Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is due to visit Tehran this week in the wake of visits to Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.
Now that the European Union has confirmed its own new sanctions against Iran, Radio Farda contributor Reza Taghizadeh argues that Tehran will have to be even more creative in its accounting.
Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's current visit to Nigeria and Mali is yet another attempt to forge new alliances with African states in the hope that this can offset his country's growing isolation.
Contributor Reza Taghizadeh wonders whether the new set of sanctions could serve to push the Iranian regime to make further concessions, without the need to resort to military force.
It is likely that when the weekend is over, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will head home from Iran empty-handed despite statements by both sides that presumably say the talks were "positive, informative, and constructive."
