Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a guest of honor yesterday at the inauguration of leftist Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, who won an election late last year as a fervent critic of the US.
Correa will take the oath of office in the presence of many foreign dignitaries, including his key regional allies, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales.
The president-elect ran on the promise to improve the plight of the Ecuadoran people, but now needs money to implement his ambitious development plans.
"The new president of this country shares common views with us; we will talk about deepening and expanding ties between Iran and Ecuador," Ahmadinejad said on Friday, before embarking on his Latin American tour.
The trip was designed to cultivate Washington's critics and rally backing for Tehran's nuclear program, which the US government insists conceals ambitions to build nuclear weapons.
The Iranian president flew in shortly after late on Sunday from Nicaragua, where he held talks with newly elected President Daniel Ortega, a Cold War-era foe of the US.
The two leaders announced the restoration of full diplomatic relations and the re-opening of embassies in each other's capitals.
"Rest assured that we will improve our relations to the point of fulfilling every wish and thing that we desire. It is our will to walk hand in hand," Ahmadinejad said through a translator after meeting Ortega.
Ortega said Ahmadinejad's visit was "not merely a matter of protocol."
The Iranian president came to Nicaragua from Venezuela, where he signed commercial agreements with Chavez, an outspoken critic of US President George W. Bush and advocate for Tehran's nuclear program. Each proclaimed the other an ideological "brother."
Ahmadinejad plans to burnish relations with other leftist Latin American critics of the Bush administration when he attends the inauguration of Correa, who has pledged to forge stronger ties with Venezuela and allow a lease for a US military airbase on the country's Pacific Coast to expire.
The Iranian president will also meet in Ecuador other South American presidents, including Bolivia's Evo Morales, on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony, before finishing his tour today.
Ortega, who was the Marxist leader of the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front that ousted US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, told reporters that Iran is willing to join Nicaraguans in a "battle to eliminate poverty among our people."
The Central American country is one of the poorest in the Americas.
"The imperialists don't like to see us helping each other, getting ahead and developing our countries," Ahmadinejad said.
"But let the world know that the people of Nicaragua and Iran will march together and that Iran will support Ortega with all our strength," he added.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS