(Havana) Cuba and Iran expressed Thursday their desire to strengthen their ties to face the “aggressive policy” of the United States, on the occasion of an official visit by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi which ends on the communist island a tour of Latin America.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who received his Iranian counterpart at the Palace of the Revolution, said he hoped that the alliance with Tehran would make it possible “to face together the aggressive policy of the empire”, in reference to the United States. United.
Iran and Cuba “must face heroically, with tenacious resistance, the sanctions, pressures, threats, embargoes and indifference of Yankee imperialism and its allies,” Diaz-Canel added.
“The conditions and circumstances in which Cuba and Iran find themselves have many points in common”, added the Iranian president, stressing that in both countries “there is a desire to maintain independence”, according to the translation official.
Iran and Cuba are under US sanctions and are on the US State Department’s list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
Ebrahim Raisi, whose meeting with the Cuban president was postponed for a day due to a late arrival Wednesday evening in Havana, is completing a mini-tour of Latin America in Cuba with “friendly countries”.
It began Monday in Venezuela and continued in Nicaragua. The three countries are under sanctions from Washington and allies of Moscow.
In Havana, the two presidents signed cooperation agreements on customs, telecommunications and justice.
In the morning, Mr. Raisi participated in an Economic Forum where he assured that his country was willing to “work with Cuba in science and technology”, particularly in the hydroelectric, thermoelectric fields and in the mining industry.
In Venezuela, 25 agreements were signed in the education, health and mining sectors. In Nicaragua, a “basic memorandum” aimed at stimulating economic, commercial and scientific-technical cooperation was also initialed.
The head of Iranian diplomacy, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, went to Cuba in February. The last visit of an Iranian president to Havana was that in 2016 of Hassan Rouhani.