| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Iranian official calls on Venezuela to join Iranian alliance |
| 2006-02-15 |
| An Iranian official has said that his country might consider a proposal to move its nuclear enrichment activities to Russia, while playing down Tehran’s resumption of small-scale uranium enrichment as simple lab research. Iranian parliament speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel yesterday also called for Venezuela to join his country in forming an alliance to counter threats from the world’s nuclear powers. He accused the US of attacking Iran’s nuclear program in order to undermine Iran’s independence. Asked by reporters if Iran would accept Moscow’s proposal to enrich uranium on Russian soil, Haddad Adel said: “If that means we are deprived from the peaceful use of nuclear energy, we could study the Russian proposal.” The plan is designed to allay fears about Iran using enrichment to build nuclear weapons. A top Iranian nuclear negotiator said yesterday in Tehran that Iran would resume negotiations with Moscow next week on the proposal after saying earlier it would indefinitely postpone them. Haddad Adel, part delegation visiting Venezuela, thanked President Hugo Chavez’s government for its ”favourable position” toward Iran, especially its support on the International Atomic Energy Agency board earlier this month, when Venezuela voted against referring Iran to the UN Security Council. Later in a speech to Venezuela’s National Assembly, Haddad Adel denounced the US and other nuclear powers for possessing “thousands of nuclear warheads … (used for) threatening other non-nuclear countries”. “Mutual help is necessary in these circumstances,” he said. “Iran and the Mideast and Venezuela and Latin America can act as two convergent axes to neutralise the plans of arrogant world (powers).” Iran has maintained its nuclear program is designed solely to generate electricity. But the US and others say the program could be a cover for producing a nuclear bomb and have sought to restrict Iran’s moves to enrich uranium. Haddad Adel yesterday called US opposition to Iran’s nuclear program “only a pretext”. Chavez’s government, fiercely critical of Washington, has strengthened ties to Iran, now its closest ally in the Middle East – a relationship that US officials have called a matter of concern. Haddad Adel said: “The people of Iran and Venezuela have common causes: the fight against imperialism and arrogance in the world, and that can be a very strong foundation for developing bilateral relations.” |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 HHHHhmmmmmm, ranting repeatedly about destroying a fellow UNO member-state and aligned = using Nucprogs for local electical power only. ITS ONLY URANIUM, D*** YOU, ERGO NO WMDS IN IRAN. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-02-15 23:39 |
| #4 Once they cross that line, there's no going back. |
| Posted by: Cruting Wherese8001 2006-02-15 13:38 |
| #3 "Come to the Dark Side..." |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-02-15 12:21 |
| #2 They are sure wanting this war, I think the U.S. should go total war for six months and show the world again what it is like to piss us off. |
| Posted by: djohn66 2006-02-15 11:10 |
| #1 These folks ever heard of the "Zimmerman Telegram"? Nope! Didn't think so... |
| Posted by: borgboy 2006-02-15 10:40 |