MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Iranian president will attend Chavez funeral ceremony on Friday

Chavez and Ahmedinejad visited each other and called themselves allies, friends and even brothers.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected in Caracas early Friday on time to pay tribute to his late Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, who died earlier this week after a two-year battle with cancer. Ahmadinejad left Tehran for Caracas on Thursday.

The Iranian president is accompanied by his top adviser Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, Vice President for Executive Affairs Seyyed Hassan Mousavi, Vice President for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad-Reza Mir-Tajeddini and acting Minister of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare Asadollah Abbasi.

Iran and Venezuela have forged strong economic and political relations in the recent years despite Western sanctions on Tehran because of its controversial nuclear program.

Chavez and Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited each other, and called themselves allies, friends and even brothers. It was a friendship that was watched closely by many countries, especially the United States.

The relationship between Iran and Venezuela began in the 1960s, in the early days of OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. But it was during Hugo Chavez’s presidency that strong ties were formed.

Iran’s nuclear program was a catalyst. Iran says its nuclear aims are peaceful; the West fears it is developing weapons.

In the face of international sanctions, Iran turned to Venezuela, one of its few allies, to break its diplomatic isolation, find new strategic resources, and undermine US influence.

“In Venezuela, PDVSA, the national oil company of Venezuela, continues to have relations with Iran in ways that break the embargo, that is the sanctions that the United Nations has imposed because of the Iranian nuclear program,” said Christopher Sabatini, with Americas Society/Council of the Americas.