Why do Iran and Hezbollah care about Venezuela?

When Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president on Monday, three diplomats stood out among the first people to congratulate her: the ambassadors of China and Russia, and that of Iran, Ali Chegini.

It was one indication of the close ties between Tehran and Caracas, which have strengthened over the years as the two oil-rich, highly sanction-hit nations have built a diverse partnership based on a shared ideological opposition to the US and to perceived western hegemony.

Confronted with widespread protests at home over an economy in free fall, leaders in Tehran were quick to condemn the US’s capture of former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. For Tehran, the move was a reminder that US President Donald Trump is willing to rip up the rule book, and that it should be prepared for all eventualities.

“When Trump speaks of peace in the language of force, he is actually speaking of the law of the jungle and says that whoever has more force can do whatever he wants,” Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told journalists after meeting legislators on Monday.

Mr Araghchi also spoke by phone with the foreign ministers in Brazil and Cuba, and called Mr Maduro’s capture “a clear violation of the fundamental rules of international law”.

US officials have described Iran and Venezuela as two pariah states and say that the Tehran had stepped up support to Mr Maduro’s regime in recent years. That included the backing of units from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, its most powerful military force.

Iran and Venezuela are in an anti-US global axis that also includes superpowers Russia and China – although the countries' interests do not always perfectly align. Strategically located on the Caribbean Sea, Venezuela is geographically closest to the US, which has made developing the country’s enormous crude oil reserves a key tenet of its intervention.

Sanctions served as an effective lever pushing Iran and Venezuela toward greater co-operation Nazanin Sanatkar ,

Tehran-based Latin America expert

With relations dating back to the 1960s, Tehran and Caracas grew closer after the 1979 revolution in Iran and the rise of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in the 1990s, according to Nazanin Sanatkar, an expert on Latin America at the Iranian Institute for European and American Studies, in Tehran.

“Sanctions also served as an effective lever pushing the two countries towards greater co-operation and political alignment, examples of which can be observed in international organisations and forums,” Ms Sanatkar told The National.

Alireza Ghezili, an analyst and former Iranian ambassador to Mexico, said the US imposition of sanctions on both countries was because they "opposed American hegemony".