Nicolás Maduro has sealed a 20-year cooperation agreement this Saturday with Iran, the longest and most extensive that the Venezuelan ruler has signed, which has activated international alerts for its challenging and provocative nature, since the two countries are subjected to harsh sanctions by the European Union and the United States, and which have been flouted so far.
Maduro congratulated himself on having an "indestructible friendship" with the Iranian authorities at the time of signing the agreement. His controversial meeting with the ayatollahs is part of his Eurasian tour in which he has also visited Turkey and Algeria.
Maduro's surprise trip, on which a reward of 15 million dollars weighs for his capture and is prohibited from entering the Western democratic world, was announced this Wednesday when he was already landing in Turkey, just as the Summit of the Americas
to which he was not invited, Spain had its conflict with Algeria and in the midst of Russia's war against Ukraine.
The new 20-year agreement that Maduro signed through his foreign minister, the content of which has not been revealed to the press, is yet another of the 250 previous contracts signed with his administration and the ayatollahs.
The signing of the pact "shows the determination of the high officials of the two countries to develop relations in different fields," said Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, in a statement to the press together with his Venezuelan counterpart, according to state television, he said. the AFP agency.
Maduro confirmed that they have before them "large cooperation fronts" in the oil, gas and petrochemical fields, "at the financial level, with the Iran-Venezuela National Development Bank" and also the defense sector. “I believe that an indestructible friendship will grow between the two of us for the future of our peoples,” said the Venezuelan president.
Specifically, the Venezuelan president cited "the economic miracle in food production" carried out by Iran, from which Venezuela can draw inspiration.
Maduro mentioned, without giving further details, "joint projects between the two countries to produce food in Venezuela and export it to Iran" and other countries in the region, without mentioning that Venezuela has uranium deposits that Iran needs to power its nuclear plant.
In addition, the South American president announced that a Caracas-Tehran flight will operate again on July 18. In the past these flights were suspected of illegally transporting strategic nuclear materials and weapons for Islamic terrorists.
"Venezuela is open to receiving tourism from Iran so that they can enjoy the beauty of the Caribbean, the Andes, the Amazon," Maduro said.
But the Venezuelan president did not refer to the fact that the Argentine government decided to immobilize a cargo plane with a Venezuelan flag, which previously belonged to the controversial Iranian airline Mahan Air, sanctioned by the United States and several European countries for allegedly transporting weapons irregularly and people linked to terrorist organizations.
This is the Boeing 747 Dreamliner, registration YV3531, which was transferred to the Venezuelan state company Conviasa, in its "cargo" version, Emtrasur, after belonging to the Iranian airline. The plane landed on Monday the 6th in Argentina and its passengers were detained.
