MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela and Iran seal cooperation agreement

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and visiting Iranian president Mohammed Khatami stated Friday they “will stand together and strongly against any United States aggression”.

"Our two peoples want peace and stand strongly to any aggression against their countries", said President Khatami who is on an official three days visit to Venezuela.

The George Bush administration has repeatedly described Iran as a "hostile" regime, one of the three members of the "evil axis", and considers President Chavez a disturbing force in the area.

In a speech from Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, which was nationally broadcasted Mr. Chavez highlighted that Venezuela and Iran are standing up against "the Washington government's imperialist aspirations".

United States insists Iran's nuclear enrichment program has a military purpose, which Teheran vehemently denies.

In "a very courageous speech a few weeks ago" said Mr. Chavez, "Khatami warned of the U.S. government's imperialist intentions ... and we have been forced to react to the same intentions". "Like you (Iranians), we Venezuelans are also determined, very determined, to be free, and no imperialist power is going to prevail ... Iran has every right, like any other country in the world, to develop its atomic energy" stressed Mr. Chavez. Noting that the Iranian revolution "is 20 years ahead" of the one he claims to be leading since he was first elected in 1999, President Chavez underscored that both movements have reached "a point of no return".

The two presidents signed cooperation agreements involving oil and petrochemicals; gas; construction; fisheries and mining.

It is also believed both presidents discussed the coming meeting of the Organization of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC) in Isfahan, Iran.

Caracas and Teheran have both said they would oppose any OPEC initiative at the meeting next Wednesday to increase members' production quotas in an effort to contain the ever surging price of crude.

Closing this Saturday a "most successful and productive" visit in the city of Guayana, 300 miles southeast of Caracas, Mr. Khatami and Mr. Chavez will be inaugurating a tractor assembly plant and breaking the ground for a cement plan.