The anti-US Iran-Venezuela-Hezbollah axis Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger
*Venezuela’s geo-strategic location in Latin America has been leveraged by Iran and its chief proxy, Hezbollah, to undermine the strategic posture of “The Great American Satan” in the US’ own backyard. The Iran-Venezuela-Hezbollah axis has erected a mutually beneficial anti-US network of intelligence, terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, training, weapons, supplies, and know-how, transforming Venezuela into a central hub of transnational organized crime and international terrorism. However, since 1979, the State Department has persisted in its diplomatic option toward Iran’s Ayatollahs, which has bolstered the Ayatollahs’ anti-US capabilities, threatening the survival of every pro-US Arab regime.
*According to the Atlantic Council: “The dual-use nature of Iran’s cooperation with Venezuela’s Maduro regime, layered with the illicit financial connections of its facilitators, and Hezbollah’s established crime-terror network in Venezuela, creates a tier-one national security concern for the United States. It is multifaceted and requires a robust response.”
*According to Joseph M. Humire, the co-author of Iran’s Strategic Penetration of Latin America: “For more than a decade, Iran has been equipping Venezuela with modern weaponry, including long-range drones, smart bombs, cruise missiles, rockets, and, of course, the combat boats. These weapons systems are not meant to be used in a conventional military fashion but instead used in asymmetric amphibious assaults, like the tactics used by the Iran-supported Houthi rebels off the coast of Yemen and in the Red Sea… Iran is taking this modus operandi across the Atlantic into the Caribbean. This is aimed at the United States with the mounting Venezuela-Guyana conflict [concerning a territorial dispute, offshore oil and commercial shipping lanes] as the catalyst…. Iran, Russia and China have already carried out a half-dozen joint naval exercises in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean since 2018, and aspire to bring these drills to the Atlantic Ocean. Venezuela may provide them the pretext to do so.”
*Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has tightened its cooperation with
Venezuela’s intelligence apparatus, assisting the despotic and corrupt Maduro regime, while leveraging Venezuela’s geostrategic location as a staging ground to plan terror operations on the soil of “The Great American Satan” and undermining the US’ strategic posture in its own hemisphere. In fact, FBI Director, Chris Wray, maintains that Iran-supported Islamic terrorists have established sleeper cells in the US, plotting assassinations of former and present US officials.
*According to a July 16, 2024 CNN report, the US Secret Service and additional counter-terrorism agencies have identified a significant uptick in Iran’s attempts to assassinate former President Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Advisors John Bolton and Robert O’Brien.
*The Atlantic Council document states: “[Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah,] has helped to turn Venezuela into a hub for the convergence of transnational organized crime, international terrorism…., narcoterrorism that involved the [Marxist-Leninist] Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), drug cartels in Mexico, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Syria…. Hezbollah is responsible for [training the Al Qaeda terrorists, who car-bombed the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998], carrying out terrorist attacks in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait, Argentina, Panama, United Kingdom and Bulgaria…. The Iran and Hezbollah’s terror network is also suspected of downing the Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901 in Panama, killing all twenty-one passengers aboard….
“The Hezbollah terror network operates in the Paraguay-Brazil-Argentina Tri-Border Area…. Of the more than 2,000 individuals and entities around the world designated by the US government as foreign narcotics kingpins, almost 200 are connected to Hezbollah and its growing involvement in massive money-laundering schemes and multi-ton shipments of cocaine…. In October 2018, the Justice Department listed Hezbollah as one of the top five transnational criminal organizations…. Hezbollah is equal to the drug cartels in organized crime and terror….”
“In Venezuela, the logistical air bridge between Caracas, Damascus, and Tehran has been profitable for Hezbollah and Iran….”
*In June, 2022, Iran and Venezuela signed a 20-year cooperation agreement in the areas of oil, petrochemicals, refinery repairs, defense, agriculture, tourism, culture, and the export of technical and engineering services…. In 2023, they concluded 19 cooperation accords in industry, mining, agriculture, energy, science, and technology.
*Asia Times reports that “Iran’s interest in Venezuela’s [has to do with the latter’s] uranium reserves, a crucial element for its nuclear program. This interest is not limited to Venezuela. Bolivia and Peru are also key for their strategic resources, highlighting the geopolitical importance of these countries for Tehran.”
*According to the Azerbaijan-based Caspian News: “Iran has expanded military cooperation with Venezuela in recent years. Since 2012, the Iranian-designed drone Mohajer-2 has been produced in Venezuela as the Arpia drone with Iran’s support…. The total volume of oil industry trade between Iran and Venezuela has reached nearly $4 billion and Iran aims to raise trade volume to $10 billion and further to $20 billion…. Iran and Venezuela have been strengthening ties for years, including by working together to evade US sanctions against both countries….
*Irrespective of the aforementioned facts, the State Department persists in its diplomatic option toward Iran’s Ayatollahs, assuming that such a policy – being pampered by hundreds of billions of dollars – could induce the Ayatollahs to accept peaceful coexistence with its Sunni Arab neighbors, adopt good-faith negotiation and abandon a 1,400-year-old fanatic ideology. The State Department insists that Iran’s Ayatollahs are partners to negotiation, in defiance of the Ayatollahs’ global rogue and anti-US track record, which underscores that they should be a target for regime-change.
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