Iran, Cuba Presidents meet to discuss deepening ties

Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi praised Cuba on Monday amid expanding ties between the two countries. Raiai was meeting with his Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Iran and Cuba signed several new documents including various memorandums of understanding (MoUs). They also talked about expanding ties.

The meeting comes as Iran is inflaming the Middle East, pushing its proxies to attack US forces in Iraq and Syria and pushing Hezbollah to attack Israel and the Houthis to attack ships in the Red Sea.

It also comes as Venezuela, a friend of Iran and Cuba, is threatening to invade Guyana in South America.

Iran and Cuba talked up bilateral cooperation in science, technology, health, mining, communications, and medicine, among other things, according to reports.

Raisi said that “standing against the global hegemonic system’s excessive demands is a consensus of Iran and Cuba,” according to Xinhua media in China.

Iran-Cuba relations

They also discussed the situation in Gaza. Cuba sees Iran as one of its closest friends in the Middle East. Both countries bashed the US during the visit.

It was unclear if the visit had military and defense ramifications, such as drone sales by Iran. Iran has exported drones to Russia and also sent navy ships to South America in the last years. Iran’s goal is to expand defense ties to places like Venezuela, Cuba, Africa, and other countries.

Seth Frantzman is the author of Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machine, Artificial Intelligence and the Battle for the Future (Bombardier 2021) and an adjunct fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies.