Ahmadinejad Chavez : Oil patrons hand in hand

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Caracas to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, as two presidents of US mortal enemy states cooperate for mutual projects.

Caracas / NationalTurk – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and was welcomed by Venezuelan Vice-President Elias Jaua at the airport on Monday morning.

Ahmadinejad is scheduled to meet with ‘US Slammer’ Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and other senior Venezuelan officials. He will also sign several contracts and inaugurate a number of projects.

Iran meets Venezuela : US in shock

Ahmadinejad left Tehran for Caracas on a tour of four Latin American states on Sunday morning, just as his country thretens western powers and Israel and Us threaten Iran.

Iran has been seeking to boost its ties with Latin American countries in recent years to the concern of the United States.

Since taking office in 2005, President Ahmadinejad has expanded Iran’s cooperation with many Latin American states, including Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Brazil. Many of these countries suffered in their histories by US intervened coups.

Iran & Venezuela : Brotherhood of Oil

But, Iran has grown specially expansive ties with Venezuela, and now the two countries are considered allies in many fields and in all international bodies, specially within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) which controls the world’s oil lifeline.

The strong and rapidly growing ties between Iran and Latin America Counties have raised eyebrows in the US and its western allies since Tehran and Latin nations have forged an alliance against the imperialist and colonialist powers and are striving hard to reinvigorate their relations with the other independent countries which pursue a line of policy independent from the US.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thanked Turkey for support to their nuclear program and hosting an international meeting last month in Istanbul.

“Talks between Iran and P5+1 were successful for both sides and the Turkish government as well,” Ahmadinejad told a joint press conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul following their meeting on Monday.

The Iranian leader added that the value of Iran’s trade ties with Turkey surpassed 10 billion dollars last year and noted that the two countries have the capabilities to upgrade their trade to $30 billion.

“We are determined to immediately reach the value of our annual trade ties with Turkey to 30 billion dollars through the expansion of all-out cooperation,” he said.

“Iran and Turkey enjoy deep, brotherly and enduring relations,” the Iranian president said, adding the two countries have been bolstering ties in different fields during recent years.

Ahmadinejad pointed to “very good” bilateral cooperation on regional issues and said, “Common views and cooperation between Iran and Turkey will be beneficial to peace, security and the expansion of relations in the region.”

Iran is to halt the sale of subsidised petrol from late September as part of plans to phase out subsidies on energy products.

ISNA news agency reported “Based on decisions taken, from the second half of this (Iranian) year (late September), the rationed petrol sales will be stopped,” said Mohammad Royanian, head of Iran’s fuel transportation organisation.

Iranians are currently allocated 60 litres (13 gallons) of petrol a month at a subsidised rate of 1,000 rials (10 US cents). These sales would be stopped, according to Royanian, who did not reveal the new price.

Any other purchase of petrol over and above the rationed quota is at a price of 4,000 rials (40 US cents).

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has proposed to phase out subsidies on energy goods that directly or indirectly cost the government as much as 100 billion dollars a year.

His budget proposals for the current Iranian year to March 2011 is marked by the start of a major plan to scrap costly subsidies on energy goods, but economists have strongly criticised the policy as inflationary.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, has showed little concern over U.S. intelligence that Iran has enough enriched uranium to develop two nuclear bombs in the next two years.

Lavrov’s remarks came during a news conference in Jerusalem with Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, saying the International Atomic Energy Agency had already said that Iran had at least 2 tons of uranium which was enrich and with further enrichment can produce two nuclear bombs.

Lavrov also said that he very much hopes that Iran could stop their uranium enrichment program and that Russia and the United States had offered to hold talks with the Middle Eastern country for nuclear fuel to be used at their Tehran medical reactor.

Iran want %20 enriched uranium which is the required level for their reactor as Tehran were not able to obtain the fuel Lavrov said.

Lavrov continued by saying “I very much hope that Iran will agree to this and this will give an opportunity to prevent the deterioration of the situation,”

However Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying on Tuesday that “The fuel of 20 percent concentration has a specific use, we will produce it when we need it, and will stop production when we don’t.”

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said on Tuesday during a televised news conference that Iran prefers to purchase fuel for the Tehran reactor as it was less expensive than enriching to the %20 level.

Meanwhile Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman in the same press conference also said that Iran’s nuclear plans were the “biggest threat”in the Middle East.

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Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a speech at the CICA- Photo by : Burhan Ozbilici/AP

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s talks came in the week where a UN security summit will take a vote on a fourth round of UN sanctions on Iran, due to the country not complying with UN and International rules and procedures.

