Relations between Caracas and Tehran must be seen as part of a larger picture of Iranian influence in Latin America. Danny Citrinowicz explains:

Tehran has identified countries where left-wing parties have been voted into power as countries it can work with to limit the influence of the United States and undermine Israeli efforts to expand its political and military sway in the region. This fact squares with Iran’s broader approach, whereby it is willing to cooperate with anyone who is open to joining forces in opposition to Western influence anywhere in the world.

In concrete terms, Iran is investing diplomatic and military efforts in a number of key countries in Latin America, primarily Venezuela, which Tehran views as the hub of its activities on the continent. In addition to diplomatic activity, relations between Tehran and Caracas also include widespread security cooperation, based on the substantial military aid—drones and warships—that Iran provides to Venezuela.

Against the backdrop of this worrying pattern, which comes at a time when China and Russia are also trying to take advantage of the vacuum and tighten their footholds in Latin America, the West’s lack of response—including the United States—is glaring. It appears that the U.S. administration is preoccupied . . . in efforts to prevent the outbreak of an all-out war in the Middle East and is far less attentive to what is happening in its own backyard.

Addressing a recent meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas more sharply than he has previously (at least in public), calling them “sons of dogs.” The eighty-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president urged the terrorist group to “stop the war of extermination in Gaza” and “hand over the American hostages.” The editors of the New York Sun comment:

Mr. Abbas has long been at odds with Hamas, which violently ousted his Fatah party from Gaza in 2007. The tone of today’s outburst, though, is new. Comparing rivals to canines, which Arabs consider dirty, is startling. Its motivation, though, was unrelated to the plight of the 59 remaining hostages, including 23 living ones. Instead, it was an attempt to use an opportune moment for reviving Abbas’s receding clout.

[W]hile Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians soared after its orgy of killing on October 7, 2023, it is now sinking. The terrorists are hoarding Gaza aid caches that Israel declines to replenish. As the war drags on, anti-Hamas protests rage across the Strip. Polls show that Hamas’s previously elevated support among West Bank Arabs is also down. Striking the iron while it’s hot, Abbas apparently longs to retake center stage. Can he?

Diminishing support for Hamas is yet to match the contempt Arabs feel toward Abbas himself. Hamas considers him irrelevant for what it calls “the resistance.”

[Meanwhile], Abbas is yet to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. His recent announcement of ending alms for terror is a ruse.

Abbas, it’s worth noting, hasn’t saved all his epithets for Hamas. He also twice said of the Americans, “may their fathers be cursed.” Of course, after a long career of anti-Semitic incitement, Abbas can’t be expected to have a moral awakening. Nor is there much incentive for him to fake one. But, like the protests in Gaza, Abbas’s recent diatribe is a sign that Hamas is perceived as weak and that its stock is sinking.