Last week the Tehran Times quoted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as saying Iran is helping Venezuela to produce US military style unmanned drones as part of their cooperation with other allies. Last year Iran shot down one of the US drones and then claimed to reverse engineer the drone to produce their own similar style drone. Now it has given the drone plans to Chavez, who claimed in an interview that the drones would only be used defensively and said, “We don’t have any plans to harm anyone.” Furthermore, when the Spanish media reported U.S. prosecutors were investigating the drone production. Of this Chavez reportedly said, “Of course we are doing it, and we have the right to. We are a free and independent country.”
So why is this important? Combined with the reason Russia is supporting Syria and for Syria explaining it shot down a Turkish F-4 Jet that may or may not have accidentally flown into Syrian airspace and it demonstrates how difficult it is to force a free and independent country to do anything it does not want to do. This also demonstrates the long held principle by great political thinkers that explains the difference between the rights of nations and the rights of individuals. For example, for individuals, there is always a higher power to coerce them into doing things for the State or Nation. However, for Nations and Nation-States, there is no such thing as a higher power. Instead, the only forms of coercion possible tend to be either monetary or military. In the case of monetary coercion, the UN can levy sanctions which may or may not have any affect on the people of the country. However, while the case for military coercion is much more expensive and dangerous, it is nevertheless used far too often and quickly before other forms of diplomatic solutions might be found.
For the complete story from Iran in English, check out the Tehran Times at the following link: http://www.tehrantimes.com/politics/98783-iran-helping-venezuela-build-drones
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