Venenzuela, October 08: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has mocked US claims about Iran helping Caracas detect uranium deposits in the Latin American state.
“How’s the uranium for Iran? For the atomic bomb?” Chavez joked during a televised cabinet meeting, as he welcomed the Minister of Basic Industries and Mining Rodolfo Sanz, who had arrived late.
The president’s sarcasm drew smiles from the cabinet, and made Sanz grin in response.
Chavez’s joke came after US State Department once again targeted the cordial ties between Tehran and Caracas by claiming that Washington was worried about the so-called possibility of nuclear transfers between Iran and Venezuela.
The US reaction followed a recent announcement by the Venezuelan mining minister that Iranian experts were helping the Latin American state in its search for uranium reserves
Sanz told reporters that Iranian and Venezuelan experts were conducting geophysical tests and aerial surveys to find uranium deposits in the mineral-rich states of Bolivar and Tachira.
Back in September, Chavez vowed to press ahead with plans to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in Venezuela with the help of Iran.
During the Tuesday cabinet meeting, he insisted he was not planning to send uranium to Iran, pointing out that the Islamic Republic has significant uranium deposits of its own and currently has no need to import uranium.
“They [the US] are going to start saying that we are going to make an atomic bomb,” Chavez said.
This is not the first time that Chavez ridicules US claims about Tehran-Caracas cooperation.
Last year in June, when former US president George W. Bush accused Iran of building a nuclear plant in Venezuela under the cover of industrial cooperation, Chavez joked about the notion in one of his famous Alo! Mr President television programs.
“The US claims that the factory Iran is building for Venezuela in the state of Cojedes is a nuclear plant and not a bicycle factory; therefore, we will call its first product ‘The Atomic Bicycle,” said Chavez.
“What a bicycle! This Atomic Bicycle… Does it have brakes?” Chavez joked while cycling around on one of the bikes.
During the program, Chavez had a live connection with the factory to show the audience the bicycles built there and then offered to send one of them to Bush.
—–Agencies