Diplomatie et business
Iran is courting Latin America’s leftist bloc with diplomacy, joint business projects and aid while gathering support for its much-criticized nuclear program. Nicaragua has received Iranian aid pledges for a dam and milk-processing plants, and is playing down U.S. concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Iran has also promised Bolivia $1 billion in aid and investment, including plans to build a cement plant, dairies and two public health clinics.
Some of Iran’s ambitions might be dampened by falling oil prices, but its checkbook diplomacy is likely to continue. "Iran will take every opportunity to show that it is not isolated and in the process question Washington’s influence, even in its own back yard," said Farideh Farhi, a researcher at the University of Hawaii who writes frequently about Iran’s foreign policy.
Le Venezuela, partenaire-clé
Venezuela could also give Iran breathing space as it tries to weather the financial pressure of U.N. and U.S. sanctions over its nuclear program. Venezuela could end up being an outlet for Iran to move money, obtain high-tech equipment and access the world financial system.
This concern led Washington to impose new sanctions on an Iranian-owned bank in Caracas, the capital, last month, accusing it of providing financial services in support of Iran’s weapons program. The bank, Banco Internacional de Desarrollo, recently opened an unobtrusive office on the eighth floor of a Caracas high-rise that looks out over the palm trees of an exclusive golf course. Its president did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.
Venezuela has become Iran’s gateway for travel to the region, with a flight between Tehran and Caracas every other Tuesday. Chavez says Venezuela’s state airline bought an Airbus jet especially for the route, which includes a stop in Damascus, Syria. Venezuela has a large Arab community of Syrian and Lebanese immigrants, many of whom arrived decades ago.
U.S. officials say they are worried about the possibility of terrorists and Iranian intelligence agents arriving on the flights. The U.S. State Department asserted in an April terrorism report that "passengers on these flights were not subject to immigration and customs controls."
American diplomat Thomas A. Shannon Jr., assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, has said the United States is concerned about "what Iran is doing elsewhere in this hemisphere and what it could do if we were to find ourselves in some kind of confrontation."
Craintes américaines
One of the biggest worries for U.S. and Israeli officials is Iran’s long history of funding and aiding Islamist extremist groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah. They point to accusations by Argentine authorities that Iran backed Hezbollah in the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people, as well as in the 1994 attack that leveled a Jewish community center there and killed 85. Iran and Hezbollah have denied involvement.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced in June that Hezbollah was receiving support from a Venezuelan diplomat and a Lebanese-born businessman living in Caracas. The diplomat, Ghazi Nasr al Din, is assigned to the Venezuelan Embassy in Syria, and U.S. officials said he used his position to provide financial support to the Lebanese militant group and "counseled Hezbollah donors on fundraising efforts." The diplomat is also accused of arranging travel for Hezbollah members to visit Venezuela and to attend a training course in Iran.
Venezuela has denied the accusations, saying the U.S. government is out to malign Chavez for political purposes. Chavez, who plans another visit to Tehran by year’s end, ridicules the idea of Venezuela and Iran teaming up as an "axis of evil."
Vers une alliance nucléaire entre Caracas et Téhéran ?
His own government plans to start its own nuclear energy program and insists it won’t be used for weapons. Chavez once joked, riding a bike produced by an Iranian-Venezuelan joint venture, that the two countries are building the "atomic bicycle." Iran says its aims in Latin America are purely peaceful.
Iranian tractors are being driven by farmers in parts of Venezuela and Bolivia, and the first cars produced by Venirauto, a joint venture, are on Venezuelan roads. Meanwhile, concrete apartment blocks are going up on farmland in the southern plains. Kayson Co. has employed nearly 6,000 workers to build four public housing complexes with a total of 10,000 apartments across the country, including the 2,700-unit subdivision in Calabozo.
The Iranian company has weathered sporadic conflicts with labor unions, but at the same time many of its employees have grown close to their Venezuelan co-workers. Some of them have even become godparents to children of Venezuelan employees. Venezuelan cooks in the cafeteria have learned to prepare Iranian dishes, from kebabs to abgusht — a broth served with beef and potatoes — along with serving pita bread and yogurt.
