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NICARAGUA AND IRAN SIGN DEALS, BUT IRANIAN PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD FACES BACKLASH AT HOME.

Article Excerpt
Linked again as they have not been since the Iran-contra affair, Nicaragua and Iran are using Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's postinaugural visit to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to forge closer ties. Ortega assumed Nicaragua's presidency on Jan. 10 (see NotiCen, 2007-01-11). "We have to give each other a hand," Ahmadinejad told the press. "We have common interests, common enemies, and common goals." Soft-pedaling the common-enemies theme, Ortega instead stressed, "In our Iranian brothers we have a people, a government, a president willing to join with the Nicaraguan people in the great battle against poverty."

The two presidents agreed to resume diplomatic relations and open embassies, which have been closed since Ortega left the presidency in 1990. In the 1980s, during the administration of US President Ronald Reagan, the US secretly and illegally sold arms to Iran and used the proceeds to fund their proxy army, the contras, in an attempt to overthrow the Ortega-led Sandinista government.

Iran is flush with oil money and is thought to be in a position to help Ortega with his poverty-reduction plans. The country is exploiting the rift developed between the US and Latin America during the six years of the administration of US President George W. Bush.

The Nicaragua visit was one stop on a tour that took the Iranian president first to Venezuela and then to Ecuador, to visit with President Rafael Correa, inaugurated Jan. 15.

Ahmadinejad said in Caracas that he was in the region "promoting revolutionary thought in the world." He also broached the common-enemies theme, telling reporters, "The reason for all the current problems is the erroneous direction of the powerful countries, where there is poverty, hate, enmity,...