Chavez hosts Ahmadinejad, blasts sanctions on Iran

[longbrained]

Chavez hosts Ahmadinejad, blasts sanctions on Iran

Chavez hosts Ahmadinejad, blasts sanctions on Iran - thenews.com.pk

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledged on Saturday to stand together to battle “imperialism,” with Chavez criticizing tough sanctions on Tehran.

Upon his arrival in Caracas from Brazil, where he attended the UN-sponsored Rio+20 summit on sustainable development, Ahmadinejad said: “We will build our countries, and we will get away from all the pressures of imperialism.”

Chavez responded: “We know the effort you must put in to overcome the obstacles imposed on you by imperialism — blockades, threats, unilateral sanctions.” The pair then headed into talks with their key ministers.

Chavez, who has been battling cancer for more than a year and faces a tough re-election contest in October, has expressed “solidarity” with key ally Iran as it faces growing pressure from the West over its suspect nuclear program.

Tehran has sought closer political and economic relations with countries far and wide, including many in Latin America, as its standoff with the West drags on. Ahmadinejad hailed Chavez as a “great revolutionary” and “dear brother.”

Iran and Venezuela engage in military cooperation. Chavez raised hackles last week when he announced that, with Iranian help, he had made his first drone and planned to soon begin exporting the unmanned aircraft.

A Venezuelan general said the drone, which “does not carry arms,” has a 100-kilometer (60-mile) sweep, can fly solo for some 90 minutes and reach an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,000 feet).

The United States — which has controversially waged drone strikes remotely against suspected militants in Pakistan and Yemen — expressed caution about Chavez’s announcement.

“The Venezuelans make lots of extravagant claims. So do the Iranians,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.

During Friday’s talks, the firebrand leaders — who share a common hostility towards the United States — reviewed their cooperation on a number of issues, and Chavez thanked Ahmadinejad for Iran’s help in building 14,000 houses.

Iran and Venezuela have mutual investment of about $5 billion in factories to make cement, satellites, food, tractors and bicycles.

En route to Rio, the Iranian leader stopped in Bolivia to court support from another leftist Latin American nation that has tense ties with the United States.

Chavez has visited Tehran 13 times since taking power in 1999. He is hoping for a third term in October 7 elections, but faces a strong challenge from an often fractious opposition that has now united behind center-left rival Henrique Capriles.

 

[fd24]

Chavez has always shown his support and stood with Iran as a strong ally. Lately he has been suffering ill health and i hope he recovers. He is a leader thats dynamic and does whats best for his nation. He has to be commended for not towing "the bully line" of the USA! Hope he wins his next election as Iran needs the support of such leaders....

 

[KRAIT]

Chavez has always shown his support and stood with Iran as a strong ally. Lately he has been suffering ill health and i hope he recovers. He is a leader thats dynamic and does whats best for his nation. He has to be commended for not towing "the bully line" of the USA! Hope he wins his next election as Iran needs the support of such leaders....

Couldn't agree more...standing along with a nation which has been isolated by almost every nation shows real friendship and character...

 

[Homajon]

Iranian Mohajer-2 drone appears in Venezuela. Chavez’s building his own drone fleet with the help of Tehran

Under the name of Sant Arpia, the Mohajer 2, a quite famous Made-in-Iran drone, is currently flying in Venezuela.

Reportedly operating from the Cavim (CA Venezolana de Industria Militares) Maracay factory, where a new UAV facility has been unveiled by recent satellite imagery, the Mohajer 2 is a light unarmed drone that can be used for surveillance missions within a range of 50 km from the departure airfield at a speed of 200 km/h. Its ceiling is 11,000 feet of altitude and endurance is reported to be around 90 minutes.

Being equipped with skids, the Mohajer 2 is recovered using a recovery chute.

Although the dozen are believed to have been slightly modified by Caracas, the Mohajer 2 is an Iranian UAV model and, as such, it could not be purchased by Chavez, because of the embargo on the ayatollah regime.

Moreover, as highlighted by the special correspondent in Washington for the Spanish ABC.es Emili J. Blasco, the technology transfer agreement worth 28 million USD would seem to excede the price of a dozen drones (three of those crashed) that were purchased by Venezuela.

Indeed, along with a drone factory that has not come into operation, some more facilities have been built at Cavim. What Iranian personnel is doing inside the other facitilies remains a mystery. Maybe the mystery that U.S. drones aim to investigate.

The following image, published on several forums around the world (attribution hence impossible to determine), shows a Venezuelan Sant Arpia: noteworthy the tail section wears registration Arpia-002 while front section is marked “Arpia-003″. Does this mean the drone is made up of parts from different examples?

Along with the Sant Arpia, the Fuerza Aérea Venezolana (FAV) operates the ANT-1X, a smaller drone used for ISR (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance) purposes.

Both drones equip the Grupo Aéreo de Inteligencia, Vigilancia y Reconocimiento Electrónico Nº 8, based at El Libertador, Maracay-Palo Negro airbase.


