Iran supports Venezuela’s Maduro government as Trump considers military action
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Iran supports Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro at a time when the Trump administration is intensifying its military pressure in the Caribbean and expanding its crackdown on criminal networks linked to the Caracas regime.
Earlier this week, Iran condemned US actions and publicly linked itself to Maduro. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei warned of the “dangerous repercussions” of US military activity in the region, arguing that these operations threaten “international peace and security”, according to the official Iranian news agency IRNA.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Iván Gil Pinto immediately welcomed Tehran’s support. In comments reported by the Tehran Times, he thanked Iran for its “solidarity with the Venezuelan people.”
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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro holds up a copy of the case filed before the International Criminal Court regarding U.S. sanctions during a news conference at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Isaias Medina III, a former Venezuelan diplomat on the UN Security Council who resigned in 2017 over Maduro’s human rights violations, told Fox News Digital that “Iran’s partnership with Venezuela’s rogue narcodictatorship is far from a principled stance in support of ‘sovereign rights’ under the UN Charter.”
“This is a partnership for power, not for principles. Iran’s engagement focuses on deepening military, criminal and intelligence cooperation, which blatantly disregards international norms,” he said.
Asked Monday if he had ruled out anything, including sending U.S. troops on the ground, President Donald Trump told reporters: “No, I’m not ruling that out, I’m not ruling out anything. We just have to deal with Venezuela. They’ve thrown hundreds of thousands of people into our country from prisons.”
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is pictured seated next to a senior Iranian military official. (Getty Images)
Danny Citrinowicz, a senior fellow at the Israel Institute for National Security Studies, told Fox News Digital that Iran’s public defense of Venezuela reflects deep strategic anxiety inside Tehran.
“Iran is extremely, extremely worried about losing its main hub in Latin America,” he said. “Losing Maduro will be a strategic loss for Iran, because Venezuela is a strategic hub, not only for activity in Venezuela itself, but also for activity in Latin America in general.”
Citrinowicz highlighted the recently revealed assassination attempt against Israel’s ambassador to Mexico, which Mexican authorities linked to operatives linked to the Iranian Quds Force. According to Citrinowicz, the operation illustrates how Iran uses Venezuelan territory as a transit base.
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Former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi welcomes Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro at Sadabat Palace in Tehran, Iran, June 11, 2022. (Photo by Iranian Presidency / Document/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
He said the Iranians “used their presence in Venezuela, primarily the presence of the Quds Force, in order to round up the right people who actually tried to carry out this attack.”
“This is just one example of how the Iranians are using their presence in Venezuela as a sort of way to launch into the Latin American continent as a whole.”
He added that Venezuela has long been Iran’s most important foothold in the region: “Losing Venezuela is not only losing the grip of Venezuela itself, but also the ability to use Venezuela to strengthen its activities in Latin America in general, including operational activities as we saw in Mexico.” »
Citrinowicz said Iran had already lost a longtime ally in the region after Bolivia’s recent elections. Remaining partners include Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, but “strategically and historically, Venezuela was the most important because it gave them enough room to operate.”
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Venezuelan Oil Minister Pedro Tellechea and his Iranian counterpart Javad Owji sign agreements during a meeting of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and then Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the Miraflores Palace, in Caracas, Venezuela, June 12, 2023. (Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters)
Asked if Iran was directly helping the Venezuelan military, he said: “They have advisors on the ground. They can help the Venezuelan army, and they can also send weapons via Qeshm Fars Air flights connecting Tehran to Caracas. They have done it in the past, and they can do it again today.
On Tuesday, American Families Against Cartel Terrorism (AmFACT) President Adriana Jones welcomed the U.S. State Department’s designation of the Venezuela-based Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization.
Jones — whose sister Maria “Rhonita” LeBaron and four of her children were murdered in the 2019 Juárez cartel massacre — said the move demonstrated Washington’s resolve.
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“The terrorist designation of the Cartel de los Soles is an important reminder that the Trump Administration is prepared to use foreign terrorist organization designations to combat dangerous drug and human trafficking cartels,” she said.
She urged policymakers to grant the same designation to the Juárez cartel and its armed wing, La Línea, arguing that every day without the designation “gives them space to operate with impunity and increases the likelihood that more American families will suffer the same heartache and devastation as we do.”
Since September, the United States has launched at least 21 deadly strikes against boats allegedly involved in drug trafficking off Central and South America, including one on Sunday, as part of what officials describe as a broader campaign to disrupt shipping routes linked to Venezuelan criminal networks.
