Moniz Bandeira – a historian specialized in the international relations of Brazil – has recently spoken at an interview about this alliance between Brazil and Iran. According to him, what Brazil wants is to impede that the CS permanent members establish, by means of the Iran affair, a precedent that will allow them to intervene on other countries’ nuclear programs. “Brazil might be the Iran of tomorrow”, he said. It hasn’t been yet, according to him, because there is no Israel in its vicinity.

As for CoryMP’s suggestion that Brazil and Venezuela’s support for Iran is caused by some desire to contradict U.S. positions on foreign policy, it is silly U.S.-centrism. Brazil’s diplomatic and commercial ties with Iran date back do the early 1990s. That the Iranian government is an autocratic regime, whilst those of Brazil and perhaps Venezuela are not, does not preclude these countries from forging partnerships, be they diplomatic or commercial. Countries forge alliances on the basis of strategic or economic interests. Ideological affinities are of little to no importance. If they were, how would one explain U.S. suppport for the military dictatorships in Latin America or yet its relations with the absolutist Saudi Royal House?

The French have been doing this reprocessing for 30 years without a problem–no terrorist act, no individual or group stealing uranium–but, I'm still cautious about introducing such a policy into a region that is still plagued by a degree of persistent violence.

Perhaps they are principally motivated, especially the latter individual, by simply seeking to oppose any measure or position held by the United States. Ahmadinejad's policies in Iran and nearly everything his regime stands for is almost exactly the opposite of what Chavez touts in Venezuela.