February 15, 2019
Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif has come down hard in favor of the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro, without telling the Iranian people that this puts Iran in very small company. Only six countries have signed up in support of Maduro—Russia, Turkey and Iran from the Old World and Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua from the New World. Some countries have declared themselves to be neutral, such as China and Mexico. But the Islamic Republic has tried to paint the opposition to Maduro as purely an American plot, rather than the global trend.