Iran and Nicaragua held discussions in February about bolstering their army cooperation as a method of countering American affect in Latin America, in keeping with an intelligence replace contained in a cache of leaked paperwork that seems to be primarily based on digital intercepts gathered by the C.I.A.
A visit by an Iranian delegation to Nicaragua that month was no secret. Both the Nicaraguan and Iranian authorities trumpeted the go to, although their bulletins had been imprecise on particulars, targeted typically on commerce and didn’t point out any talks about army cooperation.
But the intelligence report, dated Feb. 23, notes that the delegation, led by Iran’s overseas minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, had met with senior Nicaraguan Army commanders. According to the report, the commanders advised Mr. Amir Abdollahian that Nicaragua opposed “perceived U.S. efforts to expand influence in Latin America and expressed a willingness to engage with Tehran and other like-minded countries.”
The paragraph-long intelligence replace was included in a collection of leaked photographs that had been posted on a Discord server, and supplied to The New York Times. American officers, although acknowledging that paperwork in an earlier collection of leaked paperwork posted on the identical server had been genuine, warned that some had been altered, whereas others had been outdated or inaccurate.
The Times described the brand new batch of paperwork to a number of U.S. officers, who neither disputed the data nor confirmed that they had been genuine.
Iran has lengthy sought to shore up relationships with Latin American international locations, specifically those who it considers outdoors the U.S. sphere of affect, as Tehran seems to interrupt out of the worldwide isolation imposed on it by Washington and its Western allies. Iran has signed a raft of commerce agreements and promised different investments with international locations within the area over the previous 20 years, though, restricted by Tehran’s personal financial struggles, it has a blended document of following via.
Iran mentioned that Mr. Amir Abdollahian had mentioned financial, commerce and vitality cooperation throughout his journey to Nicaragua, however didn’t point out any sit-downs with army figures. But the official announcement made no secret of the truth that the 2 international locations’ shared grudges towards the United States was powering the bilateral relationship.
The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on the federal government and household of President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua lately because the nation’s slide into autocracy has introduced repression of his opponents in civil society, the church and the information media.
Both Nicaragua and Iran had revolutions in 1979. That yr, Iranians overthrew the American-backed shah in what got here to be often called the Islamic Revolution, taking 52 American hostages within the U.S. Embassy in Tehran within the course of. It was additionally the yr that Nicaragua’s revolutionary Sandinista motion overthrew the nation’s president, a key U.S. ally within the area.
According to the Iranian state-run information company IRNA, Mr. Ortega, who was a member of the Sandinista motion, met with Mr. Amir Abdollahian throughout the February go to and famous that their two international locations “had a common enemy” whom that they had every fought in the identical yr and whom that they had every succeeded in defeating.
Mr. Amir Abdollahian, IRNA reported, mentioned that Nicaragua’s identify connoted “independence and freedom-seeking in the minds of the Iranians, because Nicaragua has stood and is standing against imperialism.”
Mr. Ortega’s son, Laureano Ortega, who manages Nicaragua’s most necessary overseas relationships and diplomatic agreements, had welcomed Mr. Amir Abodollahian with a message of friendship, according to El 19, a newspaper with hyperlinks to the Nicaraguan authorities.
“We are countries with sister revolutions that defend our right to choose our own path to development and prosperity,” Laureano Ortega was quoted as saying. He additionally famous that, up to now yr, “we had important Iranian delegations here in our country and we also had Nicaraguan delegations visit Iran.”