Iranian Mohajer-2 drone appears in Venezuela. Chavez’s building his own drone fleet with the help of Tehran. « The Aviationist

 

[Homajon]

A Video of the drone:

Hugo Chávez FANB presentaN Avión No tripulado de Vigilancia ARPIA hecho en Venezuela. Drone - YouTube



Iranian Missile Engineer Oversees Chavez’s Drones

The manager of Venezuela’s drone program is an engineer who helped build ballistic missiles for Iran. The engineer’s identity raises new questions about the purposes behind Venezuela’s drone program. But it’s also only one part of a mystery involving drones shipped from Iran to Venezuela while hidden in secret cargo containing possibly more military hardware than just ‘bots.

According to El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language sister paper of The Miami Herald, US officials believe Iran shipped drones to Venezuela hidden in cargo containers. The date and specific port are not known, but Venezuela only received six drones — in a shipment of 70 containers carrying each more than 24,000 pounds of cargo. The cargo was camouflaged as material “from Venirauto (Venezuelan-Iranian Automotive) through a Chilean company,” a source told the newspaper.

The containers were headed for a Venezuelan air base and the location for the M2 drone project, named after the Mohajer, a light surveillance drone manufactured by Iran. The supervisor, Ramin Keshavarz, is member of the Revolutionary Guards and former employee of Iran’s Defense Industry Organization, a firm embargoed by the United States for overseeing Iran’s ballistic missile program. The stealthy cargo, the Iranian missile engineer, and more than a million pounds of unaccounted weight, was not all. “Excessively high” amounts of money are paid for the drone program, much higher than the total cost of the ‘bots.

Also under investigation is a Parchin Industries site in Morón, Venezuela. Parchin is believed to make fuel for Iran’s mid-range missiles and has been accused by the International Atomic Energy Agency of conducting explosive tests inside a containment chamber located in Iran. Morón also houses a joint Iranian-Venezuelan gunpowder factory. Venezuela is also testing six Iranian drone models, with three under “special suspicion” for being not what they seem: the Justiciero, Vengador and Venezolano drones. In other words, US officials believe these drones could be more than just drones.

Last week, Venezuela’s president and potentate Hugo Chavez acknowledged the drone program. “Of course we’re doing it, and we have the right to. We are a free and independent country,” Chavez said. He added that Venezuela does not “have any plans to harm anyone,” and that it is just one of many programs built “with the help of different countries including China, Russia, Iran, and other allied countries,” he said.

The drones also appear to be primarily used for surveillance, with limited — if any — ability to carry weapons. The Mohajer, which is used by Venezuela, does not carry weapons but can guide missiles by laser. And drones are meant to loiter, not travel long distances, which means it’s exceedingly unlikely that Venezuela and Iran will be able to team up and invade the United States with a fleet of robotic aircraft any time soon.

Or even reach Florida. The maximum range — about 1,200 miles — of an (unnamed) Venezuelan drone revealed in March might reach Florida, but no further, and even the former possibility is theoretical. Chavez also weighed in on the concerns. “Pretty soon someone is probably going to say there’s an atomic bomb on the tip of it,” he joked.

To understand Chavez’s comment, and to whom it’s directed, it’s important to note one common but poorly supported explanation for why Venezuela and Iran cooperate with each other. The explanation has Iran using Venezuela as a forward base against the United States. In this view, Venezuela is a location to store Iranian military assets, possibly even missiles. Therefore, it’s just a matter of time before Iran either lets loose with the hidden nukes, or provokes another Cuban Missile Crisis.

But the evidence for any military relationship — beyond defense projects like drones — is circumstantial, at best.

Venezuela and Iran have other reasons to cooperate. For one, it suits rhetoric from both Venezuela and Iranian leaders. Chavez’s political identity is partly defined by a demagogic opposition to the United States. Iran does not share Chavez’s socialist policy goals, but there is a common foe. And Iran uses Chavez as means to build international support against the sanctions.

But could the drone program also be a way to subvert the sanctions? Venezuela doesn’t have to be housing materials directly related to Iran’s nuclear program. Relocating ballistic missile development, which indirectly ties into a potential nuclear weapon, could bypass the embargo. It’s also another way to avoid the prying eyes of IAEA inspectors.

It’s also possible the secret, unaccounted cargo is not so subversive after all. A Venirauto office is reportedly located next to the air base where the containers were first spotted. In January 2011, a nearby arms depot exploded. But there is also speculation the site could be the location of a sensitive military project. But it couldn’t be a drone project, or could it? Adding to the mystery, a drone factory built at the site was never put into operation.

Iranian Missile Engineer Oversees Chavez's Drones | Danger Room | Wired.com

 

[bdslph]

Chavez and Ahmadinejan they are best friend but they are enemy of the USA EU NATO as they say the truth

 

[Oldman1]

Chavez should have gone to Libya and see whats going on there.

 

[T-Rex]

Chavez should have gone to Libya and see whats going on there.

And oh bomb-bomb should have gone to Bahrain to see how people are being murdered by his despotic friends!

 

[ihealugo]

it's interesting , KSA sent it's forces to Bahrain and nobody said anything but iran just support the ideas and sign some deals then they say iran is a threat