By Roberto Orozco B. | 2024-12-09

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- Relations between Iran and Nicaragua have reportedly advanced through unofficial channels, in an effort to dodge monitoring and surveillance by foreign governments, say observers.

Cooperation between Iran and Nicaragua has once again come under public scrutiny following statements made in late October by Michal Gur-Aryeh, Israel's ambassador to Costa Rica.

Hizbullah and other Iranian-backed groups have maintained bases within Nicaragua, a country ruled by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo for the past 18 years, Gur-Aryeh said, according to EFE news agency.

Ortega and Murillo, who are both spouses and political partners, now hold the titles of president and co-president of Nicaragua -- the latter a role introduced through constitutional reforms approved on November 22.

They have consolidated an authoritarian regime that openly opposes the United States and aligns with autocratic governments in Russia, Iran and China.

Details of the collaboration between Managua and Tehran remain largely shrouded in secrecy, with only a handful of reciprocal agreements disclosed in La Gaceta, Nicaragua's official government publication.

In February 2023, a leak of intelligence documents, later highlighted by The New York Times in April 2023, revealed plans for military cooperation that raised significant concerns about the potential involvement of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and extremist groups.

"From a public standpoint, bilateral relations appear limited to ceremonial acts -- visits by presidents, participation in official events, and closed meetings reported by state-controlled media," a Nicaraguan scholar of international relations told Entorno.

However, "there is a hidden dimension conducted through unofficial channels, where communication and cooperation are much more active and fluid," the academic, who has faced political persecution and is now living in exile, said under the condition of anonymity to protect relatives in Nicaragua.

"We know that Iran leverages religious networks for communication, such as the mosque in Managua. This place of worship underwent significant changes in 2012 after a visit from then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," explained the political analyst.

The mosque soon after the visit dropped its Sunni imam, the Jordanian cleric Abdel Kader, and replaced him with Sheikh Nasef, a Shia from Tehran.

The change in leadership came under pressure from Ahmadinejad, according to leaks from Managua's Palestinian, mostly Sunni, community.

In a report by Steve Stecklow, published in YaleGlobal in late 2009, rumors circulated that Tehran might have partially financed the construction of the mosque in Managua.

Ortega and Ahmadinejad claim to share a "revolutionary affinity," said Stecklow.

Nasef (also known as Nesef or Nasser) is a figure within Ortega's inner circles, said another source consulted by Entorno, a retired intelligence colonel from the Nicaraguan army now in exile.

Nasef is largely unknown, with "efforts seemingly made to keep him out of the spotlight."

Alternative channels of communication

Ortega is also believed to rely on another insider to broker Nicaraguan ties with the Middle East.

In 2007, he established the Private Secretariat of the Presidency of Nicaragua for International Affairs, often referred to by media as the Secretariat for Relations with the Middle East.

Its leader since then has been Mohamed Muhktar Lashtar, Ortega's Libyan-born confidant who arrived in Nicaragua for an initial diplomatic posting in the 1980s and has been close to Ortega ever since.

International intelligence agencies have identified Lashtar as a possible nephew of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Lashtar has never publicly denied that kinship.

Members of Nicaragua's small Jewish community have connected Lashtar to World MATHABA, a Libyan venture that aided revolutionary movements worldwide from the late 1970s till its disbandment in 1992.

In general, Ortega and his inner circle bypass the Foreign Ministry and prefer to manage foreign relations themselves, particularly vis-a-vis nations that support Islamist terrorism.

"In Nicaragua, foreign policy is a decision-making space practically exclusive to President Ortega and his immediate entourage," Sergio Moya, a Middle East scholar at the University of Costa Rica, wrote in 2020.

This insistence on secrecy creates an environment ripe for covert cooperation with terrorist organizations.

The allegations by Gur-Aryeh at the end of October align with long-standing warnings.

Since 2012, Israeli media outlets have reported on Hizbullah's presence in Nicaragua.

Publications such as Israel National News and The Times of Israel have detailed claims that Hizbullah operates training bases in northern Nicaragua, deepening concerns over clandestine activities and their implications for regional stability.