CARACAS, Friday March 11, 2005 | Update
Mohammad
Khatami, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran arrived
Friday morning in Miraflores presidential palace to enter
into several agreements, most of them related to energy.
The
meeting of the Iranian ruler with Venezuelan President Hugo
Chávez was delayed as Chávez had to stay one extra
day in Paris due to faults in the presidential plane.
Chávez
welcomed Khatami at 9:15 a.m. in Miraflores presidential palace,
according to AFP.
The
Iranian president arrived in Venezuela Thursday afternoon
as part of a tour focused on the execution of energy agreements
by the two OPEC member countries that overtly run counter
to Washington policies.
Agreements
include the construction of cement facilities, double taxation,
central banks and housing, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry
reported.
On
Friday afternoon, Khatami will deliver a speech in the National
Assembly. On Saturday, Khatami and Chávez will visit
the mining city of Ciudad Guayana to open a tractor assembly
plant.
This
is the third visit of the Iranian ruler to Venezuela. Earlier,
he attended the summit of the Organization of Oil Exporting
Countries (OPEC) in 2000 and the summit of the Group of 15
in 2004.
04:17 PM. Western Hemisphere. "Damned empire; I curse you one thousand times; some day you will be finished off and wrecked. I curse you one thousand times, empire." This is the least that President Hugo Chávez has uttered to refer to the US government. In urging the Bolivarian Armed Forces to prepare for war, he said that a US raid on Venezuela through Colombia would trigger and spread over the region "the 100-year war."