Published by the Atlantic
Few world capitals have been as shaken by the dramatic ouster of Nicolás Maduro as faraway Tehran. Anti-Americanism has united Iran and Venezuela in a tight alliance for more than two decades. As recently as 2022, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei welcomed Maduro to Tehran, praising the Venezuelan strongman’s “resistance” against America and his “anti-Zionist positions,” adding: “No two countries are as close as we are.”
Khamenei also promised that Iran would “come to the aid of its friends when they are faced with danger.” But when American troops rousted Maduro and his wife from bed early on the morning of January 3, neither Khamenei nor his more powerful allies in Moscow and Beijing came to the rescue.