Iran and Venezuela vow united front
Chavez and Ahmadinejad say collapsing currency prelude to end of “US imperialism”.
“God willing, with the fall of the dollar, the deviant US imperialism will fall as soon as possible too,” Chavez said after a two-hour closed meeting with his Iranian counterpart on Monday, according to Iran‘s IRNA news agency.
The one-day visit comes after Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, failed over the weekend to get Opec (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) to stop trading in the US dollar.
“The US empire is coming down,” Chavez told Venezuelan TV, saying the euro was a better option and that Latin American nations were also considering a common currency.
Common rhetoric
Al Jazeera’s Nazanine Moshiri reporting from Tehran said despite the cultural differences, the presidents were united by a common anti-US rhetoric, with Chavez pledging to back Iran against US action.
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“Iran is an example of struggle, resistance, dignity, revolution, strong faith,” Chavez told Al Jazeera.
“We are two powerful countries. Iran is a power and Venezuela is becoming one. We want to create a bipolar world. We don’t want a single power [that is, the USA].”
The presidents have agreed to set up a joint Iranian-Venezuelan bank and signed deals worth billions of dollars to boost co-operation in the oil industry.
The two men also blamed the US for the decline of the dollar and its negative effect on other countries.
Despite the will of the world arrogance [of the United States], we [Iran and Venezuela] will stand by the oppressed and deprived nations of the world,” Ahmadinejad said.
The sliding dollar has pushed oil prices to a record high of $100 per barrel.