Iran’s Influence Keeps Growing

 By Henry Srebrnik, [Saint John, N.B.] Telegraph-Journal

For Iranians, the last nine months have been extraordinarily turbulent. Since last September, when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman, died in police custody after being arrested for “improperly” wearing her hijab, people across the nation have taken to the streets to protest the regime.

Between Jan. 1 and May 5, Iran executed at least 192 people, most for drug-related offenses and murder. At least 527 demonstrators have been killed by security forces since the protests began.

You would think the Tehran regime would be an international pariah. But you would be wrong. Just days after Iran executed three men on May 19 for having participated in anti-regime protests, the country was appointed chair of the United Nations Human Rights Council 2023 Social Forum, which convenes this coming November.

 Tehran was also elected a vice-president of the UN General Assembly and will serve in that position for a one-year term beginning in September. It was also voted -- by acclamation -- onto the UN’s Committee on Disarmament and International Security. The stated purpose of that body is to promote disarmament, deal with threats to international peace, and work towards a safer world.

Yet Ayatollah Ali Khamanei’s regime, which is escalating its nuclear weapons program while fomenting terrorism across the Middle East and worldwide, perpetuates the very problems the committee aims to address.

Meanwhile, on June 11, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi departed on a five-day Latin American tour to bolster relations with “like-minded and friendly states.” Accompanied by a delegation including the ministers of foreign affairs, oil and health, Raisi signed multiple agreements on political, trade, industrial and scientific cooperation with Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. 

 Raisi’s 21 months in office have included 14 visits abroad to meet state leaders or attend international summits, during which a total of 126 deals have been signed.  

As Iran’s sympathy with the “anti-imperialist” agenda of those states has intensified, they have returned the favour with their pro-Tehran votes in international rights bodies and the UN to counter the criticism of the Islamic Republic over its human rights record.

In Cuba, Raisi met with President Miguel Diaz-Canel. Apart from bilateral trade, the two signed major deals in medical sciences and health care. Such cooperation ramped up during the coronavirus pandemic. The leading Iranian research centre, the Pasteur Institute, entered a joint venture with Cuba’s Finlay Institute to produce a COVID-19 vaccine known in Iran as PastoCovac.

Raisi told reporters at a trade forum in Havana that Cuba and Iran would seek opportunities to work together in electricity generation, biotechnology, and mining, among other areas. Top officials signed administrative agreements vowing to boost cooperation between the countries’ ministries of justice, and customs agencies, as well as in telecommunications.

 

Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Iran are among the countries that have had to heroically confront threats, blockades and interference “by Yankee imperialism and its allies,” Diaz-Canel told his Iranian counterpart.

 

“Iran and Cuba are among frontrunners of regional convergence, capable of providing one another with opportunities to join regional alliances forged on their sides of the globe,” tweeted Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who accompanied Raisi in Havana.  

In recent years Iran has also been strengthening ties with Nicaragua. In February, President Daniel Ortega defended Tehran’s contentious nuclear aspirations as he received Iranian Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian in the capital, Managua.

Amir-Abdollahian noted that the Islamic revolution and Nicaragua’s Sandinista revolution both took place in 1979 and “we are proud that Nicaragua has fought against imperialism and colonialist pressure over the last decades.”

“My trip to Nicaragua comes in line with the policy of expanding ties with independent nations,” Raisi declared, as he attacked the United States as a “bullying” power. “The world would be a better place if they put an end to their despotism and respect the will of other nations.” 

Iran and Nicaragua signed three cooperation documents and Raisi spoke at a joint appearance with Ortega. “The United States wanted to paralyze our people with threats and sanctions, but it hasn’t been able to do it,” Raisi stated.

Last summer, when Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro visited Tehran to enhance cooperation in the oil, petrochemicals and defence sectors, Iran and Venezuela signed a 20-year partnership agreement. He was lauded by Raisi for his resistance against “imperialistic sanctions and pressure.”

On Raisi’s current trip, in which he noted that they share “common interests” and “common enemies,” the two oil-rich nations signed 26 cooperation documents and entered into energy deals in which Iran committed to developing Venezuelan oil refineries. The two leaders set a goal to push up their annual trade volume from a current $3 billion to $10 billion.

 Iran and Venezuela are both major producers in the OPEC oil cartel, placing them at the center of international discussions on the energy crisis.

In its quest for new allies with the aim of mitigating pressure from Western adversaries, the Islamic Republic does not appear to be merely focused on business. It has not lost sight of expanding its ideological sway as well.

“Some question the philosophy of our presence in Latin America, but there is a necessity to globalize Islam and spread it to every spot of the world,” stated Ali Saeedi, the director of Ayatollah Khamenei’s political bureau, in endorsing the trip.