Saturday 5 September 2009

Ahmadinejad, Chavez Vow to Back 'Revolutionary' Nations


Ahmadinejad, Chavez Vow to Back 'Revolutionary' Nations

05/09/2009 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadineajd and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez vowed on Saturday to back revolutionary nations and form anti-imperialist fronts, the official IRNA news agency said. "Helping the oppressed and revolutionary nations and expanding anti-imperialist fronts are the main missions of Iran and Venezuela," Ahmadinejad said after meeting Chavez who is on a two-day visit to Tehran.

Chavez, who arrived in Tehran on Friday, said in remarksrebroadcast on Venezuelan television that Iran will "not back down" in its quest for peaceful nuclear energy.

Chavez, Ahmadinejad's main ally in Latin America, arrived in Iran after visiting Syria, Libya and Algeria. He is later scheduled to go to Belarus, Russia, Turkmenistan and Spain.

The visit comes one day after Ahmadinejad said that Iran will not bow to pressure in meeting any deadline set by world powers and is ready for more sanctions over its nuclear program. World powers fear that Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to build nuclear weapons. Tehran insists the program is peaceful and it is its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) while Israel, which is believed to be the sole nuclear power in the Middle East with more than 200 nuclear heads, is not a signatory for this treaty.

"We are certain that Iran, as it has shown, will not back down in its effort to obtain what is a sovereign right of the people: to have all the equipment and structures to use atomic energy for peaceful purposes," Chavez said in Tehran. "There is not a single proof that Iran is building ... a nuclear bomb," Chavez said. "Soon they will accuse us of also building an atomic bomb" in Venezuela, Chavez added.

Venezuela is working up a preliminary plan for the construction of a "nuclear village" with Iranian assistance in Venezuela, "so that the Venezuelan people can count in the future with this marvelous resource for peaceful uses," Chavez said.

While in Syria, Chavez attacked Israel, calling it an imperialist nation that annihilates other people.

Chavez comments came during a news conference with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad after a one-hour meeting at the hilltop presidential palace. "Israel has become a country that annihilates people and is hostile to peace," he said, according to the Arabic translation of his remarks to reporters.

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