Ambition and Consequences

The Future of Iran's Involvement in Latin America after the Nuclear Agreement of 2015

Abstract

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was reached in 2015 after years of involved talks between world powers (the United States of America, Russia, the United Kingdom, China, France, and Germany) and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council (plus Germany) began in 2006, but suffered many setbacks, causing a delay in finalizing the agreement. One major obstacle involved several of the negotiating countries imposing numerous sanctions against Iran, causing public resentment and economic hardships to the Iranian people.
For the United States of America (USA) involvement in such talks was unique, as the two countries had not negotiated directly for more than three decades. Since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution the UN and USA imposed (and later expanded) trade embargoes, asset freezing, and economic sanctions on Iran due to its "terrorist activities". This article will examine the effect of the Iranian Nuclear Agreement on the future of Iran's ambition of expansion in Latin America by focusing on what little influence the Nuclear Deal had on Iran's hegemonic and hostile behavior in its own region, and using it to measure how it would decide to expand into Latin America.
This paper explores the Islamic Republic of Iran's involvement in Latin America before the JCPOA was reached in 2015, highlighting the essence of Iranian ambition directed at creating a safe haven for its covert activities in the backyard of its perceived historical enemy: the United States of America. The presence of Iran and its presumed hidden agenda and strategies in Latin America are analyzed here in an attempt predict Iran's future plans in Latin America, especially when the world is expecting it to make progress and abandon its so-called "terrorist activities".
This paper highlights the four factors that play an important role in the long-established aspirations of the Iranian government to expand its revolution beyond its borders in order to establish a global Islamic entity. This would eventually create a new world order where Iran is a key player in world politics, and the USA and Europe have limited influence. These four points can be categorized as the contributing factors that will shape and determine Iran's future in Latin America.
These four factors are: Iran’s constitutional revolutionary principles, Iran's hegemonic activities in the Middle East, the Iranian-Saudi rivalry and their competition over expanding Latin American relations, and the effect of the nuclear agreement on modifying Iran’s behavior towards the US and the rest of the world.
This paper attempts to answer this question: how effective was the Nuclear Deal in curbing Iran's ambitious plan of expanding its influence in Latin America? By answering this question, this paper offers new insights into Iranian–Latin American relations that have been flourishing over the past decade but have garnered little attention in the media, academia, or among decision makers in the Persian/Arab Gulf region and the West.
The author concludes that reaching and implementing the Nuclear Deal has done little to stop Iran from pursuing destabilizing activities beyond its borders, specifically through political, intelligence, and military interference in the Persian/Arab Gulf region and other Arab countries- particularly Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. Therefore, Tehran sees expansion in Latin America as inevitable, as Iranian interest in the region increases in an effort to protect the global
advancement of its protege Hezbollah.