A12 The World


Iranian cash builds bonds with Bolivia


BY HELEN COSTER


el alto, bolivia — Helen Li- machi walked out of a gleaming new hospital in this wind-swept city satisfied with the care her 4-month-oldson,Fabricio,hadre- ceived forhis ailinghip. “The doctor took the time to


explain the situation to us,” she said. “Hewent over theX-ray.” The appointment and X-ray


cost Limachi an affordable 40 bo- livianos — roughly $6. Two days later, Limachi and her son re- turned to the hospital to see an orthopedist. Goodmedical treatment is rare


in Bolivia, a landlocked South American country where 60 per- cent of people live below the pov- ertyline.Butevenmoresurprising about the year-old, $2.5 million hospital is its donor: the govern- ment of Iran, one of Bolivia’s new- est allies. Therelationshipispartof Iran’s


effort to gain a foothold in the region by courting Bolivia, Vene- zuela and other left-leaning coun- tries in Latin America with aid and business partnerships. The new ties help give both Iran and Bolivia greater international rec- ognitionas Iranseeks tochallenge U.S. influence, experts say. “The basic motivation is that


Iran and a handful of govern- ments in Latin America are look- ing for opportunities to counter and attack U.S. influence in the world,” said Cynthia Arnson, di- rector of the Latin American Pro- gram at the Woodrow Wilson In- ternational Center for Scholars in Washington. “As Latin American countries try to diversify their in- ternational partners, Iran offers itself up.” There is much speculation in


Bolivia and inU.S. policy circles— but few hard facts — about the relationship between Bolivia and Iran. Iranian PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Bolivian PresidentEvoMorales for the first time in September 2007. Iran pledged $1.1 billion to help indus- trialize Bolivia, and the two lead- ers signed“memos ofunderstand- ing” relatedtocooperationinagri- culture, trade and energy. The countries recently ex-


changed ambassadors, and Mo- rales expressed interest in buying Iranian-built planes and helicop- ters when he visited Tehran in October. Iran has funded a milk factory andthehospital inElAlto. But because the two countries


have little chance of establishing meaningful trade — and unlike Iran and Venezuela, don’t have oil in common — the relationship remainsmostly political. “This is not economic,” said Jai-


me Daremblum, director of the Center forLatinAmericanStudies at the Hudson Institute in Wash- ington. “This is politics, imagery and the world noticing, ‘We have lots of friends.’ ” For centuries, foreigncountries


profited from Bolivia’s vast natu- ral resources while the country remained poor. ButMorales is de- termined to develop Bolivia’s re- sources—and relationships—on the country’s own terms. In May 2006, he nationalized the oil and gas industries, and his adminis- tration is being choosy about how andwithwhomto develop its vast lithiumreserves. “For the first time we have the


ability to decide who we can be friends with, who we can have relationswith,” saidGustavoGuz- man, an adviser to the Morales administration and former am- bassador totheUnitedStates. “We finallyhavetheabilitytomakeour owndecisions.” Boliviahas frostydiplomaticre-


lations with the United States, particularly around the issue of coca — the raw material for co- cainethat is legal inBolivia,where people consume it for health pur- poses. In the 1990s, theDrug Enforce-


ment Administration backed an aggressive coca-eradication pro- gram that led to violence in the country’sChapareregion. In2006, Morales,headof the country’sbig- gest union of coca farmers, be- came president. In 2008, he ex- pelled the U.S. ambassador on charges of conspiring against him and thenkicked out theDEA. Since 2008, the United States


has included Bolivia on a list of countriesthathave“faileddemon- strably” in their efforts to fight drugs. Former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who in 2003


ordered a military crackdown in which more than 60 people died, nowlives inexile inMaryland; the United States has not granted Bo- livia’s request to extraditehim. “Whatwillbethereactionof the


president who has been treated likethis?”Guzmansaid. “Obvious- ly, Evo Morales prefers to have friendswho donot like theUnited States.” Morales has such a friend in


Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuelawho rolled out thewel- comemat forAhmadinejadinLat- inAmerica, experts say. Together, the three countries


areworking to build a power bloc that does not include the United States. “Chavez once called it the ‘Axis


ofAnnoyance’—annoyingtheU.S. in their back yard,” said Farideh Farhi, an Iran expert and lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Iran is investing in projects —


suchas themilkfactoryandhospi- tal— that boost the country’s ap- peal among everyday citizens.But while working-class Bolivians benefit from their country’s friendshipwith Iran, outsiders re- main skeptical of how much Iran is actually doing andwhy. “What’s always lacking is a


sense of reality behind the photo ops and state pledges in help and development,” theWilsonCenter’s Arnson said. “The million-dollar question is: ‘Besides the PR boost that countries get from engaging with each other, what are thema- terial benefits that each country gets, and should the U.S. be con- cerned?’ ”


Coster reported this article on a grant with the InternationalReporting Project.


