ON SEPTEMBER 24 the International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution that, in part, called on Iran "to observe fully its commitments and to return to the negotiating process that has made good progress in the last two years." The resolution is just the latest chapter in the ongoing dispute over Iran's nuclear programs, but a look at the votes cast by the IAEA's members reveals a great deal about the international landscape: Of the IAEA's 35 board members, 22 voted in favor of the resolution, 12 abstained (including Russia, which is heavily invested in Iran's nuclear programs), and one nation voted against the resolution.

That lone "no" vote was cast by Hugo Chávez's Venezuela, which has increasingly become Iran's willing and vocal ally in the western hemisphere.

While the secular neo-communist Chávez and the Islamist mullahs are certainly strange bedfellows, they have found much common ground. Explaining his country's "no" vote on the IAEA resolution, Venezuela's ambassador to Iran, Arturo Anibal Gallegos Ramirez, went as far as to say that "the principles and ideals that inspire the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela" are "inspired by values common to the Iranian Islamic Revolution."

The new Iranian president has expressed similar sentiments. According to an Iranian state-run news agency, more than a month before the IAEA resolution was passed, President Ahmadinejad called Chávez to thank him for his support in the international arena. Ahmadinejad told Chávez that his support was proof of their deep "brotherly and lasting relations."

The common

IN THE NUCLEAR REALM the alliance raises a host of new troubling issues. Should the international community ever find a way to convince Russia to stop facilitating the mullah's nuclear program, the Iranian-Venezuelan alliance would be of less consequence. Based on past failures, this seems unlikely. It is more likely that Iran will continue upon its present course largely unchecked, which raises the possibility that Venezuela, with Iranian assistance, will at some point enter the market for nuclear technologies.

In fact, Chávez has already promised as much. During a recent weekly radio address, Chávez rationalized Venezuela's burgeoning pursuit of "peaceful" nuclear energy thusly, "Brazil has advanced in its nuclear research, nuclear power, and that's valid. Argentina too, and we also are starting to do research and projects in the area of nuclear energy, with peaceful aims of course." Chávez also argued that it is the sovereign right of both nations to pursue nuclear energy. Chávez's ambassador to Iran further explained that a common interest in the nuclear realm has resulted in "close collaboration" between the two nations.

In reality, both nations are flush in petrodollars and neither has any real need for "peaceful" alternative energy sources. Iran's supposedly-civilian nuclear program has long served as an expedient cover for the mullah's more nefarious intentions. That Chávez openly lusts for an Iranian-style nuclear program suggests that he, too, may have similar designs.