Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday that Iran was helping his country explore for uranium, but stressed his government would only seek to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Venezuela says it is working with Russia to develop nuclear energy for nonviolent purposes, and the country’s mining minister said last month Iranian officials were helping to look for uranium, with preliminary tests indicating big deposits.
“We’re working with several countries, with Iran, with Russia. We’re responsible for what we’re doing, we’re in control,” Chavez told reporters in the central Bolivian region of Cochabamba during a gathering of leftist Latin American presidents.
US President Barack Obama and other Western leaders have accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, and Washington has expressed concern about Venezuela’s increasingly close ties with the Islamic Republic.
Iran supplies Venezuela with tractors and consumer goods, and last month Chavez agreed to supply Iran with 20,000 barrels per day of gasoline.
Chavez said Venezuela would only use nuclear energy for peaceful means, adding that neither Venezuela nor Iran was planning to build a nuclear bomb.
“What we propose is for nuclear bombs to be eliminated. Venezuela will never build a nuclear bomb,” he said.
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