While the Israeli-Palestinian peace proces is stalled, thanks to Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas refusing to return to direct talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on parallel tracks P.A. leaders are lining up countries publicly supporting a Palestinian state before it is actually created. The P.A. is focused on Latin America, which it is determined to add to the guaranteed Arab and Muslim state votes that ensure a U.N. General Assembly majority....

Iran is planning to place medium-range missiles on Venezuelan soil, based on western information sources, according to an article in the German daily, Die Welt, of November 25, 2010. According to the article, an agreement between the two countries was signed during the last visit o Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Tehran on October19, 2010. The previously undisclosed contract provides for the establishment of a jointly operated military base in Venezuela, and the joint development of...

In the last five years, Iran’s foreign policy has shifted from Africa towards Latin America, with the goal of, as Ahmadinejad expressed to the Venezuelan ambassador in Tehran, David Velázquez, “tying up” the United States. “The notorious shift to the left of many Latin American countries during the first decade of the twenty-first century has allowed Iran to have more success in its attempt to improve relations”. No one considers it strange that the...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a two-day visit to Iran. Referring to each other as brothers, the two leaders said no one could stop them strengthening ties. Mr Ahmadinejad said they would build a "new world order" free of US domination. Mr Chavez condemned international sanctions and "military threats" against Iran over its nuclear programme. Both leaders said they were convinced that the age of Western domination was coming to an...

During the August 22 reception of Peru’s newly appointed ambassador to Iran, Iranian President Ahmadinejad declared that Latin America was a major priority for Iran. Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil, and Peru have all developed very strong relationships with Iran over the past few years. Since President Evo Morales’s 2006 election in Bolivia, Iran has invested over $1.1 billion for various Bolivian projects, particularly those concerned with agriculture and natural resource exploration....

I confess that when I first saw the May 17 picture of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, joining his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with raised arms - after their signing of a putative deal to defuse the crisis over Iran’s nuclear weapons program - all I could think of was: Is there anything uglier than watching democrats sell out other democrats to a Holocaust-denying, vote-stealing Iranian thug...

In recent months there has been a growing interest in the deepening relationship between Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva and Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Brazil has long been an American ally and analysts are questioning the motives behind Lula's eagerness in furthering ties with Iran; a long-time US enemy. Understandably, this new friendship has raised concerns among many foreign relations experts and the intelligence community. But this relationship is not new. In reality,...

The Bolivian government announced last week it is re-launching an effort to explore for uranium within its territory. The announcement comes at a time when international pariah Iran has been actively courting relationships with anti-American governments in the Western Hemisphere, principally Bolivia and Venezuela, which is also known for its reserves of the radioactive mineral essential for the development of nuclear power. Many experts see Iran not only in a desperate drive to secure...

Introduction As the Obama administration strives for achievements at the NPT review conference currently taking place in New York, Tehran launched a countermove in the nuclear issue vis-à-vis the U.S. and the West. Tehran, which at the time of this writing is hosting the G-15 conference of developing countries, presented today, May 17, an agreement together with Turkey and Brazil on a uranium exchange deal - after rejecting an identical agreement proposed by the West in late 2009 in...