Anyone who has played the strategic board game Risk can envision the world's choke points and key strategic crossroads. Today, upon analysis of Iranian activities and ties, it's not difficult to imagine Iran's green armies setting up bases around the world. The goals: to challenge American military forces across the globe and to position forces which can threaten Western shipping and commercial interests.
Iran's involvement in the terror and turmoil of Iraq has been well documented. Iran also threatens the petroleum lifeline through the Persian (Arabian) Gulf. Forty percent of the world's petroleum sails past Iran's batteries of anti-ship missiles and through the Straits of Hormuz -- the jagged choke point on the northeast corner of the Arabian Peninsula. Armed Iranian fast boats have repeatedly challenged U.S. Navy ships in the area. A pipeline under construction through the United Arab Emirates to the south should eventually cut the dependence on the Straits.
But a new report now places Iranian troops and missiles near the Horn of Africa at another choke point, the Bab el-Mandeb, on the Arabian Peninsula's southern tip. According to The Cutting Edge, "Iranian ships and submarines have deployed an undisclosed number of Iranian troops and weapons at the Eritrean port town of Assab, according to opposition groups, foreign diplomats, and NGOs in the area."
MEMRI reports, "Eritrean opposition websites reported that Eritrea has granted Iran total control of the Red Sea port of Assab, which overlooks the Bab el-Mandeb straits."
All ships going through the Suez Canal sail through the Red Sea and pass through the Bab el-Mandeb, including oil tankers and military vessels. Shipping to Israel's Eilat port and to Jordan's Aqaba port goes through the straits. Israel's Ashkelon-Eilat pipeline -- pumping Azeri oil eastward to the far east or westward from the Persian Gulf to Europe -- relies on oil tankers that sail past Assab.
From the Eastern Med to West Africa and South America
Iran's potent proxy, Hizbullah, has firmly established itself politically and militarily in Lebanon. Israel's Defense Forces must take into account Syrian and Hizbullah (actually Iranian-led) forces to its north. Hizbullah's tens of thousands of rockets and anti-shipping missiles have transformed large segments of Lebanon into Iranian military bases on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. For many years Lebanon's Bekaa Valley was the center for poppy cultivation and a massive international drug operation. Today, the Lebanese government has no authority in the Bekaa, and Hizbullah bases there are used by Iranian Revolutionary Guards to train terrorists from all over the world.
Iran and Hizbullah are pushing hard into western Africa. "West African countries have a large Arab community, and many of them are Shi'ite immigrants from Lebanon - who constitute the Hizbullah infrastructure in the region," a senior official at the Israeli Foreign Ministry told The Jerusalem Post this summer.
Matthew Levitt, the director of The Washington Institute's Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, has investigated the Hizbullah money trail. He reported, "A 2003 charter flight from Cotonou, Benin, in West Africa to Beirut, crashed on takeoff, killing all the passengers. On board were senior Hizbullah members, carrying $2 million in contributions to the organization from across the region. Arab press reports said the money represented the 'regular contributions the party receives from wealthy Lebanese nationals in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Benin and other African states.' A senior Hizbullah official was immediately dispatched to Benin to console the 'sons of the Lebanese community.'”
Competing Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian activists are all trying to win the souls and minds of Nigeria. In 2005 Iranian defense officials toured Nigerian bases and pledged military cooperation. Hizbullah training bases have also sprouted in Nigeria. (See picture from one Nigerian camp. Trainees are holding pictures of Hizbullah's Nasrallah and Hamas' Sheikh Yassin.)
In recent months the Nigerian-Iranian cooperation has also focused on the petroleum and nuclear energy fields. Iran and Nigeria, both major oil producers, have been hit hard by the precipitous drop of the price of oil. The two countries plan to join with Hugo Chavez' Venezuela to push OPEC to cut oil production in order to push oil prices skyward.
In August 2008, Iran offered Nigeria assistance in developing nuclear technology to increase its generation of electricity.
In east Africa, Iranian cooperation with Sudan serves to put pressure on Egypt, Sudan's neighbor to its north, as well as provides additional threats to Red Sea shipping. Leaders of the two pariah states have met often, with Iran providing weapons to Sudan despite a United Nations ban on weapons sales.
The Caribbean Threat
Iran's cooperation with Venezuela's Chavez goes far beyond the two countries' shared petroleum problems. Chavez, a very frequent visitor to Tehran, has helped Iran develop relations with Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador.
Hizbullah activity in Venezuela guarantees Iran a Latin American ally. Officials from the Center for Security Policy testified earlier this year before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, "Since 2003, there have been reports on the presence of Islamic terrorist groups in [Venezuela's] Margarita Island. The U.S. Southern Command stated that Isla Margarita is one of the most important centers of terrorist gathering and money laundering activities for Hamas and Hizbullah. The Chavez regime is giving out Venezuelan passports to foreigners from countries such as Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Egypt and Lebanon."
Chavez' chief liaison with Hizbullah appears to be Tarek El Aissami, Venezuela's Minister of Interior and Justice (pictured). The son of a Ba'ath Party official and great nephew of
one of Saddam Hussein's associates, El Aissami was behind the passport production, according to the Miami Herald, as well as illegal raids on Jewish institutions in Venezuela.
The Iranian investment in Venezuela is estimated to be more than $2 billion. For Iran's Ahmadinejad it's a solid investment in undermining American interests in America's own backyard.
Iran and Hizbullah can also count on the lawless "TBA" -- the tri-border area where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet -- for logistical support. The bombers who blew up the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and the Argentinian Jewish Association Building in 1994 are believed to have come out of the TBA under Iranian direction. Senior Iranian diplomats and officials, including former president Rafsanjani, have been formally charged by Argentinian prosecutors for ordering the bombings.
U.S. Southern Commander, Admiral James Stavridis, told a House Armed Services Committee hearing in March 2008 that while the emergence of Islamic radical terrorist groups is a “less immediate force in the region ... it has the potential to become of greater concern to us. At the moment, I would say, at an unclassified level, [their efforts are] largely centered in proselytizing, recruiting, money laundering. It is hooked somewhat into the narcotics trade and, above all, it is a means of generation of revenue, largely for the Hizbullah Islamic radical organization. Monies are garnered here in Latin America and go back to Hizbullah,” said Stavridis.
The admiral also said the Southern Command is “concerned about linkage between the Iranian state and nascent Islamic radical terrorism in this region.”
And Don't Forget Russia
Iran’s challenge to the United States parallels Russia’s efforts to “reinforce multipolari
ty in the world,” explained recently in Le Monde as a policy to “sustain and develop poles of resistance to U.S. hegemony and unilateralism.” Russia recently announced the reestablishment of a Russian naval base in Tarsus, Syria. Russian and Venezuelan ships conducted military exercises in the Caribbean last week, and a Russian destroyer, the Admiral Chabanenko, traversed the Panama Canal over the weekend – the first time a Russian warship crossed the canal since World War II. Approximately two-thirds of American oil imports travel along four sea routes through the Caribbean to Gulf Coast ports.
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Readers and bloggers confirm that the hospital picture by Khalil Hamra was removed from the Washington Post photo album. The photo of "Palestinian children and a man wounded in Israeli missile strikes are seen in the emergency area at Shifa hospital in Gaza City" can still be viewed here. Hatip: The Augean Stables.
