CARACAS: Iran and Venezuela expanded their anti-US strategic alliance on Saturday with the two controversial leaders signing 11 new bilateral agreements and pledging to boost the price of oil.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived on Saturday in Caracas for his second such visit in four months to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
After the two men met at the government palace, Chavez noted the deep relationships between the two countries and said one can speak of a “single fatherland” when speaking of Iran and Venezuela.
The Iranian people will “stand side to side with Venezuela” for now and evermore, Ahmadinejad vowed.
“We are spreading revolutionary thought throughout the world,” the Iranian leader said.
Yesterday, Ahmadinejad travelled to Nicaragua, where the Sandinista and former US foe Daniel Ortega was inaugurated as president earlier this week, and to today’s inauguration in Ecuador of leftist populist Rafael Correa, a Chavez admirer in the oil-rich but otherwise impoverished country.
The new Iran-Venezuela agreements call for more intense cooperation on energy, industry, trade and building construction. Last year, Ahmadinejad offered to help Venezuela develop its nuclear power industry at a time that Iran is under intense international pressure to stop enriching uranium, a process that can produce weapons-grade fuel.
During the September visit in Venezuela, the two men signed 28 co-operation agreements, with heavy focus on energy and economy. The two countries plan to start co-operative oil companies, and factories to produce cement, airplanes, bikes, automobiles and gunpowder.
The presidents on Saturday agreed to speed up establishment of a $2bn bilateral fund to invest in countries that join their anti-US alliance and free themselves from the “yoke of imperialism,” Chavez said.
The two leaders also pledged mutual support in foreign affairs, including efforts to keep oil prices high by lowering production from the oil group, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec). Iran and Venezuela are the world’s fourth and fifth most important oil exporting nations.
Ahmadinejad charged that “all problems of the world are caused by the false policies of the most powerful countries” that have caused poverty, conflict, discrimination and injustice. The rich are only interested in economic profits and have nothing left over for the dignity of humanity, he said.
“Instead of love, hate and enmity rule the day,” the Iranian leader said.
Chavez compared his Bolivarian revolution, under which he has been building a Latin American base to confront the US, with the Islamic revolution that governs Iran.
During last year’s visit, Chavez declared his “unlimited support” for Iran’s controversial nuclear programme. Iran is developing a nuclear programme for peaceful purposes, he insisted. – DPA
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