Iran-Venezuela Alliance.

Venezuela's Energy and Petroleum Minister and PDVSA President Rafael Ramirez on Sept. 18 said Venezuela and Iran planned to help build a 150,000 b/d refinery in Syria. This came during an official visit to Caracas by President Ahmadi-Nejad. Venezuela's relations with Iran and Syria have strengthened under President Hugo Chavez, who views these states as important allies in his efforts to build "a multi-polar world" no longer dominated by the US. Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, has reduced its refining assets in the US while expanding operations throughout Latin America.

The state-owned NOC, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), has bought a stake in a small Argentine refinery, signed a deal to double capacity at a Uruguayan refinery, revamped a Cuban refinery and laid the cornerstone for a US$2.5 bn refinery in Brazil.

In its efforts to become a Middle East super-power, Iran is proposing to have crude oil and natural gas export pipelines built through Iraq and Syria. It has proposed related projects in Lebanon. Iran's state-controlled PetroPars has a JV with PDVSA to explore and develop ultra-heavy crude oil in the Orinoco Tar Belt. Iran is also building up links with Cuba and Brazil, having started talks with Bolivia and other parts of Latin America where anti-US sentiment now is strong.

Addressing the UN General Assembly on Sept. 20, Chavez said: "The devil came here yesterday", in reference to Bush's Sept. 19. Calling Bush an "alcoholic" and "sick...tyrant", Chavez made the sign of the cross after mentioning the US president. He said Bush was out to invade Iran and Venezuela, warning to reporters that in such event crude oil prices would rise to $200/b.

Chavez, a partner of Cuban ruler Fidel Castro, has brandished anti-Americanism ever since he became president in 1998. He has been consorting with Kim Jong Il or Bashar al-Assad , who have continued their fathers' repressive regimes in North Korea and Syria. He has extended a lifeline to Castro, visited Iraq in 2000 to back Saddam Hussein. The Boston Globe last week said: "If the United States opposes a dictator, Chavez backs him. This monotone foreign policy, combined with his outburst..., undercuts Venezuela's campaign" for the Latin American seat on the UNSC to be decided by a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly on Oct. 16.

The Globe said: "Deprived of an international forum, Chavez would have more time to spend on his reelection campaign. It ought to be as freely contested as the 2004 race between Bush and John F. Kerry". And if Chavez wins on Dec. 3, it said, "he ought to devote his six-year term to solving the great recurring problem of Venezuela: How a country endowed with such natural wealth can leave almost half its people in utter poverty. Chavez would earn more enduring fame by leading Venezuela out of this resource trap".

Chavez, who backs Iran's nuclear programme, on Sept. 18 reiterated with Ahmadi-Nejad their opposition to "US imperialism" and their support for a "multi-polar" world order, free of the hegemony of what Ahmadi-Nejad called "the tyrants of the world - above all, the Americans". The two leaders signed 29 bilateral agreements in areas as diverse as petrochemicals, health, mining and agriculture.

In a series of international tours this year, Chavez has secured support for his UNSC seat candidacy from much of Latin America and Africa, along with Russia, China and a large part of the Muslim world. However, doubts remain as to whether he will obtain the required two-thirds of votes on the first ballot, not least because voting is secret. The FT quoted a European diplomat as saying: "Some governments may not be telling the truth, especially among the small Caribbean nations". Failure to win outright could lead to a protracted series of inconclusive votes, and possibly the emergence of a compromise candidate. Venezuela, along with Cuba and Syria, voted in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) against the referral of Iran's nuclear programme to the UNSC this year.

Chavez has raised the possibility of collaboration between Iran and Venezuela in the nuclear field, and has vowed to stand with both Iran and Cuba under any circumstances. At the recent meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Havana, he reiterated this stance: "We will accompany Iran as we will accompany Cuba. If the US were to invade Cuba, Venezuelan blood would flow". Between them, Iran and Venezuela produce almost 7m b/d of crude oil, and both have threatened a boycott in the event of US aggression.

(The US on Sept. 18 criticised Venezuela and Burma for doing too little to fight the drug trade but decided not to cut off aid to Caracas. Venezuela was given a waiver allowing it to avoid some US aid cuts that would be triggered by the US determination that it "failed demonstrably" to live up to international commitments to fight the drug trade. The White House said it remained concerned about Bolivia's work against drugs, saying it had pursued policies "that have allowed the expansion of coca cultivation and have significantly curtailed eradication").

Ahmadi-Nejad and Chavez on Sept. 18 visited a tractor factory and an oilfield to inaugurate a joint drilling operation. Wearing hardhats, the Iranian and Venezuelan presidents shook hands with oil workers and questioned them on crude oil exploration at the drilling rigs in the Orinoco Belt - the world's largest deposits of extra-heavy crude oil. Security measures were tight, featuring dozens of Venezuelan soldiers armed with assault rifles - standing guard around the drilling rigs, adjacent dirt roads and nearby highways. After the ceremony in San Tome, a town about 225 miles south-east of Caracas, Chavez said: "We are joining you so this massive petroleum reserve, the biggest any country has in the world, serves us for the development of our peoples".

PDVSA and PetroPars are jointly exploring an area of the Orinoco containing 1.5 bn barrels of extra-heavy. Speaking through an interpreter, Ahmadi-Nejad said: "The message from what occurred today is that revolutionary and independent peoples, with mutual help, are capable of providing for themselves. Venezuela and Iran have shown that, together, beyond the reach of US hegemony and imperialism, they can work and progress".