During the Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit held in Istanbul, Ahmadinejad warned that the nuclear fuel swap deal negotiated with Turkey and Brazil is a one-off chance that would not be repeated.

Ahmadinejad also threatened that if new sanctions are imposed, Iran will walk away from any further talks.

Ahmadinejad has also criticized Russia support of the draft sanctions and has also urged the US to change their stance against Iran.

Meanwhile Putin who is also attending the CICA summit has said in Istanbul that the sanctions have practically been agreed on but added that they should not be “excessive.”

The sanctions which will be implied on Iran should the Security Council vote goes through will tighten financial restriction and shipping inspections on Iran and also will expand a limited arms embargo.

So far it is alleged that the five permanent members of the UN; Russia, United States, China, United Kingdom and France along with Germany are planning to support the sanctions.

According to diplomats, the vote will take place on Wednesday though no specific date has been specified.

Iran had hoped that the deal struck with Turkey and Brazil was enough to detour further sanctions by the UN but many Western countries including the United States have said that this was an attempt by Ahmadinejad and his government to delay further sanctions.

Western countries are fiercely against Iran’s nuclear projects as many believe the Middle Eastern country is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

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Daryush Shokof, born Ali Reza Shokoufandeh was last seen Cologne, Germany on 24 May where he planned to board a train to Paris.

The exiled Iranian artist known for his images and films representing peace had reportedly received several threats due to his work criticizing the Iranian government.

Guido Busch, a Berlin police spokesman told press on Friday that no information on the whereabouts of Shokof has been received. Busch said “as of now we don’t have any evidence that a crime took place.”

The 55-year-old who lived in Germany since 1985 had just released two movies in May in which both criticized the Iranian government.

A friend of Shokof’s, Kazem Moussavi said “he (Shokof) was a harsh critic of the Iranian government and constantly received threatening phone calls.”

Though Daryush Shokof was a fierce critic of the Iranian government and of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he had also a political activist condemning other nations for their support of Iran.

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Iran’s president on Wednesday urged Barack Obama to accept a nuclear fuel swap deal, warning the U.S. leader will miss a historic opportunity for improved cooperation from Tehran if the offer is rejected.

Mahmoud Ahamdinejad also issued a stern warning to Russia, saying Moscow’s support for the U.S.-led push for a new round of U.N. sanctions against Iran was contrary to the two countries’ neighborly and friendly relations.

According to AP, Washington has denounced the Iranian offer – brokered last week by Brazil and Turkey – as a ploy by Tehran to avoid a new round of U.N. sanctions over its controversial nuclear program, which the West fears is geared toward nuclear weapons.

“There are people in the world who want to pit Mr. Obama against the Iranian nation and bring him to the point of no return, where the path to his friendship with Iran will be blocked forever,” Ahmadinejad said during a rally in the southern town of Kerman.

Iran proposed last week to ship much of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for nuclear fuel rods needed for a Tehran medical research reactor. The fuel swap would diminish Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium that can possibly be used in making atomic bombs, if the uranium is enriched to a higher, weapons-grade level.

But the proposal did not deter U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France – the five permanent Security Council members – from agreeing on a draft fourth set of sanctions against Iran for refusing to completely halt uranium enrichment, as demanded by the United Nations.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday said in the Chinese capital, Beijing, that Tehran’s offer, submitted on Monday to the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, was inadequate and did not address international concerns about Iran’s atomic ambitions.

Tehran’s offer is similar to a U.N.-drafted plan that Washington and its allies last year pressed Iran to accept, but which the Mideast nation rejected at the time. “If they (U.S. and its allies) are truthful when they say they seek cooperation … they should accept this offer,” Ahmadinejad said. “But if they seek excuses, they should know that the path to any interaction will be closed.”

“Mr. Obama must know that this proposal is a historic opportunity … (Obama should) know that if this opportunity is lost, I doubt the Iranian nation will give a new chance to this gentleman in the future,” he added.

Ahmadinejad also singled out Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, saying the neighboring country’s leader had caved in to U.S. pressure for new sanctions on Tehran. “Justifying the behavior of Mr. Medvedev today has become very difficult,” he said. “The Iranian nation doesn’t know whether (Russians) ultimately are friends, whether they stand by us or are after other things.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s President agree on Nuclear exchange deal.

The agreement pledges Iran to send the 3.5% low enriched Uranium to Turkey in exchange for nuclear fuel and is seen as an action by Iran to prevent further sanctions to the country.

Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said to reporters “Turkey will be the place to keep Iran’s 3.5 per cent (low enriched) uranium, one thousand two hundred kilos (of LEU) will be exchanged.”

The deal was signed in Tehran, Iran’s capital by the foreign ministers of the three countries after an agreement was made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s President.

Mehmanparast also added that Iran will officially notify the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding the agreement within a week.

Iran have been under immense pressure from the United Nations (UN), United States and other Western European countries to send the stock of their low enriched Uranium for an exchange for nuclear fuel rods for a reactor.

Israel have already reacted to the deal by saying, Iran are only going into the agreement to take the international pressure off the country and to lighten the sanctions issued on the country.

A senior Israeli official in Jerusalem said “The Iranians have manipulated Turkey and Brazil in appearing to accept the enrichment of part of their uranium on Turkish soil,”

Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has also said that Iran is not serious about accepting international demands regarding its nuclear program which the country insists, is for good means.

However many country’s believe that Iran is going to use the nuclear technology to make weapons of mass destruction.

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Two Iranian teenagers who were executed for being homosexual. At the time of arrest, one of the boys were 14 the other was 16-years-old.

According to an article by the Washington Post Turkey is harbouring at least 92 homosexuals who managed to flee Iran as there are no visa required to pass from Iran to Turkey.

Most of the Iranian refugees have been placed by the Turkish government in the city of Kayersi, which is situated in Central East Turkey and is also the area where thousands of Iranian immigrants who fled Iran over the much disputed June presidential election, are situated.

Though, according to the Washington Post and some other newspapers, the Iranian homosexuals fear harassment and are told to lay low, there are no such credible findings on the matter.

Many of the Iranian homosexuals are trying to flee to first world countries, especially the Unites States as their living conditions in Kayseri are not adequate just like the living conditions of the Turkish citizens in the city are not.

Turkey never the less provides a much safer heaven for the Iranian lesbians and gays who were reportedly threatened by the Iranian government, co-workers, security officials and blackmailers who used them for sexual favours.

There are no official figures of the amount of homosexuals in Iran but rough estimates put the figure at about 200,000 in the country populated by 66 million people.

The figure comes by rough estimates from people who want sex change operations and the psychological reports of men going to the Iranian armed forces which is compulsory in the country.

Sex-change is legal in Iran and according to findings, many men opt to be operated on to be with the man or woman they love and to avoid harsh penalties.

The report comes three years after Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at the Colombian University that “there are no gays in Iran, we do not have this phenomena.” to a crowed of students laughing and heckling to his comments.

There are currently 1.356 known Iranian immigrants in Turkey who mostly fled to the country as political asylum seekers or homosexuals fleeing from execution. According to estimates by Human Rights groups, approximately 4000 Iranian homosexuals have been executed since the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979.

The Video bellow shows the executions of three Iranian homosexuals. The video contains extreme scenes of violence that some viewers may find offensive.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Afghanistan, the Mehr news agency reported Sunday.

Ahmadinejad will start the one-day visit on Monday and confer with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai on bilateral and international issues, the report said.

Afghanistan is one of the few countries where Iran and its arch-foe the United States have common interests, and common enemies such as the Taliban Islamists. Both sides also support the government of Karzai.

The Iranian president has often said the dilemma in Afghanistan could not be solved by military means.

Ahmadinejad said that instead of waging war, the West should have invested a very small part of its military budgets to create jobs for the 25 million people in Afghanistan.

Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has postponed a trip to Afghanistan devoted to providing “solutions for settling the problems” in Iran’s eastern neighbor.

The one-day visit, originally scheduled for Monday, would be the President’s first visit to Afghanistan since both he and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai were re-elected last year.

“President Ahmadinejad won’t be coming to Kabul,” an informed source at the Karzai’s office told on condition of anonymity.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, has, however, arrived in Afghanistan on Monday morning on an unannounced visit.

Iran blames Afghanistan’s insurgency and the rising Taliban-linked extremism on the West’s interference in the war-torn country.

The US-led war in Afghanistan has killed more than 1,440 civilians this year – a figure almost equal to the US-led coalition’s overall death toll in over eight years of hostilities.

Meanwhile, according to figures released by the Washington Post, around 5,372 American servicemen have been killed since 2001 in the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Iran’s President Ahmadinejad says Turkey’s global stature has gained prominence due to the wise policies its leader and officials have adopted.

