Iran and China are on the move again. Last Friday, to the apparent surprise of the Biden Administration, China asserted its influence in the Middle East by entering the vacuum created by US President Joe Biden, and brokering a deal between Iran and its threatened neighbor, Saudi Arabia, which Biden had vowed to make a “pariah,” and “end the sale of material” to it. The Saudis heard.

Iran, meanwhile, has not been shy about its mission to “export the revolution” to the Western hemisphere. Most recently, in February, two Iranian warships docked in Brazil, under its recently elected socialist President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. From there, the ships will reportedly proceed to the Panama Canal, already controlled at both ends by Iran’s newish ally — the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The CCP officially declared a “people’s war” on the United States on May 14, 2019, in its flagship newspaper, the People’s Daily, as well as before that, on January 29, 2017, even if the US was not listening.

Iranian Infiltration of South America

Iran has been openly infiltrating South America for decades. In 1994, it famously blew up a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 85 people. Recently, while the Biden Administration has been pursuing a “nuclear deal” with Iran — one that will enable it soon to have as many nuclear weapons as it likes — Iran has been expanding its already sizeable foothold south of the US border. 

The militant Islamic theocracy already has a significant presence — and presumably influence — in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua. It is now targeting Brazil and the Panama Canal.

Source: Lawrence A. Franklin, The Gatestone Institute