Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez were scheduled to seal their economic alliance yesterday by laying the foundation stone of a joint petrochemical plant.
The two nations, both OPEC members, pledged on Sunday to boost cooperation and trade ties -- and slammed the US.
Yesterday, the final day of Chavez's trip, the two leaders were to inaugurate construction of a US$700 million methanol plant in the Asaluyeh industrial zone on the Gulf coast.
The plant, set to come on stream in four years, will have a capacity of 1.65 million tonnes of methanol a year and a similar project is planned for Venezuela, said Mohammad Hassan Peyvandi, director of planning and development for Iran's petrochemical industry.
The Venezuela plant would give Iran better access to Latin American and Brazilian markets and provide easier reach to India and Pakistan for Venezuela, the state news agency IRNA said.
"The United States is incapable of hurting Iran and Venezuela ... cooperation between the two independent states is natural and it must be expanded," state television quoted Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as telling Chavez on Sunday.
Chavez arrived in Tehran on Saturday for a two-day visit.
"The election of anti-American governments in the [Latin American] region shows that US imperialism is weakening," Chavez said.
"Numerous oil and gas contracts between Iran and Venezuela show the two countries are serious in developing ties," he said, describing Iran as a "good model for other countries."
Ahmadinejad also called for stronger ties with Latin America.
Chavez was expected to sign 20 agreements with Iran for projects in his country.
Iran also plans to join a Latin American initiative designed to counter US-led efforts for free trade in the region, the official Web site of Iran's president office reported on Sunday.
The report said Chavez welcomed Iran's observer membership in the Cuban-Venezuelan-backed alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
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