The National Interest just published a piece I wrote on the ailing Iran-Venezuela alliance. Both countries are reeling from economic mismanagement and geopolitical isolation:
Led by Undersecretary Stuart Levey, the U.S. Treasury has waged a global campaign to stop banks from laundering money for Iran’s nuclear program in recent years, and international sanctions are slowly crushing Iran’s economy.
Meanwhile, Venezuela and Iran’s spheres of influence are breaking down, and a few of their allies—Cuba and Syria—have already begun death rattles.
Yet the alliance does pose a threat to US security, and there’s no way to rule out a desperate last ditch kamikaze by the Iran-Venezuela tag team. Still:
Washington shouldn’t needlessly provoke that scenario—not when the current arrangement works to America’s advantage.
Read the complete article here.
