Why Iran’s Alliance with Eritrea and the Recent Island War are Important

For several years Eritrea and Iran have made friendly diplomatic gestures and discussed economic cooperation. In mid-May the gestures and discussions took the form of a major conference between Eritrea’s leader Isaias Afwerki and Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad. This resulted in Ahmadinejad announcing that Iran and Eritrea saw “no limit for expansion of mutual cooperation.”” Iran and Eritrea shared “common views on the regional and global issues” and that they were prepared “to resist” the hegemonic system (the American-led global system).

Iran and Eritrea are both outlaws of sorts and outlaw nations, and, like terrorists, always connect. South Africa during apartheid is a premier example, but North Korea, Libya and Saddam’s Iraq, and to a degree Taiwan, have followed the same circuitous and sub rosa path.