In recent months, Iran and Nicaragua have increased cooperation agreements in the energy and agriculture sectors, as well as infood exports, medicines, and educational exchanges with universities.
“Iran’s idea is to enter the United States [through the south], with the help of Cuba and Venezuela,” Fabián Calle, political analyst and professor of International Relations at Argentina’s Austral University, told Diálogo on August 10. “The strategy is to present itself diplomatically at the political and economic level, to upset the sphere of influence of the United States, for example, by meddling in Nicaragua’s internal politics.”
Managua and Tehran signed an agreement for beef export, one of Nicaragua’s main export products, Swiss international news platform Swissinfo reported in late July.
“With the signing of this agreement Nicaragua will begin a new stage in exports to Iran,” Ricardo Somarriba, director of the Nicaraguan Institute for Agricultural Protection and Health (IPSA), told the press following the virtual agreement.
A month earlier, on June 26, the Daniel Ortega-Rosario Murillo regime signed agreements in the health sector; one of those was made in Managua between Roberto López, executive president of the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute, and Akbar Borandegi, general manager of the Iranian pharmaceutical company Barekat.
López told EFE that the agreement will allow Nicaragua to make progress concerning health cooperation. He explained that the agreement will make it easier for Nicaragua to obtain medicines, medical supplies, and raw materials from Iran for the production of medicines.
In May, Iran pledged to supply fuel to Nicaragua, participate in oil exploration, and consider investing in a refinery to “neutralize the effects of U.S. and European sanctions,” the Arabic international daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported.
“President Raisi’s administration sees Nicaragua as a strategic partner in the world,” Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji said from Managua. “We have a vision to expand and develop relations in all possible fields with Nicaragua.”
In the educational field, on January 25, the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua and Iran’s Allameh Tabatabai University signed a cooperation agreement, to promote the exchange of academic experiences of students and teachers.
Despite the economic agreements between Iran and Nicaragua, Calle said that “Iran does not have enough money to massively help a country, since it is a poor country in terms of gross domestic product.”
“Oil agreements or other cooperation areas to cede territory are the tools that [these countries] use to be able to move into the U.S. zone of influence in a legal way,” Luis Somoza, an intelligence specialist and former professor at the Argentine Armed Forces’ War College, told Diálogo. “Iran carries out activities in Nicaragua to interfere in Latin America in search of vulnerable countries [like Nicaragua] and to take advantage of that situation.”
Iran was one of the few countries to congratulate Ortega on his “sham” November 2021 win. Iran sent its Vice President of Economic Affairs Mohsen Rezai to Ortega’s January 10, 2022 swearing in ceremony. Interpol has a red notice against Rezai in connection to the July 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, which left 85 dead and hundreds wounded, in what was the worst attack in Argentina’s history.His presence in Managua was condemned by 22 of the 34-member countries of the Organization of American States.