Iran has said that confronting Western imperialism is a main message of the president’s tour.
Tehran, Iran – Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has begun a three-country tour of South America aimed at strengthening political and economic ties with allies who oppose Western rule.
The president left Tehran early Monday and is scheduled to make state visits to Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, all countries that are also sanctioned by the United States.
Iranian state media said the five-day tour will begin with a visit to Venezuela. This is Raisi’s 13th trip abroad in the 21 months since the start of his presidency.
The President is accompanied by his Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Oil, Defense and Health, along with his Chief of Staff and his Deputy for Political Affairs.
“The relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the independent countries of Latin America are strategic. The position of us and these three countries is to oppose imperialism and unilateralism,” Raisi said before leaving.
Among Raisi’s three destinations, Iran has the closest ties to Venezuela.
The two countries signed a 20-year cooperation plan they said would take bilateral relations to a “strategic” level during a visit by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to Tehran last year, when he also met with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Over the past three years, Iran has significantly increased its energy cooperation with Caracas, including helping to repair and overhaul Venezuelan refineries and sending shipments of heavy crude to help Venezuela increase its oil and gas production.
The two countries also aim to increase cooperation in the sectors of agriculture, science and technology, shipping, automotive and tourism while increasing flights and strengthening cultural ties.
Raisi’s visit comes a week after Maduro arrived in Saudi Arabia for a high-level trip as Riyadh rebuilds alliances without the blessing of its longtime ally, the United States.
Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to restore diplomatic relations in a deal brokered by China in March, which also paved the way for Saudi Arabia’s rapprochement with the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and the return of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the Arab League.
Tehran’s most notable recent collaboration with Cuba came when the two worked together to organize a production line for one of Havana’s COVID-19 vaccines in Iran.
Last month, a Cuban delegation went to Tehran and signed 13 agreements that Iranian officials said include cooperation in biotechnology, health, trade, banking, agriculture and sports.
Like Iran, Nicaragua has also increasingly been the target of US and European sanctions following the government’s crackdown on protests in 2018, and Managua has drawn closer to Beijing, having recognized China’s right to Taiwan.
According to IRNA, the official news agency of the Iranian government, Raisi intends to follow up on previously signed agreements and discuss the development of new cooperation roadmaps.
“Selecting Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba as the first destinations of our president for the Latin American tour is not accidental, and in a period of transition to a multipolar era, the fact that the names of these countries line up on the list of governments opposed to US hegemony stands out. more,” he said.
