Source: Hizbollah Site Staff, 07-09-2009



Sayyed Khamenei's office reported that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday to help develop economic ties between the two nations.

"Industrial, economic, banking and transportation cooperation between the two nations should increase along with political cooperation," Sayyed Khamenei told Chavez during a meeting in Tehran. "By boosting cooperation between them, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Venezuela can consolidate the newly-formed independence front," the Sayyed Khamenei said.


Chavez also said that Tehran and Caracas "should help revolutionary nations by strengthening ties between the two nations," the agency reported.

Sayyed Khamenei, meanwhile, said the repeated US failures in different countries and the loss of its influence both indicate the undeniable fact of world change.

"The situation is also changing in South America, which used to be the backyard of the United States, since a power has been formed and it is gaining momentum everyday," Sayyed Khamenei said without elaborating.

Chavez, who is on his seventh official visit to Iran, hailed positive talks between the high-ranking Venezuelan delegation and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other senior Iranian officials. 

Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held talks on Saturday and vowed to back revolutionary nations and form anti-imperialist fronts, according to the official IRNA news agency. "Helping the oppressed and revolutionary nations and expanding anti-imperialist fronts are the main missions of Iran and Venezuela," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

During a joint press conference on Sunday with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Chavez made an announcement that his country is to provide Tehran with 20,000 barrels of gasoline per day especially amid US efforts to cut off Iran's fuel supplies.
The visiting president said that an agreement has been signed between the two countries, according to which Venezuela will start exporting 20,000 barrels of gasoline to Iran per day starting from October.