Ex-lawmaker urges action on Iran’s assets in Venezuela, citing Assad's fall

Dec 17, 2025, 12:29 GMT

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro points towards supporters, during a march to commemorate the Battle of Santa Ines, on the same day Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, in Caracas, Venezuela, December 10, 2025.

A former Iranian lawmaker, citing the fate of Iran’s claims after the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, urged Tehran to move quickly to recover what he said were more than $2 billion of assets in Venezuela, as Washington escalated pressure on Caracas.

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said on Tuesday that Iran should urgently clarify the legal status of more than $2 billion in claims against Venezuela, warning that experience from Syria showed how quickly assets could become unrecoverable after a sudden political collapse.

Writing on X, Falahatpisheh said lessons from Syria showed the need to settle Iran’s outstanding claims with President Nicolás Maduro’s government while conditions allow.

His remarks come against a backdrop of sharply rising tensions between Washington and Caracas.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump ordered what he called a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela.

The move is part of a broader US pressure campaign targeting Maduro’s main source of revenue and follows the seizure of a sanctioned tanker off Venezuela’s coast last week.

While Falahatpisheh’s warning was framed by the experience of Syria – where the scale of Damascus’s debt to Tehran only became public after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, estimated by Syrian officials at around $30 billion – his comments coincided with Trump’s latest order on Venezuelan oil shipments.

Iran and Venezuela, both under heavy international sanctions, have built extensive but opaque economic ties over the past two decades.

Public records do not clearly show how much Iran has invested in Venezuela, the exact size of Caracas’s debt to Tehran, or the value of Iranian assets in the country, according to an article by Iranian outlet Fararu last week.

Iranian lawmakers have previously flagged specific claims. In August, MP Ahmad Bigdeli said Venezuela owed about $1 billion to Iran’s national oil company, urging Iran’s oil minister to explain why the debt had not been recovered. No official update has since been provided.

Iran has launched or participated in a range of projects in Venezuela, many of which have struggled.

A large Iranian-backed supermarket in Caracas, Megasis – opened in 2020 and linked to Iran’s Etka retail chain – has faced logistical problems due to infrequent shipping and supply disruptions, according to Iranian business figures cited by Fararu.

Joint automobile production, launched in 2006 with Iran Khodro and Saipa assembling Samand and Pride models in Venezuela, was halted in 2015 after years of losses and unpaid deliveries, Iranian media have reported. The project was revived in 2023 during a visit by former president Ebrahim Raisi, though analysts again questioned its economic viability.

Iran has also announced agricultural, housing and industrial ventures, including claims in 2021 that Venezuela had allocated up to one million hectares of farmland to Iran for overseas cultivation.

Officials have not clarified whether those plans are active or how much capital was committed.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro marches in a rally against a possible escalation of US actions toward the country, in Caracas, Venezuela, November 25, 2025.

Oil, gold and sanctions pressure

Energy cooperation has been central to the relationship. Iran has supplied fuel, refinery services and technical assistance to Venezuela, while Western media and sanctions authorities have alleged barter arrangements involving oil and gold.

Bloomberg reported in 2020 that Venezuela transferred around nine tons of gold to Iran in exchange for fuel – a claim both governments have framed as legitimate barter.

Since US sanctions were imposed on Venezuela in 2019, much of its oil – including shipments involving Iranian or Russian-linked vessels – has relied on a so-called shadow fleet to evade restrictions.

Trump’s latest order has already pushed oil prices higher on expectations of reduced Venezuelan exports, Reuters said, though enforcement mechanisms remain unclear.

Analysts warned that a prolonged blockade could sharply cut Venezuelan output, with potential spillover effects for Iran, which has used Venezuela as a distant logistical and commercial partner to manage sanctions pressure.

In an analysis for Iran International, Shahram Kholdi wrote earlier this month that Venezuela has functioned as a strategic “distant flank” for Tehran, facilitating oil swaps, financial channels and political support beyond the Middle East.

