Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Jan. 30, 2019 – In recent days, Venezuela has been on the top of the news around the world, but its coverage is a little bit different across Iranian outlets close to the ruling elite.
At first glance, it appears that the Iranian regime is defending one of its few remaining allies where it has invested a lot of money and political capital. But there is a more profound and revealing truth to the Iranian regime’s support for the Maduro dictatorship.
In a January 26 report, Iranian state-run television described the popular uprising of Venezuelan citizens against Maduro as a “coup d’état” and said: “The U.S. foreign minister has previously stated that his country will use every possible means to overthrow the Venezuelan government. Following Washington’s clear meddling in Venezuela by calling for uprisings in the country, Pompeo promised the Venezuelan people that if the American-favored government takes power in Caracas, the frozen assets of Venezuela in the U.S. and other countries will be freed.”
Ensaf news, a website close to Rouhani’s so-called moderate faction, sees the situation differently: “Anyway you read the recent developments in Venezuela, it’s hard to call it a ‘coup d’état.’ No need to take sides with Maduro or his opponents (and it’s not reasonable to be more royalist than the king), and it doesn’t matter who we think is right, when you see huge crowds in the streets, it’s not reasonable to call it a ‘coup d’état’, even if the opponents are 100 percent wrong.”
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani’s mouthpiece, Iran newspaper, used the excuse of the developments in Venezuela to express its own position. Addressing its opposing faction who question the JCPOA, the newspaper writes: “Nowadays, everybody can witness the situation in Venezuela. There is a virtual consensus among pundits and economic experts that if the policies of these gentlemen’s government [the opposing faction to Rouhani] had continued, inflation in the range of multiples of thousand would have embraced Iran like Venezuela and we would have suffered the miserable situation of Venezuela much earlier than that country.”
While the Iranian state-run media have done everything in their means to support the current dictatorship in Venezuela, their focus of horror isn’t about Maduro’s and his government’s future or the rise to power of Juan Guaido, but rather the new options and a precedent that could lead to its own demise.
“Just for a moment, imagine that this style of political behavior by these countries becomes a precedent that the enemy will use in other countries to take political power,” state-run newspaper Jomhuri writes.
Rouhani’s Iran newspaper also shows its horror about the support for the Venezuelan opposition and writes: “This is a very dangerous precedent and if the international community doesn’t show an appropriate response, this dangerous precedent can spread to other countries and deal real damage to the core of democracy.”
The writer’s definition of “the core of democracy” must be petrodollar-fueled corrupt dictatorships supported by oil-loving shortsighted first-world democracies who not only don’t care about the fate and future of their fellow humans in other countries, but don’t even care about their own country’s national security and long-term prosperity beyond their current incumbencies.
The official newspaper of a regime that has been condemned more than 60 times by different UN organizations for human rights violations, continues to shed crocodile tears for international principles and writes: “It’s very sad that such things happen in the 21st century. Let’s hope that at least the UN Security Council will prevent such behavior.”
Truth is that if the Iranian regime started to acknowledge the roots of the current situation in Venezuela, it had to start at its own door. But that’s the folly of all dictators in history or they would never have been overthrown in the first place.
