Iran's Deadly Ambition by Ilan Berman

Author:Ilan Berman [Berman, Ilan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781594038020
Publisher: Encounter Books

IRAN’S OBJECTIVES

What, exactly, does Iran want in the Americas? Over the past decade and a half, Iran’s engagement with Central and South America has taken the form of a bewildering array of activities. At first blush, these efforts appear disorganized and only marginally effective, leading some analysts to dismiss Iran’s regional presence as little more than an “axis of annoyance.”60 Others have minimized the long-term strategic significance of Iran’s regional inroads, seeing them as defensive in nature—a simple reaction to Western sanctions that is aimed at shoring up support for the regime’s nuclear effort and broadening international sympathies for Tehran.

Upon closer examination, however, it becomes clear that Iran’s activities in Latin America amount to far more than that. A 2009 dossier prepared by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that “since Ahmadinejad’s rise to power, Tehran has been promoting an aggressive policy aimed at bolstering its ties with Latin American countries with the declared goal of ‘bringing America to its knees.’ ”61 Three years later, the Pentagon came to much the same conclusion. “Iran continues to seek to increase its stature by countering U.S. influence and expanding ties with regional actors while advocating Islamic solidarity,” it noted in its April 2012 Annual Report on Military Power of Iran.62 Iran, in other words, is pursuing what military planners might call an “anti-access strategy” in Latin America—promoting its own ideology and influence at the expense of the United States. Or, as former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad himself put it some time ago, “when the Western countries were trying to isolate Iran, we went to the U.S. backyard.”63

The goal of this multipronged outreach is clear. Iran seeks to improve its regional position and do so at the expense of the United States. It is an objective that remains in effect today, despite the fact that Latin America, and therefore Iran’s standing in the region, is in a state of profound political flux. The April 2013 death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez removed one half of the Iranian regime’s most-vibrant personal relationship in the region, and ensuing domestic instability has called into question whether his successor, Nicolás Maduro, can be a serious regional partner for Iran in the near future. The end of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tenure as Iran’s president in June 2013 removed the other half of the favorable relationship. But it did not spell an end to Iran’s activities and presence in the Americas.

Ahmadinejad’s successor, Hassan Rouhani, has declared his government’s commitment to expanding ties to Latin America.64 And, increasingly, Iranian officials are putting their money where their mouths are. In May 2014, a high-level parliamentary delegation from Iran embarked upon a Latin American tour—an exercise that involved public affirmations of the close bonds and continued strategic convergence between Iran and the ALBA bloc of nations.65 That same month, the Rouhani government announced a plan to nearly triple the number of its commercial attachés abroad—including those in Latin America.66 The message to Latin America’s political leaders was unmistakable: the Islamic Republic isn’t going away.

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