Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is in Venezuela “at the start of a Latin American tour that will also take him to Cuba and Bolivia.”
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza tweeted: “Every high-level visit deepens our strategic alliance, our brotherhood.”
Iran has also been shipping oil and food to Venezuela, and agreed to install its first Iranian supermarket in the country, which is enthusiastic about its friendship with Iran.
In August, U.S. agents seized a multimillion-dollar Iranian fuel shipment headed to Venezuela. It was described as “the largest-ever seizure of its kind.”
It was announced days ago:
The Trump administration plans to use proceeds from the sale of fuel confiscated from Iranian tankers to benefit victims of terrorism, officials announced Thursday. The US military in August seized 1.1 million barrels of fuel from four Iranian tankers bound for Venezuela. The fuel has since been sold, and officials say the proceeds will go to a special fund for victims of state-sponsored terrorism.
Under the Obama administration, Iran was being continuously strengthened, as it would be once again in a Biden administration. Obama hosted a former Iranian official, pro-Tehran lobbyist and an Iranian national security official at the White House numerous times. Iran also reportedly received as much as $33.6 billion in backroom deal payments facilitated by the Obama administration. And all that is aside from the tremendous boon to the Islamic Republic that was the Iran Nuclear Deal.
“Iran foreign minister arrives in Venezuela to start Latin America tour,” Reuters, November 4, 2020:
CARACAS (Reuters) – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has arrived in Venezuela for the start of a tour of Latin America, Venezuela’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday, amid intense efforts by Washington to limit Iran’s influence in the western hemisphere.
Zarif is also scheduled to visit Cuba and to attend the inauguration of Bolivian president-elect Luis Arce, who has said he will strengthen ties with Iran.
He was “received by Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza upon his arrival to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, where he will carry out an intense work agenda at the highest level,” Venezuela’s foreign ministry wrote on Twitter.
Tehran has become a crucial ally for Caracas as the United States tightens sanctions meant to force President Nicolas Maduro from power….