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KLMNO


MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2010


Iran claim about uranium prefaces multination talks


Framework was already shaky for meetings


set to begin in Geneva BY GLENN KESSLER


geneva—Iran andmajorworld powers will meet here Monday for the first talks in 14 months, amid low expectations and pub- lic posturing by both sides on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Iran said Sunday that it would


begin to use domestically pro- duced uranium concentrates, known as yellowcake, at its ura- nium-enrichment facility, mean- ing it could assert that it would no longer need imports. The announcement suggested Iran had no interest in halting its nuclear activities, and it came just two days after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton directly challenged an Iranian delegation at a security forum in Bahrain to engage seriously at the talks. Tensions also are high after


the killing of one of Iran’s most prominent nuclear scientists last week, an event that diplomats think may dominate Iran’s open- ing statement. Iranian officials have blamed the naming of sci- entists in international sanctions for the killing. The WikiLeaks disclosure of


State Department cables has fur- ther complicated matters, show- ing that Persian Gulf leaders have pressed for amilitary attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and suggesting thatU.S. officials nev- er really believed that engage- ment with Iran would work. The two sides have not even


agreed on an agenda for the meetings, which will be held in downtown Geneva.


Schedule in question Iran publicly insists it has no


interest in discussing the enrich- ment program that has led to four rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions, and Western diplomats do not even know whether Iran is prepared to stay for the second planned day of talks. Publicly, Iran has suggest-


ed it is prepared to stay only a single day. European Union foreign poli-


cy chief Catherine Ashton will lead the talks, joined by senior diplomats from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. Under- secretary of State William J. Burns, who held a rare bilateral meeting with Iranian officials during the last round of talks, is heading the U.S. delegation and is prepared to hold another bilat-


“This is really an opportunity to gauge whether the Iranians are prepared to get serious.”


—a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss strategy. He described the meetings in Geneva as “stock-taking” to see whether Iran is finally willing to engage on its nuclear program.


eral meeting, a U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss strategy. The Iranian delegation is led


by Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. The other countries “have to put aside their previous wrong strategy and double stan- dards if they seek the continua- tion of talks,” he said in a state- ment before departing for Gene- va.


His tone was slightly more


moderate when he arrived here Sunday. “We want to create a graceful


solution out of the political dead- lock for those who have pressur- ized us,” he told reporters. The U.S. official described the


meetings as “stock-taking” to see whether Iran is finally willing to engage on its nuclear program. “This is really an opportunity


to gauge whether the Iranians are prepared to get serious,” he said.


In a statement, U.S. National


Security Council spokesman MikeHammer said Iran’s yellow- cake announcement was “not unexpected” given that Iran is banned from importing the ma- terial under U.N. resolutions. “However, given that Iran’s


own supply of uranium is not enough for a peaceful nuclear energy program, this calls into further question Iran’s inten- tions,” Hammer said.


Failed deal Before the talks last year, the


two sides had quietlyworked out a tentative agreement for Russia, France and the United States to provide assistance to a medical research reactor, in exchange for Iran giving up a large chunk of its enriched uranium. Iran later backed out of the


deal and then, on the eve of new sanctions in June, recommitted to it after the intervention of Brazil and Turkey. But by then, the United States said the old terms were no longer valid, be- cause Iran had continued to enrich uranium. This time, there have been no


behind-the-scenes discussions about reviving the deal, even under different terms. “We don’t know for a fact that


they are prepared to engage on it,” the U.S. official said. In a television interview late


Sunday, Iranian atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Teh- ran was no longer interested in reviving the agreement. One of the WikiLeaks cables,


written exactly a year ago, pro- vides a fascinating account about why the first agreement failed. It quotes Michael Postl, the former Austrian ambassador to Iran, about his confidential discus- sions with Iranian officials. Before the talks, he had been


told to expect a “surprise” and see greater flexibility from Iran. But he said the reactor deal fell prey to internal Iranian domestic politics, as well as possibly a determination by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that theWest was not “trustwor- thy” or that Iran could get a better deal if it hung tough. kesslerg@washpost.com


NewHIV-like Virus


in theBlood Supply Up to 20 Million Could Be Infected


FDA and NIH research recently uncoveredanewfamily of retroviruses in7% of healthy blood donor samples.* This could mean that 20 million Americans are already infected. These viruses were also detected in an astonishing 87% of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patient samples.


Similar to HIV, this infection is likely to be transmitted through blood.**


Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or ME/CFS, is aserious and sometimes fatal neuroimmune disease that can be as disabling as chemotherapy or late-stage AIDS. ME/CFS afflicts more than 1 million Americans.


Will you or your child be next?


Stop the Suffering WeNeed More ME/CFSResearchNow


R.E.S.C.I.N.D. mcwpa.org


CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME ASSOCIATION, INC.


WISCONSIN


* Detection of MLV-related virus gene sequences in blood of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and healthy blood donors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 2010 ** “... it would be foolish to think it is not transmitted by blood.” Dr. Jerry Holmberg, Department of Health and Human Services, Senior Advisor for Blood Policy,May 2010


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