/ News&Analyses / Americas Diplomacy & Security Middle East
World Citizen: The Middle East's Latin America Battles
Middle Eastern diplomacy has intensified enormously in recent months, but don't expect to see peace break out any time soon as a result of that new burst of activity. That's because the latest wave of diplomacy has surfaced in a most unlikely place: South America.
In November alone, Brazil is playing host to the presidents of Israel, Iran and the Palestinian Authority.(…) The visits are hardly routine. When Israeli President Shimon Peres landed in Brazil last week, part of a tour that also included Argentina, it was the first time in 40 years that an Israeli president had visited the country.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, by contrast, has spent a great deal of time in the region. He paid a call to Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva earlier this year, and he is a frequent guest of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez.
In fact, it is Iran's growing influence in Latin America that has prompted Israel to start paying attention to the region. Latin America is fast becoming a proxy for the not-so-cold war between Iran and Israel.(…)
Tehran's presence in Latin America had already captured Washington's attention. For months, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been raising flags about Iran's activities in Venezuela and elsewhere in the hemisphere. (…)Iran's closest links are with Venezuela, but the Islamic Republic's activities extend beyond both Venezuelan borders and the walls of its own diplomatic compounds.
(…)Adm. James Stavridis, at the time the head of the U.S. Southern Command, said Iran, in conjunction with its allied militia, the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, is engaged in illicit activities in Colombia's narcotics business, as well as in the border region between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina.
More visible is the growing closeness between leaders, which has become a source of apprehension in Israel and the United States -- not to mention Colombia. The strengthening relationships have the potential to help Iran bypass international sanctions(...).Most troubling of all, however, is the strategic relationship with Venezuela.
(...)For two years now, Iran Air has flown a weekly route between Caracas and Tehran with a stop-over in Damascus.
(...)One Israeli report suggested that Venezuela and Bolivia are supplying uranium to Iran. All the countries denied the accusation.(...) Douglas Farah, a highly regarded author and expert in international security, thinks the flurry of exchanges between Venezuela and Iran could provide a cover for activities by Hezbollah and by Iran's Quds Force. He points to one use of the relationship for the Islamic Republic: Iran, he says, already owns banks in Venezuela, which operate as if they were regular Venezuelan institutions, allowing the country to bypass financial sanctions.
It is not surprising that Israel chose Brazil as the pivot point for its diplomatic offensive. After all, Brazil's president, known familiarly as "Lula," has long been a quiet rival to the more bombastic Chávez. (...)Brazil has taken a major role in organizing the developing world to face rich nations in trade negotiations, while also offering a more moderate -- and more successful -- model of economic growth with a social conscience.
The U.S. and Israel have started to worry about the new relationship developing between Brazil and Iran, adding to growing fears in Washington that the Islamic Republic is gaining strength in America's own backyard.
(...)The Israeli president's trip came several months after the country's foreign minister made his own pilgrimage to the region. After meeting Lula, Avigdor Lieberman explained the purpose of his visit, saying, "I think that Brazil more than other countries can try to convince Iranians to stop their nuclear program and, of course, to convince the Palestinians to start direct talks."
Peres came with a more wide-ranging agenda and a more powerful voice.
On the (...) issue of security, Peres presented the Israeli view of Iran to the Brazilian president, explaining Israeli concerns not only about Iran's nuclear enrichment, but also about its production of medium- and long-range missiles. Lula expressed understanding for the Israeli position, but said he will continue Brazil's policy of speaking with all sides.
Then the Brazilian, in keeping with his aspirations to global leadership, said he would like to play a role as a mediator between the parties in the Middle East conflicts. To that effect, he announced plans to travel to Israel, Jordan and Syria early next year.
Israeli officials appeared satisfied with the result of the latest round of diplomacy. But before they had much time to digest it, they had to welcome the latest foreign dignitary visiting Israel: the president of Argentina.
