Need to Know

September 23, 2011 William J. Downey Patrick M. Downey

Venezuela and Iran

Hugo Chavez will meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday, September 24, 2011, in a meeting that should be monitored closely. President Ahmadinejad is eager to create closer relations with his brothers in Venezuela. He is quoted as saying: Expansion of Iran Venezuela ties in all domains helps peace, stability and security in the world. One of the many agreements between the two nations lay out plans to construct two petroleum plants, tap the South Pars gas field, as well as creating a joint oil shipping company. This is the first visit by the Iranian president since the United States hit the Venezuelan national oil firm, PDVSA with sanctions related to its trade with Iran. Venezuela is one of the United States largest suppliers accounting for 10.7% of crude, according to the U. S. Energy Information Agency (2010). Venezuelas Oil Minister and head of PVDSA is quoted as saying: Well sell oil to whoever we want to. We dont need money from gringos. The sanctions have been apparently toothless according to Boris Sequra an economist at investment bank Nomura. The country still exports to the United States accounting for 40% of Venezuelan oil exports. The meeting is sure to produce a great number of words targeted toward the United States. However given Chavez history of signing lots of agreements and then not paying all that much attention, it would be easy to pay little attention to this meeting, especially given the focus on the United Nations. One must ask however, if a true alliance should develop between the two OPEC members then what happens to the relationship between Cuba, Venezuela does it expand to include Iran? Recent reports indicate that Cuba is following its own historical path in offering a safe haven for AQ. Providing a safe base for that and other terror groups to operate from; launching operations from Cuba against democracies in Latin America and the United States.

There is, as my father used to say there is a lot of mischief in those boysand well worth watching.