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August Gates

Lori Fisher

Model UN

13/11/19

Iran Policy Paper

Although there have been many accusations made against Nicolás Maduro, Iran gives

their support to Maduro’s government to hopefully relieve the stress the crisis has placed on him

and his administration. Iran is ready to give aid directly to Maduro’s government.

Venezuela has been in an economic and political crisis for years now. A large factor in the

development of the economic crisis was Venezuela’s dependence on the oil industry. While Hugo

Chavez was president, oil prices were some of the highest in history but the income from the oil

was put into short term goods and services use without any long term consideration of crucial

infrastructure or economic diversification. Their dependence on oil made them vulnerable to

changes in the global market. In 2018 their oil exports represented 99% of all export income and

35% of their GDP. (Van Praag). The effects of this are very obvious. In 2018 94% of people were

living below the poverty line. (Van Praag) The South China Morning Post posted an article

saying “there were signs of anti-immigrant sentiment spreading across the region, reflected in

mounting restrictions on the movement of Venezuelans in Andean countries.” (Reuters) The

economic crisis has been very impactful to the citizens of Venezuela and the surrounding region.

Their political crisis began when Juan Guaidó announced himself as interim president. An article

posted by the Times of Isreal said “Maduro remains dug in, blaming the White House for openly

backing what he calls a coup to remove him from power and exploit his country’s vast oil wealth.

He retains support from powerful allies but is growing increasingly isolated as more nations back
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Guaido.” (Agencies). Guaidó was quickly backed by many world powers including the U.S,

Isreal, Canada, the EU, and most of the Latin American countries. Venezuela is an ally of Iran

and the two nations have been working to strengthen ties in recent years. So Iran wants to ensure

that Maduro is one of the key individuals working towards reforming the economic and political

crisis.

Iran wants to help support Nicolás Maduro’s government for that reason. Iran has no

interest in giving aid to Guaidó. Iran proposes that nations in the global community, including

Iran, send resources directly to Maduro’s government to be distributed throughout Venezuela and

the host countries in the region. Resources that will be supplied include freshwater, food

packages, medicines, important medical equipment, medical specialists, and temporary shelters.

The reason for supplying resources instead of financial aid is so the resources will go directly to

the people and countries in need. If a party violates this agreement, they will be subject to re-

supply resources if they did not give them directly to the people in need, and they will be

monitored more closely to ensure they don’t violate an agreement like this in the future.
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Works Cited

Van Praag, Oriana. “Understanding the Venezuelan Refugee Crisis.” Wilson Center. 13 Sep 2019.

www.wilsoncenter.org/article/understanding-the-venezuelan-refugee-crisis accessed 13 Nov

2019.

Agencies. “Iran’s president backs Venezuela’s Maduro — report.” The Times of Isreal, 2 Feb

2019. https://www.timesofisrael.com/irans-president-backs-venezuelas-maduro-report/ Accessed

10 Nov 2019.

Reuters. “UN official pleads for more help to relieve Venezuelan refugee crisis as hundreds flea

country every day.” South China Morning Post. 19 Aug 2019

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/3023338/un-official-pleads-more-help-

relieve-venezuelan-refugee-crisis Accessed 10 Nov 2019