A community of anti-U.S. interests
A community of anti-U.S. interests
By Simon Romero
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: August 20, 2006
Venezuela has long cultivated ties with Arab governments in the Middle East, finding common ground in policies to keep oil prices high, but its recent engagement of Iran has become a defining element of an ambition to build an alliance to curb American influence in developing countries.
After a visit late last month to Tehran by President Hugo Chávez and his oil minister, Rafael Ramírez, Venezuela's ties to Iran appear to have taken on a new dimension, with the two countries further aligning their foreign policies in explicit criticism of Israel and the United States, and agreeing to joint production of nearly a dozen products, from crude oil to automobiles.
The strengthening of ties has turned Iran into Venezuela's closest ally outside Latin America, adding clout to Chávez's efforts within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase oil revenue through repeated calls for output limits by oil-exporting countries. Venezuela, meanwhile, has become the most vociferous defender of Iran's nuclear program at a time when Iran feels increasingly isolated.
"We stand by Iran at every moment, in any situation," Chávez said in Tehran, after receiving the golden High Medallion of the Islamic Republic from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. Venezuela, Syria and Cuba, were the only countries at the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in February to oppose referring Iran to the United Nations Security Council.
Chávez has also shown recent interest in strengthening ties with Syria, sending his deputy foreign minister, Alcides Rondón, to Damascus last week to meet with Syrian officials. And Chávez continues to push for tighter relations with countries that are close trading partners to the United States, arriving in China on Tuesday for a six-day visit aimed at finding ways to ship more Venezuelan oil to Chinese refineries. After leaving China, he is expected to visit Malaysia and Angola.
Now, with Iranian investment in Venezuela climbing fast, what began as a trickle of ventures has evolved into the most vivid example of a move to reshape Venezuela's foreign policy by reaching out to countries on the margins of U.S. influence, including Iran, Belarus, Zimbabwe and Cuba.
Hundreds of Iranian tractors are already rolling off an assembly line at a plant in the interior, and Khodro, the Iranian car manufacturer, plans to produce 5,000 Samand sedans a year at a factory near Caracas, starting in November. These ventures come at a time when Venezuela is attempting to showcase efforts to distance itself from Washington.
Though Venezuela maintains close economic ties with the United States, relations with Washington have been strained by verbal sparring between the Bush administration and Chávez. With Venezuela vying for a nonpermanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, the ties with Iran have led to additional friction.
In testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives last month, Frank Urbancic, the principal deputy coordinator for counterterrorism in the Department of State, said Venezuela's close relations, including intelligence operations, with Iran and Cuba, helped illustrate a "near complete lack of cooperation" with American efforts to fight terrorism.
The Bush administration further irked Chávez last week by appointing J. Patrick Maher, a longtime CIA official, to oversee intelligence gathering operations on Venezuela and Cuba, a high- level post that had existed only for Iran and North Korea. Chávez responded by ridiculing the move and saying he had captured four people accused of spying for the United States, though the American Embassy in Caracas said it had no knowledge of such apprehensions.
A more aggressive stance toward Venezuela from Washington has drawn sharp rebuttals from officials in Caracas, who contend the United States is planning military action against Venezuela with an eye to controlling the country's petroleum resources, the largest conventional reserves outside the Middle East. Venezuela has moved quickly to invite Iranian energy concerns to invest in the country.
Petropars, the Iranian national oil company, said it could invest as much as $4 billion in petroleum ventures in Venezuela to produce crude oil and natural gas. "We want to help them," said Mohammad Ali Talebi, a Petropars representative in Venezuela and director of a venture that may extract sulfur-laden heavy oil from an oil field in an eastern region of the country. "We have more than 100 years' experience in oil and gas and exploration and production."
Venezuela, meanwhile, has supported Iran's effort to price oil in euros instead of dollars, a move aimed at weakening the influence of American investment banks and hedge funds on global energy markets, and the creation of an oil exchange in Iran to trade such contracts.
The ties with Iran have fueled discredited theories among Chávez's fractious opponents that Venezuela could be sending uranium from its Amazonas state to Iran in exchange for nuclear technology.
Illustrating some of the outcry in Caracas over relations with Iran amid the fringe opposition, unsubstantiated accounts say Chávez wants eventually to attempt to replay the Cuban missile crisis by securing nuclear missiles from Iran or another country.
Venezuela's government has repeatedly said it has no plans to develop nuclear weapons. While Venezuela is believed to have limited access to any nuclear technology, Chávez said in Tehran that he would support a joint effort to develop a nuclear energy program by Mercosur, the South American trade bloc that Venezuela recently joined.
Recent statements by Chávez in Iran and other Muslim countries, however, are increasing concern among some in Caracas that Chávez is aligning himself too closely with Muslim leaders who have little in common with Venezuela's generally inclusive and pluralistic political system. While in Qatar this month, Chávez said in an interview with Al-Jazeera that Israeli military actions in Lebanon were "being carried out in the style of Hitler, in a fascist fashion."
And in separate comments on his Sunday television program in Venezuela, Chávez accused Israel of a "new Holocaust," after recalling Venezuela's top diplomat in Israel. The authorities in Jerusalem responded by temporarily recalling Israel's ambassador in Venezuela, Shlomo Cohen.
