Agence France-Presse,
LA PAZ (AFP): Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived here Thursday for an official visit to Bolivia and a planned stop in Venezuela, shoring up his support in the backyard of his bitter rival the United States.
The Iranian leader arrived just two days after he insisted on his country's right to develop nuclear energy — a position staunchly opposed by Washington and much of the West — during a speech at the United Nations.
Ahmadinejad's meeting with Bolivia's leftist leader Evo Morales comes in the wake of newly re-established diplomatic ties between their two countries.
The mini-Latin America tour also finds the trio of firebrand leaders — Ahmadinejad, Morales and Venezuela's populist president Hugo Chavez — united in their contentious relations with Washington.
Ahmadinejad's presence in New York stirred vocal street protests and a storm of controversy, despite his efforts to calm the international community over his country's nuclear ambitions.
“We do not believe in nuclear weapons. Period. It goes against the whole grain of humanity,” he said at Columbia University on Monday, where a small group of demonstrators gathered to protest his appearance.
In a speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, he slammed the “unlawful and political impositions” of the United States and its allies — a reference to UN Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment.
Ahmadinejad also said the controversy over Iran's nuclear ambitions “is closed as a political issue,” and added it should be handled “within the legal framework” and under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Ahmadinejad is on far friendlier ground in both Venezuela and Bolivia, since both are among the few government in the world who support Iran's nuclear program.
Thursday's visit has been criticized by Bolivia's right-of-center political opposition, which is leery of Iran's nuclear program, and has warned that it would block any energy deals signed during the visit if they include the mining of Bolivian uranium.
The meeting also has raised eyebrows in Washington, and the US ambassador in La Paz has expressed concerns over Bolivia's warming relations with Iran.
President Evo Morales, meanwhile, defended his government's “sovereign” decision to establish diplomatic relations with Iran, telling reporters in New York this week that the ties “will not harm anyone.”
Impoverished Bolivia is set to sign several bilateral agreements with Iran, a country that is under UN-imposed sanctions for its refusal to heed ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment.
The Iranian leader's sidetrip to Venezuela meanwhile, will be his third visit since he taking office in 2005.
The two Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members have signed accords over eight billion dollars, mainly in the oil and energy sectors.
Ahmadinejad infuriated US authorities this week with his remarks at the United Nations denouncing “bullying powers” who violate human rights and spread insecurity and destabilization around the world.
“Human rights are being extensively violated by certain powers, especially by those who pretend to be their exclusive advocates,” Ahmadinejad said, without mentioning the United States by name.
He also slammed the US-led invasion of Iraq and decried the plight of the Palestinian people, saying big powers “use various pretexts to occupy sovereign states and cause insecurity and division.”
The vitriol of his remarks was topped only by Chavez's last year, when the Venezuelan leader, addressing the same body, referred to US President George W. Bush as “the devil.”
“Yesterday the devil came here,” he said in reference to Bush, who had delivered his speech from the same stage the previous day.
“And it still smells of sulfur today,” Chavez said at the time.
