Cause for Alarm:

How is this not a greater cause for alarm?

When a man who, as president of an aspiring nuclear-armed country, called for the destruction of not only Israel, but the United States meets with the radical leader of a country within our hemisphere - one who has also anticipated a time without the US as a global power - I am frightened.

Chavez may be a mere blowhard, but Iran is a dangerous state, and one that ought to be dealt with sooner than later. Chavez may likely be trying to gain a potential nuclear partner to make his outspoken dream a reality.


Iran president cements anti-U.S. front with Venezuela
By Saul Hudson
Reuters
Sunday, September 17, 2006; 8:30 PM


CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shored up opposition to a U.S. drive to curb Iran's nuclear program on a visit to Venezuela on Sunday that cemented an anti-American front with President Hugo Chavez.

Ahmadinejad's first trip to Venezuela highlighted Iran's backing for the fellow OPEC country's bid for a U.N. Security Council seat that Chavez would use to challenge Washington's campaign for international sanctions against Tehran.

Chavez, who Washington calls a destabilizing, anti-democratic force, cast the visit as two countries jointly defying what he says is the imperialist aggression of the world's only superpower.

"It is a union that seeks a balance in the world and to save the future of your children, my children and our grandchildren," he told a state-owned TV network.

Buoyed by high oil prices that underpin their popularity at home and tapping into anti-American sentiment around the world, both presidents are awkward foes for the United States.

Iranian-Venezuelan ties have previously focused cooperation as major oil exporters, but the leaders emphasized their new bond in standing up to America.

"Nowadays, we have common goals and interests," said Ahmadinejad, who repeatedly called his counterpart by his first name. "We have to be united."

"I salute all the revolutionaries who oppose world hegemony," he added in an apparent reference to the United States.

Iran established an Islamic republic after a 1979 revolution that ousted a U.S.-backed leader, and Chavez says he presides over a revolution to end U.S. influence in Venezuela.

Chavez, who welcomed Ahmadinejad at the capital's airport walking with his arm across his visitor's shoulders, said: "Two revolutions are giving each other a hand."

"They (the Iranians) are threatened by the American empire. The empire does not want any nation to develop," he said.

Chavez has offered unspecified help to Iran should the United States attack its nuclear programs.

That option could loom for Washington if it fails to curb Tehran's ambitions through negotiations, according to many diplomats and atomic experts.

Chavez has expressed interest in working on technology with Iran if Venezuela ever developed a nuclear program.

But the presidents did not focus on the atomic issue on Sunday, preferring to stress economic cooperation including a joint $1.5 billion petrochemical investment. They also watched the inauguration of a training center where prayers were held at an on-site mosque.

NEXT STOP NEW YORK

Ahmadinejad's two-day stop in Venezuela is sandwiched between a trip to Cuba for the summit of Non-Aligned Movement countries, which called on developing nations to challenge U.S. dominance, and a visit to the United Nations in New York.

At the world body's general assembly, Ahmadinejad will lobby for Iran's right to develop nuclear programs it says are for power generation despite Washington's assertion Tehran is trying to build an atomic weapon.

Chavez will press for a Security Council seat against a U.S. campaign supporting Venezuela's rival, Guatemala.

Chavez accused the United States of spreading rumors that Ahmadinejad's visit was to secure Venezuela's uranium for its nuclear programs.

"They don't get tired of lying," he said.

Limiting Iran's nuclear programs and curbing the socialist influence of Cuba ally Chavez are among Washington's top foreign policy priorities.

But Larry Birns of the Washington-based thinktank the Council on Hemispheric Affairs said the United States has little to fear from the countries' closer ties.

"This is a visit that is a statement of solidarity rather than any plan for action," he said.