MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivia's Morales visit Libya and Iran for energy cooperation

Pte. Ahmadinejad and his counterpart Morales during his visit at Bolivia

Evo Morales, Bolivia's anti-Washington president, has arrived in Tehran on his first official visit to the Islamic Republic.

Morales's plane touched down at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran on Monday morning. Accompanied by the Bolivian energy minister, he was welcomed at the airport by Iran's Minister of Industries and Mining, Ali Akbar Mehrabian. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will officially welcome Morales at the presidential complex later in the day. The Bolivian president has arrived in Tehran from Libya where he met Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. Diplomatic relations were established between the two countries on August 13, 2008. President Ahmadinejad paid an official visit to the Bolivian capital La Paz in September 2007, which set the cornerstone of diplomatic ties between Tehran and La Paz. Morales describes Iran and Bolivia as being "two friendly and revolutionary countries". The two countries are both energy producers, and are staunchly opposed to US hegemony. Morales is Bolivia's first indigenous president and was swept to power by popular vote in December 2005. His strong anti-American stance was a key to his landslide victory in the elections. Within six months, he brought energy production back under national ownership, rejecting foreign control of Bolivia's natural gas reserves which are the second largest in South America. The Latin American president recently won a recall referendum in Bolivia in which 68 percent of the country gave him a fresh mandate to lead.