Venezuela and Iran re-affirm anti-US bond
By Benedict Mander in Caracas

Published: September 28 2007 22:12 | Last updated: September 28 2007 22:12

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad’s third visit to Venezuela late on Thursday night has sparked renewed doubts about the strengthening relationship between two of the US’s most savage critics.

The presidents of Iran and Venezuela, OPEC’s biggest price hawks that together account for 20 per cent of the oil cartel’s output, reaffirmed their “anti-imperialist” cause while signing several energy accords that add to more than 180 bilateral trade agreements worth more than $20bn signed since 2001.

”All Venezuelans feel truly proud to be your brothers, to be friends of Iran, and to share together this path of revolution, the people’s dignity, and sovereignty – the path of the fight against imperialism!” said Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, to Mr Ahmadi-Nejad.

Mr Chávez, who has threatened to suspend oil exports to the US should it invade Iran, also supports Iran’s right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, a cause ratified this week by Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, who Mr Ahmadi-Nejad visited before arriving in Venezuela.

But Mr Chávez’s close relations with Iran, which analysts say are guided more by geopolitics than economics, have long been widely questioned.

”Chávez is going totally overboard by embracing Ahmadi-Nejad. He is right to have strategic relations with Iran but their personal friendship is clouding his judgement – it is the same with Mugabe,” says Gregory Wilpert, the author of a new book on Mr Chávez who sympathizes with his socialist movement. “Chávez is completely oblivious to the differences between Venezuela and Iran.”

Analysts fear that Mr Chávez’s friendship with Iran compromises his push for Latin American integration – not least because of Argentina’s attempts to secure the arrest of a former Iranian president for his alleged involvement in the bombing of a local Jewish community centre in 1994.

”There are many contradictions between Chávez’s drive for regional integration and his anti-US rhetoric,” says Mervin Rodriguez, who teaches international relations at the Central University of Venezuela. “Chávez’s friendhsip with Iran means he is not isolated in the international community, as his anti-US discourse has distanced him from other potential allies. But it will bring many dangers.”

Agreements between the two countries include plans to build two petrochemical complexes for $1.4bn, an oil refinery in Syria, and car and tractor factories in Venezuela. Iran is also helping to explore for natural gas off the Venezuelan coast, while joint investments of $6bn in heavy crude oil projects will be made over the next two years, according to Venezuela’s energy minister Rafael Ramirez.

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Here is the real danger. Bushy guy quit playing superman, and pay atention.

so are you saying invade venezuela first and secure the oil

and then go for iran

insert head scratching emoticon here

Lonely Walker:

Just had to correct one thing you said--Bush isn't playing Superman. Actually, he thinks he's John Wayne .

Of course,there's that story that Vicente Fox tells of ole Bush being afraid of horses. It's in Fox's new book.

the bushy guy is afraid of his own father, that is why he does as his daddy says.