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.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS