September 2006, No. 41

Trade & Business

Relationship between Iran and Venezuela is, to some extent, based on the past bipolar international system; a system in which ideological commonalties had the first say in determining bilateral and multilateral relations.

Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela which has the richest oil reserves in the sensitive region of Latin America, visited Iran for the fifth time to negotiate with the Iranian officials. Chavez went to Iran after visiting Russia and Qatar. His visits to Iran are considered as a new opportunity for developing bilateral ties. When in Russia, Chavez signed a contract worth one billion dollars with Russian president, Vladimir Putin, for purchasing military equipment including 30 Sokho fighter planes from that country. The contract has raised concerns in the United States.

The United States has major ideological discrepancies with Venezuela and its social democrat president, Hugo Chavez, and has tried many times through coup attempts and social unrests such as instigating widespread strikes among oil industry workers of Venezuela to topple that country’s government. However, Chavez has been able to weather all those crises. Venezuela is among countries that are outright critics of the United States and in addition to being members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Perhaps the most important commonalty between Tehran and Caracas is their outspoken criticism of US policies. Chavez has frequently supported Iran’s anti-American stances and Iran, on the opposite, has understood anti-imperialistic positions taken by Venezuela and has many times lauded Venezuela for its resistance against US influence.

Relationship between Iran and Venezuela is, to some extent, based on the past bipolar international system; a system in which ideological commonalties had the first say in determining bilateral and multilateral relations. This factor is no longer a determinant in new international system. Therefore, despite that fact that diplomatic rhetoric which has been handed down from the past international system is still seen among politicians, but they are no longer influencing bilateral relations among countries. Therefore, Chavez’ visit to Iran can be considered an ordinary visit, which has had precedence in the bygone years. Proponents of this viewpoint believe that since international relations of today are no longer compatible with ideological rhetoric, the visit by Chavez to Tehran should be considered a perfunctory visit. They say the main goal of regional tour of Chavez was to visit Russia and use that opportunity for purchasing arms from Moscow. Therefore, such analysts believe that in view of hard conditions set by the United States for Venezuela in international arena, which aims to bar that country from purchasing weaponry from Russia, on the one hand, and in the light of new conditions brought about by Iran’s nuclear case, which has forced the United States to get closer to Russia and China to forge consensus on an anti-Iranian resolution at United Nations Security Council, on the other hand, Chavez has availed of the current juncture to promote national interests of his country and, in the meantime, he has paid a quite ordinary visit to Iran.

However, his visit has been looked upon from a totally different angle too. Proponents of this viewpoint still look upon international relations from an idealistic slant and maintain that such countries as Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Syria and a group of other countries which have stood against the United States can form an ideological alliance and threaten US interests in various parts of the world. This viewpoint is rifer in Iran and Venezuela because both of them are oil rich states and both play important parts within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Therefore, they can form an ideological pole inside OPEC and shake west’s interests, when needed. Oil reserves of Venezuela have been estimated to equal oil reserve of the Persian Gulf. According to this viewpoint, Chavez has offered important proposals to Iran. he has proposed Iran to participate in a joint project for pipeline transfer of Venezuelan oil and gas to Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina or to take part in mass construction of housing units or car production in that country. Therefore, Chavez had brought his minister of petroleum to Iran to show that Caracas is quite ready to move along that policy’s line. However, there are problems with an ideological union which made its realization much of a difficulty. Geographical dispersion of those countries as well as the conflict between their regional and national interests and ideological expediencies, are major obstacles to realization of such ideological union.

However, the spirit of negotiations between Ahmadinejad and Chavez shows that an ideological slant has been dominant throughout those talks. Ahmadinejad and Chavez have frequently used phrases during their talks that underline their common ant-imperialistic viewpoints to bring both countries closer together. Chavez has also promised to provide opportunities for Iranian oil companies to become active in oil rich regions of his country. The tone of both presidents’ remarks shows that relations between Iran and Venezuela under current conditions are totally ideological. Awarding high medal of the Iranian government to Hugo Chavez was the first step taken by Tehran in order to cement that ideological relationship. In addition to that symbolic move, ideological tendencies of both presidents are quite clear in their remarks. This was also evident when Ahmadinejad told Chavez that he was in his own home and called him the origin of a revolutionary and progressive current in South America or when Chavez referred to memory of his meeting with Ahmadinejad when he was still Tehran mayor and said that he has come to Tehran to emphasize that Venezuela will stand on Iran’s side under any conditions. He said Iran and Venezuela can defeat imperialism if they stood together because, “they will easily dispose of us if we are divided. This has been shown in political history of the past 200 years of many countries”. Anyway, Chavez was quite careful about political considerations in his visit to Iran when he asked about former president Mohammad Khatami or Dr. Hassan Habibi, who was a former first vice president under a number of Iranian presidents.

Another approach, which is also present in Iran’s relations with Venezuela is quite professional and diplomatic and can be fully applied under circumstances when Iran is facing serious regional and international challenges. According to this viewpoint, Chavez in his visit to Tehran immediately after visiting Moscow and Qatar may have been conveying a message to Iranian officials from their Russian counterparts or even the United Nations Security Council. Perhaps they had felt that if Chavez, which is quite friendly with Iran, conveyed that message, it would be more effective. Venezuela was the sole country among 35 members of Board of Governors of International Atomic Energy Agency that voted negative to an anti-Iranian resolution which was passed by Board of Governors and paved the way for referring Iran’s nuclear case to the United Nations Security Council. Therefore, some analysts believed that conveying a message through a person like Chavez is clear indication to Iran that under current conditions, Iran should not move closer to international sanctions because if this happens, an important member of the anti-American front will be weakened. For this reason, if Moscow has actually sent such a message to Iran through Chavez, he could be a very influential figure.

In response to Chavez’ visit to Tehran, Ahmadinejad is planning to visit Caracas within September 2006. If he visits Venezuela and succeeds in finalizing economic agreements that were reached in Tehran, this visit could be considered an important one in view of potential important economic opportunities that exist for Iran in Venezuela. This will be a rare occasion in Iran’s foreign relations. Taking advantage of ideological commonalities to boost economic development of both countries can be a very suitable opportunity for a country that has already paid a high price for protecting its ideology under the new international order.