By Simon Romero
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: August 20, 2006
Venezuela has long cultivated ties with Arab governments in the Middle East, finding common ground in policies to keep oil prices high, but its recent engagement of Iran has become a defining element of an ambition to build an alliance to curb American influence in developing countries.
After a visit late last month to Tehran by President Hugo Chávez and his oil minister, Rafael Ramírez, Venezuela's ties to Iran appear to have taken on a new dimension, with the two countries further aligning their foreign policies in explicit criticism of Israel and the United States, and agreeing to joint production of nearly a dozen products, from crude oil to automobiles.
The strengthening of ties has turned Iran into Venezuela's closest ally outside Latin America, adding clout to Chávez's efforts within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase oil revenue through repeated calls for output limits by oil-exporting countries. Venezuela, meanwhile, has become the most vociferous defender of Iran's nuclear program at a time when Iran feels increasingly isolated.
"We stand by Iran at every moment, in any situation," Chávez said in Tehran, after receiving the golden High Medallion of the Islamic Republic from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. Venezuela, Syria and Cuba, were the only countries at the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in February to oppose referring Iran to the United Nations Security Council.
Chávez has also shown recent interest in strengthening ties with Syria, sending his deputy foreign minister, Alcides Rondón, to Damascus last week to meet with Syrian officials. And Chávez continues to push for tighter relations with countries that are close trading partners to the United States, arriving in China on Tuesday for a six-day visit aimed at finding ways to ship more Venezuelan oil to Chinese refineries. After leaving China, he is expected to visit Malaysia and Angola.
Now, with Iranian investment in Venezuela climbing fast, what began as a trickle of ventures has evolved into the most vivid example of a move to reshape Venezuela's foreign policy by reaching out to countries on the margins of U.S. influence, including Iran, Belarus, Zimbabwe and Cuba.
Hundreds of Iranian tractors are already rolling off an assembly line at a plant in the interior, and Khodro, the Iranian car manufacturer, plans to produce 5,000 Samand sedans a year at a factory near Caracas, starting in November. These ventures come at a time when Venezuela is attempting to showcase efforts to distance itself from Washington.
Though Venezuela maintains close economic ties with the United States, relations with Washington have been strained by verbal sparring between the Bush administration and Chávez. With Venezuela vying for a nonpermanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, the ties with Iran have led to additional friction.
In testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives last month, Frank Urbancic, the principal deputy coordinator for counterterrorism in the Department of State, said Venezuela's close relations, including intelligence operations, with Iran and Cuba, helped illustrate a "near complete lack of cooperation" with American efforts to fight terrorism.
The Bush administration further irked Chávez last week by appointing J. Patrick Maher, a longtime CIA official, to oversee intelligence gathering operations on Venezuela and Cuba, a high- level post that had existed only for Iran and North Korea. Chávez responded by ridiculing the move and saying he had captured four people accused of spying for the United States, though the American Embassy in Caracas said it had no knowledge of such apprehensions.
A more aggressive stance toward Venezuela from Washington has drawn sharp rebuttals from officials in Caracas, who contend the United States is planning military action against Venezuela with an eye to controlling the country's petroleum resources, the largest conventional reserves outside the Middle East. Venezuela has moved quickly to invite Iranian energy concerns to invest in the country.
Petropars, the Iranian national oil company, said it could invest as much as $4 billion in petroleum ventures in Venezuela to produce crude oil and natural gas. "We want to help them," said Mohammad Ali Talebi, a Petropars representative in Venezuela and director of a venture that may extract sulfur-laden heavy oil from an oil field in an eastern region of the country. "We have more than 100 years' experience in oil and gas and exploration and production."
Venezuela, meanwhile, has supported Iran's effort to price oil in euros instead of dollars, a move aimed at weakening the influence of American investment banks and hedge funds on global energy markets, and the creation of an oil exchange in Iran to trade such contracts.
The ties with Iran have fueled discredited theories among Chávez's fractious opponents that Venezuela could be sending uranium from its Amazonas state to Iran in exchange for nuclear technology.
Illustrating some of the outcry in Caracas over relations with Iran amid the fringe opposition, unsubstantiated accounts say Chávez wants eventually to attempt to replay the Cuban missile crisis by securing nuclear missiles from Iran or another country.
Venezuela's government has repeatedly said it has no plans to develop nuclear weapons. While Venezuela is believed to have limited access to any nuclear technology, Chávez said in Tehran that he would support a joint effort to develop a nuclear energy program by Mercosur, the South American trade bloc that Venezuela recently joined.
Recent statements by Chávez in Iran and other Muslim countries, however, are increasing concern among some in Caracas that Chávez is aligning himself too closely with Muslim leaders who have little in common with Venezuela's generally inclusive and pluralistic political system. While in Qatar this month, Chávez said in an interview with Al-Jazeera that Israeli military actions in Lebanon were "being carried out in the style of Hitler, in a fascist fashion."
And in separate comments on his Sunday television program in Venezuela, Chávez accused Israel of a "new Holocaust," after recalling Venezuela's top diplomat in Israel. The authorities in Jerusalem responded by temporarily recalling Israel's ambassador in Venezuela, Shlomo Cohen.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 7:54 AM
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