Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spent a five day visit to Latin America where he showed that Iran still has allies south of our border. Unfortunately, very little was covered in the U.S. news media. BBC and The Economist magazine can always be counted on to print or broadcast what some chose to ignore.
Mahmoud called on Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez where he got the red carpet treatment. Then he joined Hugo in the presidential inauguration of Nicaragua’s Danny Ortega for Ortega constitutionally dubious third presidential term.
He then flew on to Cuba and Ecuador.
This was his fifth trip to the LatAm region.
The US has down played all these visit as if they never happened and says there is no concern on terrorist activity from Iran.
Funny, I wonder why the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Quds Force, the foreign terrorist arm of the IRGF, has forces in Venezuela.
Many analyst claims that HizbAllah, a close IRGF surrogate, is involved in cocaine trafficking from LatAm.
HizbAllah has been reported to have access to the Mexican Los Zetas people and drug smuggling routes to smuggle people into the U.S. As things heat up with Iran… guess what might be in store for the U.S.
For Mahmoud and his LatAm host there is surely more than political theater here.
Any idea of a positive outcome from the so-called “Arab Spring” is all but gone. News reports confirm most that the Islamists will be the wielders of power in Egypt, Tunisia and possibly Libya and their agendas are what I warned it would be – radical Islam.
The Muslim Brotherhood and Salaf Nour Party are the big winners in Egypt. Guided by the Saudi-inspired school of thought, Salafist, Islamic hard lineer will not be friendly to the U.S. or Israel. Salafi groups in Egypt speak openly about their plans in Egypt where personal freedoms, free speech and women rights will be subject to sharia law.
Robert Haddick, writing in the Small Wars Journal, 13 Jan 2012, “This week at War: Playing Risks,” markes the most important fall out:
“… the Arab Spring has created collateral damage to U.S. relations with key Gulf countries. Leaders in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere were not pleased with the Obama administration’s abandonment of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. U.S. policymakers seem to make a clear distinction between external threats to the Sunni Arab countries, to which the United States has pledged to respond, and internal threats, which the United States sees as each country’s responsibility. The Sunni monarchies, fearing Iran’s covert and irregular-warfare capabilities, do not so neatly see the distinction between Iranian-sponsored external and internal threats. …having lost some confidence in U.S. reliability, are now looking east to India and China to diversify their security relationships.”
The Administration inexperience in international relations and military affairs are hurting U.S. positions around the world. The Arab Spring has sprung a trap on U.S. forein policy.
