CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – In his first journey to Latin America, Iran’s hardline president met with Venezuela’s president on Monday, hinting on the United States that the 2 nations had a “widespread enemy” earlier than signing a sequence of cooperation agreements. ” was declared. .
President Ebrahim Raisi’s go to to Venezuela comes one 12 months and sooner or later after President Nicolas Maduro visited Iran. Both nations are topic to extreme financial sanctions by the United States.
Raisi mentioned the connection between the 2 nations is “not a standard one, however reasonably a strategic relationship” and asserted that the 2 nations “have widespread pursuits and we’ve a standard enemy.”
“They don’t need Iran and Venezuela to grow to be impartial,” Raisi mentioned of the U.S. authorities. His journey to allies in Latin America, together with Cuba and Nicaragua, comes amid heightened tensions with the administration of US President Joe Biden.
The United States has accused Iran of offering supplies to Russia to construct a drone manufacturing manufacturing facility east of Moscow, whereas the Kremlin is making an attempt to safe a gentle provide of weapons for the invasion of Ukraine. U.S. intelligence officers imagine the Russian manufacturing facility may very well be operational early subsequent 12 months, however Iran claims it was supplying Russia with drones earlier than the struggle started.
More than a dozen agreements signed by worldwide officers on Monday embrace scholarships for Venezuelan college students and the import of cattle to Iran. President Maduro’s go to to Iran final 12 months led to agreements to develop ties within the oil and petrochemical trade, army and financial sectors. However, solely a handful of agreements have been reached.
Venezuela and Iran have maintained shut ties because the administration of late President Hugo Chávez. Maduro, who took workplace in 2013 after Chavez’s loss of life, has promoted commerce ties with Iran, China, Russia and Turkey to beat the impression of financial sanctions.
Iran has helped alleviate a few of Venezuela’s gasoline shortages, particularly since 2020.
“We are on the suitable facet of historical past and collectively we shall be invincible,” Maduro mentioned.