Mystery Cargo
Senior Iranian and Venezuelan officials are traveling around the world on a cargo plane. Argentina detained them. But what are they up to?
Caracas
Putin supports NATO
He’s revitalizing a beneficial international community
Op-eds
IRGC-Controlled Iranian Airline Makes Unexplained Flights to Russia Amidst Invasion of Ukraine
The U.S.-sanctioned Iranian airline Qeshm Fars Air has flown to Moscow at least seven times since mid-April after having made that trip only twice last year, according to the flight tracking service FlightRadar24....
Policy Briefs
The Kremlin’s Latin American Echo Chamber
A trio of Spanish language media networks controlled by Iran, Russia, and Venezuela push out propaganda and disinformation to demonize the West.
Op-eds
Soleimani U
A new academic center in Caracas named after the Iranian mass murderer is the latest node in Tehran’s soft power network in Latin America
Op-eds
Turkey Could Become the Middle East’s Next Narco-State
If Turkey joins Syria and Lebanon as the third narco-state in the Eastern Mediterranean, this will only compound the region’s trafficking and money laundering problems, while also presenting illicit non-state actors greater opportunities to exploit.
Op-eds
Iran’s Mohsen Rezaee Should Face Justice
If Rezaee travels with impunity, Iran will seek to further push the limits, and legitimize the accused in the same way that it has done with near impunity in the nuclear file.
Op-eds
The new conquistadores
U.S. adversaries are becoming South American hegemons
Op-eds
Corrupt Venezuelan Officials Face Impending Extradition to United States
The constitutional court of the African island nation of Cape Verde last week authorized the extradition of Colombian businessman Alex Saab to the United States, while Spanish police arrested former Venezuelan...
Policy Briefs
Businessman’s Extradition to U.S. Could Expose Turkish-Venezuelan Collusion to Evade Sanctions
Cape Verde’s constitutional court issued a ruling on September 7 paving the way for the extradition of Alex Saab, a U.S.-designated Colombian-born businessman whom U.S. prosecutors indicted in 2019 for...
Policy Briefs
Is Iran Sending Weapons to Venezuela? And How Is the U.S. Responding?
An Iranian cargo plane gets stranded in Senegal on its way to Caracas.
Op-eds
Checking China’s Diplomatic Piracy in the South China Sea
China appears keen to bring piracy back as an instrument of foreign policy, but the days of eye patches and wooden legs are long gone. Instead, Beijing’s most effective raiding parties prefer business...
Op-eds
Iran Is Airlifting Supplies to Venezuela. The Trump Administration Should Move to Block It.
The Islamic Republic can leverage the Maduro regime's ability to access sanctioned goods as payment for its services.
Op-eds
U.S. Court Exposes Turkey’s Role in Iran’s and Venezuela’s Sanctions Evasion Schemes – Again
A Manhattan federal jury on Monday convicted Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, the Iranian owner of the now-defunct Pilatus Bank of Malta, of evading U.S. sanctions against Iran by conspiring to transfer payments...
Policy Briefs
The return of the Monroe Doctrine
Sanders aside, Trump finds bipartisan support for a pro-U.S. Venezuelan leader
Op-eds
How the US Can Keep Venezuela from Becoming a Failed State
On Sunday, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro will face his country’s hungry, impoverished voters. The election will be neither free nor fair, so another win for the corrupt Socialist pa...
Op-eds
Crypto Investors Should Stay Away from Venezuela’s Petro
Venezuela has reportedly made the first state-backed cryptocurrency, the petro, available to the public. Crypto investors should just say no. For one thing, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blat...
Policy Briefs
Tyrants And Their Hollow States
Frankly, I’m surprised Erdogan had to settle for a photo-finish win at the wire. Not a great result for a would-be ...
Op-eds
Tyrants And Their Hollow States
Frankly, I’m surprised Erdogan had to settle for a photo-finish win at the wire. Not a great result for a would-be ...
Op-eds
In Venezuela’s Toxic Brew, Failed Narco-State Meets Iran-Backed Terrorism
As if the political and economic chaos wracking Venezuela wasn’t worrying enough, a couple of recent stories underscore the potential national security threat brewi...