Joseph Humire, the director of the Center for a Free and Secure Society (SFS), recently spoke to the PanAm Post and states that the Persian regime is making moves to make Donald Trump’s re-election more difficult.
Mr. Humire is a global security expert who specializes in analyzing trans-regional threats to the Western Hemisphere. According to the SFS’s website, Mr. Humire provides regular briefings and lectures on Islamism, transnational organized crime, international terrorism, and Iran and Hezbollah’s influence in the Americas to various entities within the US national community, and various universities and think tanks worldwide.
In an interview conducted by the PanAm Post, Mr. Humire explains that Iran has attempted to build a military presence in the west for 35 years, and they were finally given an entry to Venezuela with Chavez 15 years ago, and now Maduro.
The most northern point in South America. A country that was once one of the biggest allies to the United States, is now festering with influence from Hezbollah and Iran, thereby becoming a key point for narco-terrorism:
“Iran has built a dual-use infrastructure. It builds companies as a façade, which at first sight are legitimate, but behind that, there are hidden uses,” he says.
“For example, Iran has an auto industry in Venezuela, and at first sight, it is a legitimate business, but when it makes shipments of auto parts, it can hide other material such as explosives, minerals, or raw material for weapons,” he explained.
Venezuela’s major Iranian businesses keep growing, just recently a big Iranian Supermarket chain opened up, replacing in what used to be a Venezuelan owned enterprise.
Mr. Humire believes it is no coincidence that the Hezbollah-Iranian presence in Venezuela has become more evident to the international community as of recently. For the SFS director, Iran is working to build on the victimhood narrative of Venezuela, while simultaneously attempting to show the US and Trump as weak, for letting Iran become such a strong presence in the continent, despite the fact that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, have been in the country for 15 years.
On October 18th this year, the UN arms embargo on Iran will lift, and Humire believes the US will invoke resolution 2231 to the get UN to re-impose the sanctions on Iran. This will get argued by Iran, as they will say they have met all necessary requirements, and that they should now be able to legitimize selling arms to whom they want. Part of the reason Iran is building up the victimhood narrative by blaming the US for Iran and Venezuela’s hardships, is to get the international community to side with both Iran and Venezuela. This, he believes, will make Trump look weak just weeks before the election.
“Maduro and Iranian regimes want to make Trump look crazy or weak. If he does not do anything (about a potential arms shipment from Iran to Venezuela), he will look weak and risk his vote in Florida; but if he goes for military intervention, he will look crazy and lose the rest of the country’s votes. This is a maneuver to affect public opinion” says Mr. Humire.
There is also a third way, the expert discusses, in which he says perhaps the shipment of fuel from Iran to Venezuela was meant to be a test before ethe actual shipment of weapons. We know the US has managed to neutralize those shipments without sparking a war or major military intervention, so perhaps the White House has indeed been preparing for this scenario where Iran attempts to cement it’s weapons presence to the south of the United States.