Such policies, said the President in a phone dialogue with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, has placed Turkey in a position of playing a “very effective role in regional stability and security.”

“Of course,” he said, “The intelligent people of Turkey also appreciate such policies and support their leader’s constructive plans.”

Ahmadinejad also said that regional and global development are changing in favor of Iran and Turkey, creating an excellent opportunity for Tehran and Ankara to push harder for the establishment of peace and justice at a global level.

The Turkish president, for his part, urged continued negotiations and collaborations between the two nations, saying that it could benefit both regional and international peace and stability.

The two presidents also pledged to support each other’s rights in various international stages.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Zionist regime of Israel a “racist group”, blaming all wars and crimes on Zionists.

The conference was attended by Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal, the Secretary General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and officials of the other Palestinian groups.

Ahmadinejad also cautioned that the Zionist regime is seeking hegemony over the world, and added, “It is a well-known fact today that the Zionist regime’s mission is occupation, threat, violence, war mongering and paving the ground for oppressors’ hegemony.”

Stressing that the Zionist regime was created by the arrogant powers to serve as a base in this sensitive region, the Iranian president stated, “Zionists do not adhere to any religion. Furthermore they are against the prophets.”

He also lambasted the claims made by the supporters of the Zionist regime about defending human rights, and added that supporters of the Zionist regime who are shouting slogans for human rights and anti-terrorism, support organized crimes of the occupying regime.

He also underscored that resistance is the only way to confront the Zionists.

Opposition leaders have called on supporters to take to the streets on Thursday, raising the risk of renewed violence eight months after a disputed election plunged Iran into crisis.

The authorities say the pro-reform opposition will face a firm response if it tries to hijack state-sponsored celebrations of the anniversary, when they say the Iranian nation in a display of unity will “punch the faces” of its Western enemies.

Apart from turmoil at home, the hardline leadership is also facing increased international pressure after the Islamic state announced this week an expansion of nuclear work which the West suspects is aimed at making bombs, a charge Tehran denies.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the international community was moving “fairly quickly” toward imposing broader sanctions on Iran, a major oil producer.

Events will be held across Iran to mark the revolution anniversary but the main official gathering will be at Tehran’s Azadi square, where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to speak to a crowd which usually numbers tens of thousands.

Opposition websites say the day belongs to all Iranians and have urged supporters to attend the rally too.

“We are closely watching the activities of the sedition movement and several people who were preparing to disrupt the February 11 rallies were arrested,” Fars News Agency quoted police chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam as saying, giving no details.

Playing down possible unrest, the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying: “There will be no worries in this regard. We are fully prepared for holding a safe and glorious rally.”

Ahmadinejad traveled to Brazil, part of a quest for economic opportunities ahead of possible sanctions.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has come under international criticism for playing host to the Iranian leader, who left Tehran Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“New orders should be established in the world,” Iranian state television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. “Iran, Brazil and Venezuela in particular can have determining roles in designing and establishing these new orders.”

In Brazil, Ahmadinejad and Lula are expected to sign biotechnology, energy and agriculture cooperation agreements.

Ahmadinejad is traveling to Africa and South America to seek new economic opportunities as Western leaders threaten sanctions and economic restrictions if negotiations on Iran’s nuclear development program fail.

The U.S. government and Western analysts expressed concern that Brazil’s reception of Ahmadinejad could imply approval of Iran’s resistance to international pressure to abandon its nuclear enrichment efforts, the Times said. Iran says the program is for peaceful uses but Western nations suspect its goal is to develop a nuclear weapon.

Analysts also question how Lula may be using his new-found stature as a global leader by welcoming Ahmadinejad.

“The Ahmadinejad visit is cause to question the ends to which Brazil might seek to use its burgeoning global profile,” Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas in Washington, told the newspaper.

Iran’s president is among the speakers at a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, a 57-state bloc.

Presidents Bashar Assad of Syria and Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan are also attending the meeting.

But Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court, has pulled out of the summit.

Sudan’s state-run Suna news agency said “new developments” had required Mr Bashir’s presence in Sudan.

The Turkish government had previously welcomed the attendance of Mr Bashir at the meeting and said that he would not be arrested, as Turkey was not a signatory to the treaty which set up the Hague-based ICC.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan went as far as saying over the weekend that no war crimes had occurred in Darfur and that he would be more comfortable meeting Sudan’s president than the prime minister of Israel.

But the EU, which Turkey hopes to join, wanted the invitation to be withdrawn.