The Republic of Iran will be able to use one million hectares of Venezuelan soil for 20 years following a cooperation agreement signed with the Maduro regime on June 11. The information was confirmed by the Iranian Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs, Mohsen Kousheshtabar, to the Iranian agency Tasnim. This reality worries the region due to the accusations made by the U.S. against the Middle Eastern country for its possible links with the financing of terrorists, providing them with equipment, weapons and training.
The official Iranian news agency IRNA reported that the foreign ministers of both countries "signed cooperation agreements in the political, economic, tourism, oil and petrochemical fields," as well as in the defense sector and "joint projects to produce food in Venezuela and export to Iran", as well as to other countries in South America.
For Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the relationship with Venezuela "shows the determination of senior officials of the two countries to develop relations in different fields".
During his visit to the Islamic republic, Nicolás Maduro praised the alleged Iranian "economic miracle" in food production and said that the two countries share an "indestructible friendship".
A dangerous relationship for the American continent
For the president in charge of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, the links of Nicolás Maduro' s regime with Iran pose a risk for Latin America due to possible links with terrorism, as well as the event of the Venezuelan plane that was held in Argentina, and money laundering.
On June 6, a Venezuelan-registered cargo plane arrived at Ezeiza Airport, Argentina. The crew consisted of 19 people, five of them Iranian and the rest Venezuelan. The Argentine opposition deputies denounced that the captain of the aircraft is part of the Quds Force, an elite Iranian group and that he would be part of the Revolutionary Guard.
Maduro opened Venezuela's doors to global authoritarianism and its terrorist groups. This is a threat to the region.
Supporting the dictatorship in Vzla is also supporting terrorism, what happened with the plane held in Argentina should alert the democracies of the world. https://t.co/qDkDGOdcFc pic.twitter.com/lla1HZadh0
- Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) June 13, 2022
"These links open the region to these terrorist groups," reiterated Guaidó, who recalled the Venezuelan dictator's relationship with terrorist groups such as the Farc.
For her part, U.S. Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar warned that the Venezuelan dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro "opened the doors to Iran for terrorism to enter the region".
The congresswoman also warned that the growing Iranian presence "is not only worrisome for the hemisphere and for the United States, but also for Jewish groups...Iran is the state that most supports anti-Semitic groups in the world."
