Region | Iran

Venezuela and Iran to finance projects in other nations to foil US domination

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said that they were ready to spend billions of dollars financing projects in other countries to help thwart US domination.

  • AP
  • Published: 00:00 January 15, 2007
  • Gulf News

  • Chavez (left) receives Ahmadinejad at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas yesterday.
  • Image Credit: Reuters

Venezuela: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said that they were ready to spend billions of dollars financing projects in other countries to help thwart US domination.

The fiery anti-US presidents whose efforts to extend their influence have alarmed Washington met in Venezuela's capital.

Ahmadinejad later arrived in Managua and met with Nicaragua's newly inaugurated leftist President Daniel Ortega.

Nicaragua's Foreign Minister Samuel Santos said the move to open embassies in Managua and Tehran was a step toward bringing the two nations closer together.

Venezuela and Iran had previously announced plans for a joint $2 billion (about Dh7.3 billion) fund to finance investments in both countries.

In Caracas on Sunday, Chavez and Ahmadinejad said the money would also be used for projects in friendly third countries.

"It will permit us to underpin investments ... above all in those countries whose governments are making efforts to liberate themselves from the [US] imperialist yoke," said Chavez.

"This fund, my brother," Chavez said referring to Ahmadinejad, "will become a mechanism for liberation". "Death to US imperialism!" he said.

Ahmadinejad called it a "very important" decision that would help promote "joint cooperation in third countries," especially in Latin American and African countries.

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