07 September 2009
Venezuela is to supply Tehran with 20,000 barrels of petrol a day, President Hugo Chávez said at the end of a two-day visit to Iran. "Venezuela has agreed to export 20,000 barrels of petrol daily to Iran from October in a deal worth 800 million dollars," Chavez told reporters in the city of Mashhad. He gave no indication of the duration of the agreement. "This amount will be deposited in a fund established in Iran and will be used to finance purchase of machinery and technology from Iran," Chavez added. "It was also agreed that both sides will within the next 30 days inject 100 million dollars in the joint Iran-Venezuela bank," he said. Chávez visited Mashhad, Iran's holiest city, in the company of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Because of a lack of domestic refining capacity, oil-rich Iran is dependent on petrol imports to meet about 40 per cent of domestic consumption.
Earlier, Chávez had lashed out against Israel at a joint news conference in Damascus with Syrian President Assad. “Israel has become a country that annihilates people and is hostile to peace. I believe it is a fateful battle. It is either now or never in order to liberate the world from imperialism and change the world from a unipolar into a multi-polar world,” the Venezuelan president said.
During his visit to Iran, Chávez also declared that Iran had the right to peaceful use of nuclear energy. Ahmadinejad said on Monday that Iran would neither halt uranium enrichment nor negotiate over its nuclear rights but was ready to sit and talk with world powers over "global challenges." He added that his government would present a package of proposals to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany but rejected any deadline for talks. The group of six nations is currently discussing further sanctions against Iran, including a possible cut of fuel supplies to the Islamic republic, if Tehran continues to stonewall over the nuclear program.
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