A recent Israeli Foreign Ministry report finds that Venezuela and Bolivia are providing Iran with Uranium. Venezuela has an estimated 50,000 tons of untapped Uranium that it may exploit in cooperation with Iran, according to a report published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace last December.
The latest U.S. State Department report on global terrorism states that Iran and Venezuela are running weekly flights between Tehran and Damascus with Caracas serviced by Iran Airlines and the Venezuelan national carrier. According to an informed source, these flights are permanently full, seats are never open to the public, the passengers are exempt from customs and border screening, and the cargo area is always full.
In 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department of Foreign Assets Control accused the Chavez administration of having ties with Hezbollah by "employing and providing safe harbor for Hezbollah facilitators and fundraisers."
Despite what has been called "the greatest threat to hemispheric stability since the Cold War," the Chavez-Iran alliance is largely downplayed in the Western media. While Chavez herds a following with humor and machismo, as portrayed on his weekly T.V. program "Aló Presidente," the likeable dictator is playing a very dangerous game in the international arena.
Maybe the United States is too fat to see what's going on beneath its feet.
- Venezuela and Iran have executed 57 industrial agreements
- Venezuela continues to supply Iran with gasoline
- Iranian Ambassador in Venezuela: "The US is not in condition to start another aggression in the Middle East"
- Fidel Castro: "Israel will not attack first"
August 27, 2010
Venezuela, Iran have executed 57 industrial agreements
In five years, Venezuela and Iran have entered into 57 industrial project agreements, for which joint ventures and manufacturing infrastructures have been established. At the opening session of the third Iran-Venezuela Industrial Fair, Venezuelan Minister of Trade Richard Canan said that 28 plants had been built, including those for the production of milk and corn flour. He noted that the agreements also allow for the manufacturing of cars with Iranian technology that are sold for 200 to 300 percent below market prices. "Now, no company will be able to stop food production or distribution, because we already have our own manufacturing plants," Canán added.
El Universal (Venezuela)
To visit the website of the Third Iran-Venezuela Industrial Fair: http://feriaindustrialiran.com/home.html
August 19, 2010
Venezuela will continue to supply Iran with gasoline: "We are at the service of Iran, and whenever Iran needs, we will supply it with gasoline"
"Venezuela will continue to supply Iran with gasoline despite the threat of international sanctions" said David Velasquez, the Venezuelan Ambassador to Tehran. He asserted that his government would not be "bullied" into halting gasoline shipments. "We are at the service of Iran, and whenever Iran needs [gasoline], we will supply it with gasoline," Velasquez said in an interview with Fars news.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has defended Iran's nuclear programme as "peaceful" and has condemned the UN sanctions resolution. His Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, thanked him for his support earlier this week, according to Iran's ISNA news agency.
Venezuela's promise offers symbolic support for Iran, but its practical impact is likely to be limited. Iran is the world's fifth-largest exporter of crude oil, but refining shortages force it to import much of its gasoline. The country's imports have plunged this summer, though, from 120,000 barrels per day in May to roughly 60,000 today. Energy analysts attribute the drop to international sanctions.
Caracas currently exports roughly 20,000 barrels of gasoline per day to Iran, hardly enough to meet Iran's demands. [...] The UN sanctions, which were approved overwhelmingly in June, do not target the energy industry. But the US and EU sanctions do: They penalise companies that invest in Iran's energy sector, or that export refined petroleum products to Tehran.
Al-Jazeera (Qatar)
August 13, 2010
Interview with the Iranian Ambassador in Venezuela: "The US is not in condition to start another aggression in the Middle East"
We do not see the U.S. in the position to start another war in the [Middle East] region," Iran's Ambassador to Venezuela Abdolreza Mesri said on Thursday. "Iran is not Afghanistan nor is it [like] Iraq and they [the Americans] know well that [if] they were the ones to start and finish in Iraq, in Iran, the end of war will be determined by Iran." Mesri further downplayed the U.S. war rhetoric as a policy adopted by U.S. President Barack Obama and Israel to bridge their divisions with their rival political parties. Correo del Orinoco (Venezuela), Press TV (Iran)
August 11, 2010
Op-Ed by Fidel Castro: Israel will not attack first
"The former CIA officers Phil Giraldi and Larry Johnson; W. Patrick Lang from U.S. Military Intelligence and the U.S. Army Special Forces; Ray McGovern, from Naval Intelligence and the CIA; and other former senior officers with many years of service, are right to warn Obama that the Israeli prime minister has plans for a surprise attack with the idea of forcing the United States into the war on Iran.
"But with Resolution 1929 of the United Nations Security Council, Israel succeeded in securing a commitment from United States to be the first to attack.
"After that, Netanyahu would not dare to be the first to do so, given that an action of this kind would bring him face to face with all the nuclear powers and he is not a fool.
"Among themselves, all Iran's enemies have created an absurd situation. Obama would be left with no alternative other than to order the death of hundreds of millions of innocent people, and the crews of his warships in the vicinity of Iran would be the first to die, and he is not a murderer.
"That is what I think without fear of being mistaken.
"The worst that could happen is for somebody to commit a fatal error that would precipitate events before the expiry of the Security Council time period for inspecting the first Iranian merchant ship.
"But there is no reason to be so pessimistic."
Cuba Debate (Cuba), Granma (Cuba)
