Ambassador Yoram Ettinger -- The Iran-Venezuela-Hezbollah axis has erected a mutually beneficial network of intelligence, terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, training, weapons, supplies, and know-how, transforming Venezuela into a central hub of transnational organized crime and international terrorism.  However, since 1979, the State Department has persisted in its diplomatic option toward Iran’s Ayatollahs, which has bolstered the Ayatollahs’ anti-US capabilities, threatening the survival of every pro-US Arab regime.

* - According to the Atlantic Council: “The dual-use nature of Iran’s cooperation with Venezuela’s Maduro regime, layered with the illicit financial connections of its facilitators, and Hezbollah’s established crime-terror network in Venezuela, creates a tier-one national security concern for the United States. It is multifaceted and requires a robust response.”

* - According to Joseph M. Humire, the co-author of Iran’s Strategic Penetration of Latin America: “For more than a decade, Iran has been equipping Venezuela with modern weaponry, including long-range drones, smart bombs, cruise missiles, rockets, and, of course, the combat boats. These weapons systems are not meant to be used in a conventional military fashion but instead used in asymmetric amphibious assaults, like the tactics used by the Iran-supported Houthi rebels off the coast of Yemen and in the Red Sea… Iran is taking this modus operandi across the Atlantic into the Caribbean.