Venezuela and Cuba support Iran’s nuclear program.

During the United Nations meeting in New York, the governments of Caracas and Havana have expressed their unconditional support to the Islamic Republic of Iran, one of the usual and most criticized targets of the majority of countries that comprise the United Nations General Assembly. Iran’s nuclear program, and its potential use for military ends, is often cited as the main cause for the immense criticism that the Persian nation arouses. However, Cuba, and especially Venezuela, have defended this week Iran’s freedom, as a sovereign country, to run a nuclear program without any external interferences, and argue that other countries such as the U.S. or Israel simply use the United Nations’ mechanisms in their own benefit to prevent other states from being economically and energetically independent.

The article shows the strength of the political alliance between Iran and the two Latin American countries, particularly Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela. It is clear that this otherwise strange strategic alliance is based on two important factors, common interests in energetic (oil) matters and mutual opposition to U.S. hegemony and to American pressures on both Caracas and Tehran. In the context of international relations, it is helpful to know about this kind of alliances and the effects they may have on regional issues, such as the increase of American support to Israel against “problematic” Muslim neighbours like Iran or the strengthening of Tehran’s role as a potential leader of Muslim states in the Middle East.