Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated an Iranian-funded hospital and two milk-processing plants on Tuesday in a goodwill visit in which his leftist host defended Iran’s “peaceful” nuclear aspirations.
Ahmadinejad and Bolivian President Evo Morales also signed an agreement in which Iran committed itself to help Bolivia investigate industrializing lithium, the lightweight metal used in electric car and other batteries. This poor Andean country possesses half the world’s known lithium reserves.
Morales and a military honor guard received Ahmadinejad at the airport, and a small band of Bolivian Muslims hailed the two as they arrived together at the presidential palace.
PHOTO : REUTERS
The Iranian president’s strained relations with Washington are shared by Bolivia’s first indigenous president, who expelled the US ambassador last year. Ahmadinejad called Morales “a friend and brother” on Tuesday and praised the two countries’ cooperation “despite the opposition of imperialism,” a reference to the US.
He previously visited in September 2007 as part of his effort to expand commercial and diplomatic ties in South America.
Iran then offered a US$1 billion mixture of aid and credit, much of which Morales hopes to use to expand Bolivia’s natural gas production, the country’s main revenue source.
One agreement they signed on Tuesday added Iran to a list of countries including France, South Korea and Japan that are vying for a role in helping Bolivia commercialize its lithium, which is concentrated in a remote southern salt flat.
Another commits Iran to build two dialysis centers.
Morales and Ahmadinejad also penned a joint declaration “recognizing the legitimate right of all countries to use and develop nuclear energy for peaceful ends, within the framework of international rights.”
After having lunch with Morales, Ahmadinejad inaugurated a hospital and two milk-processing plants in other parts of the country by video conference from the capital La Paz.
Tehran donated funding for the seven-story Red Crescent hospital and pasteurizing equipment for the plants.
Iran has also given equipment for a state-run TV station, sold Bolivia 700 tractors made in Venezuela and provided financing for a state-run cement plant.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
CORRUPTION PROBE: ‘I apologize for causing concern to the people, even though I am someone insignificant,’ Kim Keon-hee said ahead of questioning by prosecutors The wife of South Korea’s ousted former president Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday was questioned by a special prosecutor as investigators expanded a probe into suspicions of stock manipulation, bribery and interference in political party nominations. The investigation into Kim Keon-hee is one of three separate special prosecutor probes launched by the government targeting the presidency of Yoon, who was removed from office in April and rearrested last month over his brief imposition of martial law on Dec. 3 last year. The incident came during a seemingly routine standoff with the opposition, who he described as “anti-state” forces abusing their legislative majority to obstruct
RSS