Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro spoke by phone with Iran’s President-elect, Massoud Pezechkian, on Wednesday and assured the leader that his country will continue to seek stronger ties with the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.
Pezeshkian won Sunday in a sham election orchestrated by the real leader of Iran’s rogue government, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in which he positioned himself as a “moderate” candidate against “hard-line” candidate Saeed Jalili. The election was led to a runoff election after a first round on June 28. Pezeshkian surprisingly came in first, but did not pass the 50 percent approval threshold needed to avoid a runoff election.
All elections in Iran are engineered to ensure a winner of Khamenei’s personal choice, with a clerical “Guardian Council” blocking undesirable candidates from voting and the regime maintaining complete control over the vote counting and election monitoring process.
The elections were called out of necessity following the death in May of incumbent President Ebrahim Raisi, a “hardliner” who spent much of his presidency killing and silencing the country’s peaceful dissidents, and who died in a mysterious helicopter crash in May.
Before his death, Raisi devoted much of his foreign policy to geopolitical activism alongside Latin America’s most brutal communist and socialist dictatorships. Venezuela is Iran’s closest ally in the region. Raisi visited Caracas a year ago to discuss cooperation in the oil industry and opposition to U.S. influence around the world.
Pezechkian assured Maduro that Iran’s foreign policy, which prioritizes Venezuela, will not change.Iran), Pezechkian used the phone call to invite Maduro to Iran and promised to meet in person in the near future.
“The two officials expressed interest in holding the highest level of talks in the future to further expand mutual relations,” the Iranian news agency reported. “The president-elect said that the Islamic Republic of Iran and Venezuela have common challenges and ideals, including the desire for freedom, independence and justice, and share common views and positions on the Palestinian issue and support for the oppressed people in Gaza.”
“Without a doubt, my government also seeks to expand cooperation with Venezuela,” Pezeshkian asserted.
In response, President Maduro promised that his administration “will remain your true friend and companion” and expressed confidence in Pezechkian’s ability to run the presidency.
Venezuela confirmed the call in an official statement from its Foreign Ministry outlining the exchange between the two illegitimate rulers, in which President Maduro “congratulated Venezuela on its recent electoral victory and acknowledged the fraternal ties between the two countries,” it said.
“The two leaders expressed their willingness to continue working together to advance the long-term strategic relationship and hold high-level talks in the near future to continue planning for cooperation and common development,” the statement concluded.
#communication 📢 El Presidente Nicolas Maduro I intend to continue my telephone conversations with candidates in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s presidential elections. Follow the recent election victory has confirmed the character of the vice presidential candidate, and we are fortunate to… pic.twitter.com/sFHv7NCnjo
— Ivan Gil (@yvangil) July 9, 2024
Iranian state broadcaster PressTV Added President Maduro has reportedly offered Pezechkian his “full support” in his role as president subordinate to the “Supreme Leader.”
The assurances of Iran’s continued support for the Venezuelan regime are the latest in several public efforts by Pezeshkian to undermine his own election campaign, in which he has appeared to subtly criticize the regime and make vague promises of change to the Iranian people.
Pezeshkian particularly criticized Raisi’s brutality against protesters and the collapse of the Iranian economy as a result of sanctions imposed primarily during the term of former President Donald Trump, the current leading contender for the 2024 US presidential elections.
“We are losing support from society because of our actions, rising prices, the treatment of girls and internet censorship. People are unhappy with our actions,” candidate Pezeshkian once said.
However, immediately after the “victory” was confirmed, Pezeshkian assured Khamenei that he would not deviate from Raisi’s government’s policies, and in return, Iran’s top military leaders indicated they would not cross Pezeshkian.
“I hereby announce that the Ministry of Defense’s scientists and military personnel in the defense and scientific and technological sectors are ready to fully cooperate and protect the achievements of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani said after the elections.
Pezeshkian soon began sending conciliatory messages internationally. One of his first calls abroad was to Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Iran’s terrorist proxy group Hezbollah, in which he declared that “the Islamic Republic has always supported the resistance of the peoples of the region against the illegitimate Zionist regime.”
“The resistance movement in the region is confident that it will not allow this regime to continue its war-mongering and criminal policies against the oppressed peoples of Palestine and other countries in the region,” Pezeshkian promised.
Iran and Venezuela began significantly expanding their bilateral relationship under the administration of the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who developed a personal relationship with then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Maduro has maintained that relationship through economic cooperation. Both Iran and Venezuela are oil powerhouses, but the industry is in deep trouble. Iran faces widespread sanctions for supporting terrorism, and Venezuela has few functioning oil refineries and other facilities left due to its socialist incompetence and an unprecedented migration crisis.
Under Raisi’s administration, Iran lived up to the latter promise, unveiling an agreement in February 2023 for the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) to help Petroleum de Venezuela (PDVSA) renovate the country’s largest refining facility, which had been devastated by socialism. The two sides reportedly signed a contract worth nearly $500 million to repair the facility.
During Raisi’s visit to Caracas in June 2023, the two countries agreed to establish a technical office in Venezuela. Raisi used the opportunity to praise Iran for “transforming pressure and sanctions into opportunities, thus providing various capabilities that can be shared with a resilient Venezuela.”
“Iran is playing a glorious role as one of the most important emerging powers in the new world,” Maduro said at the time. “Together we are invincible!”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned in March that ties between Iran and Venezuela were expanding into military cooperation.
“Iran is using Venezuela as a base in South America, and is fully capable of delivering weapons to Venezuela by air and sea to attack U.S. territory,” the IDF explained in a video released that month. “For example, Iran’s Mohajer-6 unmanned aerial vehicle, unveiled at a recent military parade in Venezuela, has a flight time of 12 hours and a range of 1,200 miles, putting U.S. cities such as Miami within striking distance.”
