Pentagon says Iran’s reach in Latin America doesn’t pose military threat

US downplays Iran threat in Latin America

WASHINGTON — U.S. military officials said Tuesday that Iran is trying to expand its influence in Latin America but that Tehran’s presence there doesn’t yet pose a military threat to the United States.

The Pentagon last week released a 12-page report that identified an “increased presence” by Iran’s elite military Qods Force in Latin America, particularly in Venezuela.

Washington has accused Iran, and the Qods Force in particular, of aiding militant groups like Hezbollah and trying to destabilize the Iraqi government.

The report raised fears in some quarters that Tehran’s hardline regime could seek to confront the U.S. in the Western hemisphere.

It also prompted accusations of war mongering by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who on Monday called it “totally false.” Chavez suggested the U.S. was looking for an excuse to attack his country.

Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, who oversees U.S. military operations in Latin America as head of U.S. Southern Command, told reporters on Tuesday that he personally hasn’t seen an increase in Iran’s military presence in the region.

“It’s a diplomatic, it’s a commercial presence. I haven’t seen evidence of a military presence,” Fraser told reporters.

But Fraser said he didn’t think his assessment contradicted the Pentagon report. He said he sees “an increasing presence of Iran in Latin America” but that he didn’t “have all the details.”

Other senior U.S. defense officials have described the military presence in the region as limited and possibly under the cover of commercial and diplomatic fronts.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress last year that Iran was “opening a lot of offices and a lot of fronts behind which they interfere with what is going on in some of these countries” in Latin America.

During a trip to South America earlier this month, Gates also played down any potential military threat Iran might pose in the Western Hemisphere.

“I haven’t seen much evidence of that in Latin America, in terms of Iran having proxies or terrorist proxies,” Gates said.