In his first go to to Latin America, Iran’s hardline president has met together with his Venezuelan counterpart and declared each nations have “a standard enemy,” alluding to the US
With Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro sitting within the background, Protection Minister of Iran, Brigadier Normal Mohamad Reza Ashtiani, proper, and the Minister of Agriculture of Venezuela Castro Solteldo shake arms after signing an accord at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, June 12, 2023. (AP Picture/Ariana Cubillos)
The Related Press
CARACAS, Venezuela — In his first go to to Latin America, Iran’s hardline president on Monday met together with his Venezuelan counterpart and declared that each nations have “a standard enemy,” alluding to the US, earlier than signing a sequence of cooperation agreements.
President Ebrahim Raisi’s go to to Venezuela got here a yr and a day after President Nicolás Maduro visited him in Iran. Each nations are beneath heavy U.S. financial sanctions.
Raisi stated the hyperlink between the 2 nations “shouldn’t be regular, however reasonably a strategic relationship,” insisting that their nations have “widespread pursuits and we’ve got widespread enemies.”
“They don’t want the 2 nations, Iran and Venezuela, to be unbiased,” Raisi stated referring to the U.S. authorities. His tour of allied nations in Latin America, together with Cuba and Nicaragua, comes amid rising tensions with the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.
The U.S. has accused Iran of offering Russia with supplies to construct a drone manufacturing plant east of Moscow, whereas the Kremlin seeks to make sure a gradual provide of weapons for its invasion of Ukraine. U.S. intelligence officers imagine the plant in Russia might begin operations early subsequent yr, however Iran has stated it equipped drones to Russia earlier than the beginning of the battle.
The greater than dozen agreements signed by officers from the nations Monday embrace scholarships for Venezuelan college students and the importations of cattle to Iran. Maduro’s go to final yr to Iran resulted in agreements to increase ties within the oil and petrochemical industries, the navy and the economic system. However solely a handful of the agreements have materialized.
Venezuela and Iran have maintained shut relations because the authorities of the late President Hugo Chávez. Maduro, who turned president in 2013 after Chávez dying, has promoted commerce relations with Iran, China, Russia and Turkey to attempt to overcome the results of the financial sanctions.
Iran, notably since 2020, has helped alleviate a part of a gas scarcity in Venezuela.
“We’re on the fitting aspect of historical past and collectively we might be invincible,” Maduro stated.