Paxety Pages

A recent deal between Iran and Venezuela provides for the exploitation of Venezuela's strategic minerals, prompting opposition figures to warn that President Hugo Chavez's government could be planning to provide Tehran with uranium for its nuclear program. 

The deal was part of a package of agreements, most of which were announced during a visit last month to Caracas and Cuba by Iranian parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel. The two countries also established a joint $200 million development fund and signed bilateral deals to build homes and factories, and exploit petroleum. 

Public details are vague, but Venezuelan opposition figures and press reports have said the deal on minerals could involve the production and transfer to Iran have said the deal on minerals could involve the production and transfer to Iran of Venezuelan uranium taken from known deposits located in the dense jungle states of Amazonas and Bolivar.

chavez ridiculed the report, saying it was part of what he called an imperialist plan by the international news media.

We have already noted Iran's agreement to build a cement plant in Venezuela and its agreement to build a tractor factory there. More on Venezuela's nuclear program from almost a year ago is here, and more here.

If we've learned anything about the Islamic fascists, it's listen to what they are talking about. Yesterday, Kavkaz Center, which claims to be a Chechen independence Islamic news site, is talking about the Venezuela-Iran uranium deal.

Public details of the Venezuelan-Iranian uranium deal are not clear, but an article on The Washington Post (sic) speculates that the agreement could involve the production and transfer of Venezuelan uranium to Iran. Media reports also talked of an alleged Israeli intelligence report that gave an account of the exact locations of uranium deposits in Venezuela and spoke of “extraction” already taking place in the State of Bolivar.

In addition to the Israeli report, Josй V. Mйndez, a Venezuelan expert in nuclear matters talked of the establishment of a “subcommittee of the U.S. Senate“ to probe the alleged Iranian-Venezuelan deal. “If the matter of the subcommittee is true, I must say that that is precisely like what happened before the Iraq invasion,” he said.

A U.S. State Department official said: "We are aware of reports of possible Iranian exploitation of Venezuelan uranium, but we see no commercial uranium activities in Venezuela."

But a Venezuelan diplomat, Julio Cйsar Pineda, said that uranium reserves in Venezuela “were estimated to be approximately 50,000 tons.” He also believes in the possible existence of the Israeli report. “Israel is on the alert as to what is happening because there is that Iranian threat of wiping it off the map. Europe is also on the alert and even the Arabic world…”

Some Venezuelan officials say there's noting to the story. They say Iran has more uranium than Venezuela.

Hat tip to La Ventanita for the link to KavKaz Center.