But expanded US military deployments, legal actions and sanctions enforcement are tightening scrutiny on those networks.

Billions for Iran’s nuclear program

Further allegations have added to the sensitivity. Spain’s ABC newspaper reported this month – citing leaked documents now under US review – that Venezuelan state mechanisms may have funneled billions of dollars toward Iranian entities over nearly two decades, including groups linked to Iran’s nuclear and military programs.

The claims, which Caracas and Tehran have not publicly addressed, remain unproven but are being examined by US authorities, according to the report.

“Projects and funds explicitly linked to Iran total about $4.69 billion, with an additional estimated $3.13 billion allegedly diverted indirectly from a China-Venezuela fund. The combined total about $7.82 billion – represents money that investigators say reached Iran's state ecosystem directly or indirectly through Venezuela,” read a report by The Latin Times.

Patient companions: the informal workers keeping Iran’s hospitals running

Dec 17, 2025, 07:37 GMT

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Shohreh Mehrnami

A chronic shortage of nurses and auxiliary staff in Iran’s hospitals has quietly given rise to a new and largely unregulated job: the “patient companion.”

Across Tehran and other major cities, advertising websites, job boards and even the walls outside hospitals are plastered with notices offering such services.

The role is not filled by relatives. Instead, patient companions are hired—often informally—to care for hospitalized patients, helping with eating, hygiene and mobility.

According to the head of Iran’s Nursing Organization, the country faces a shortfall of at least 100,000 nurses. The deficit appears to have created a parallel, low-wage labor market with little oversight and frequent abuse.

A nurse working at a hospital in Tehran told Iran International that the tasks assigned to patient companions often go far beyond what their wages suggest.

“They do work that no one would normally accept for this pay,” she said, requesting anonymity. “They care for patients who cannot go to the toilet or bathe on their own.”

Exploited

A search for “patient companion” (hamrah-e bimār) on Iran’s largest classifieds website, Divar, produces dozens of listings from across the country. The companies share a familiar pitch: assurances of experience, professionalism and official registration.

One company advertises an eight-hour shift for a mobile patient who does not require personal hygiene care at 800,000 tomans (about $6 at December 16 exchange rates). Many others list prices as “negotiable.”

Alongside these firms, individuals also advertise their services directly. Many claim to have first-aid training or nursing experience and say they are willing to travel nationwide.

Yet trust remains a major barrier.

“People don’t feel comfortable hiring individuals directly,” said another nurse in Tehran, who also asked not to be named. “So they turn to companies, even though the companies take most of the money.”

According to this nurse, nursing service firms often keep close to two-thirds of what families pay, leaving companions with little compensation despite the physical and emotional demands of the work.

No better option

To avoid company fees, some companions eventually try to secure work through hospital staff. After being introduced repeatedly by agencies, they ask nurses or aides to connect them directly with families in need.

The practice is most common in public hospitals, where staff shortages are most acute.

A doctor at a Tehran hospital told Iran International that families struggling to pay medical bills sometimes plead with doctors or nurses to help a relative find work as a patient companion. “It becomes a way to cover treatment costs,” he said.

A male nurse in Tehran described hiring a companion through an agency several years ago to care for his grandmother, who had cancer.

“She was a nursing student, working to support herself while studying,” he said. “She told us the companies demand large promissory notes from workers and then take two-thirds of the family’s payment.”

For many companions, the job is a temporary lifeline rather than a chosen profession.

Home-care assignments can carry additional risks, especially for women. Reports of assault or sexual harassment are not rare, the nurse added, but few are willing to come forward, fearing that agencies may move to cash promissory notes at the first sign of dispute—effectively blacklisting workers from future employment.

That lack of regulation cuts both ways. Families often prefer companies, believing them to be safer. But, as nurses acknowledge, the skills of agency-provided companions are far from guaranteed.

“Most companions are women, many of them heads of household,” one nurse in Tehran said. “Few have formal training. Most learn on the job from hospital staff. They do this because they have no other option.”