Is Venezuela a Precedent for Iran?

The U.S. incursion into Venezuela, and the deposition of President Maduro while leaving his government in place, sets a new model for a U.S. grappling with hostile governments. It leaves in place an existing governance structure and avoids the chaos of Iraq after the U.S. invasion.

Now, many wonder whether Venezuela is a template, a model that might be applied to other hotspots such as Iran, another oil rich nation facing popular uprising stemming from significant economic mismanagement. And as an armada of U.S. war ships presses into Iranian waters, Elliott Abrams, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela and Iran, joins Jay Sapsford to discuss the pressing question: Is Venezuela a precedent for Iran?

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