Iranian President on tour of US foes in Latin America

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under growing pressure from debilitating Western economic sanctions, started a Latin America tour yesterday aimed at shoring up ties with his few remaining allies.

Mr Ahmadinejad will meet fellow US foe and firebrand Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during a four-nation trip that coincides with rising international concern over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

The Iranian leader arrived in Caracas late yesterday, kicking off a five-day trip that will tomorrow see him attend the inauguration of the recently re-elected Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega.

Stops in Cuba and Ecuador will round off the tour.

All four countries have frosty ties with the United States and their leaders have in the past four years made numerous Tehran visits to build up diplomatic and business links while relations with Washington have worsened.

Just before leaving Iran, Mr Ahmadinejad said that all the countries on his itinerary “resist the oppression” of the United States and share “an anti-colonialist view,” according to the Fars news agency.

“Latin America is a region that the oppressive regime (the United States) sees as its backyard where it can do as it likes. But today the people have awoken and are acting independently,” he said.

Mr Ahmadinejad called Mr Chavez “a hero in the struggle against the oppression”, said Mr Ortega was leading a “revolution (that) is the same as the Iranian revolution”, and praised Ecuador’s ruling “revolutionaries who battle the (US) regime of domination”.

He said he planned to sign deals in all the countries, including Cuba.

Mr Ahmadinejad’s international affairs director, Mohammad Reza Forqani, earlier said the visit to “what used to be called the backyard of America shows the dynamism of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s diplomacy in the world arena.”

The trip also “invalidates the claims of the enemies,” Mr Forqani was quoted as saying by Iranian state media , in a clear jab at Washington.

Officials in Ecuador meanwhile confirmed that Mr Ahmadinejad would visit the South American nation on Thursday, in the Iranian leader’s second visit since attending President Rafael Correa’s inauguration in 2007.

Mr Ahmadinejad will talk with Latin American leaders about “bilateral ties and regional and international issues,” according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

The United States has urged Latin American countries not to deepen ties with Iran.

Ahmadinejad is visiting Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador where he “is trying to find oxygen”

“As the regime feels increasing pressure, it is desperate for friends and flailing around in interesting places to find new friends,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said when asked about Mr Ahmadinejad’s trip.

Carlos Romero, a retired international relations professor at the Central University of Venezuela, said Mr Ahmadinejad was “trying to find oxygen in Latin America,” while links with other states continue to spiral downwards.