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Venezuela backs Iran in nuclear dispute, suggests negotiation
3/12/2006
CARACAS, MAR 11 (AP): Venezuela on Friday sharply criticized the U.N. Security Council's involvement in concerns about Iran's nuclear program, saying negotiation should win out over confrontation.
Venezuela's statement came as diplomats in New York said Security Council members were considering proposals to pressure Iran to resolve questions about its nuclear program, including demands that it abandon uranium enrichment and stop construction on a reactor.
"It doesn't make sense to bring the subject to the Security Council since there are no objective reasons that justify it," Foreign Commerce and Integration Minister Gustavo Marquez told reporters in Caracas.
He spoke after returning from a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Austria, where he raised similar concerns.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has built close ties with Iran and defended Iran's right to develop nuclear power for peaceful energy uses. The U.S. and its allies have raised concerns Iran could be trying to make nuclear weapons; Iran vehemently denies it.
"Negotiation is the path to finding a balanced and satisfactory solution for Iran and the international community," Marquez said.
Twenty-seven of the IAEA's 35 members voted in January to refer Iran to the Security Council over fears it aims to build an atomic bomb. Only Venezuela, Cuba and Syria voted against it. The rest abstained.
Marquez said Venezuela respects the stance of the European Union and some other countries that have "played an important role in mediation."
He said Venezuela hopes to see a negotiated solution at the next IAEA meeting in June to "eliminate any aggressive action, or any wild madness like what the United States started with the invasion of Iraq, defying the very decision of the Security Council."
Echoing Chavez's criticisms, Marquez suggested the U.S. was being hypocritical for maintaining its nuclear weapons and those of friendly countries while demanding that others "paralyze their programs for peaceful uses of nuclear energy."
As Chavez has developed close ties with Iran, the two governments have begun a series of cooperative projects. Iran and Venezuelan have set up a joint US$200 million (euro168 million) development fund and factories to make tractors, auto parts and cement in the South American country.
Chavez has strongly denied sending shipments of Venezuelan uranium to the Middle East. Marquez acknowledged Venezuela has uranium reserves but said, "There is no sort of exploitation of that."
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