(Caracas) Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who is on a mini-tour of Latin America, said in Venezuela on Tuesday that former US President Donald Trump had shown his “true face” and called for “no bowing”. in front of the “enemy”.
” The sayings […] of the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, reveal his true face and the intentions of imperialism”, said the Iranian president elected in 2021, in reference to a speech by Mr. Trump at a Republican convention on June 10 in North Carolina.
The former American president had declared: “We are buying oil in Venezuela. When I left [quitté la présidence], Venezuela was very close to collapse. We would have had all that oil.”
According to Mr. Raisi, “if anyone wants to know about imperialism, I think Donald Trump’s latest statements have been the clearest and most expressive and they show his true face. He practically confessed that what they seek is to plunder peoples’ resources”.
“Some believe that kowtows cause the enemy to retreat, but this is a miscalculation. The enemy who intends to plunder all the resources […] of a people does not respect the will of the latter and never backs down from bowing”, added Mr. Raisi, paying tribute to “the heroic people of Venezuela”, who “resisted” “world imperialism”. .
“It is always through resistance and steadfastness that we can make the enemy retreat and bend,” added the Iranian president, calling for a “new world order” and to “change the mechanisms, the legislation and the rules of international bodies, including the United Nations and, in particular, the Security Council”.
Tehran is one of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s main international allies. The two countries, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), are subject to American sanctions intended to hamper their economies.
On Monday evening, President Maduro had also criticized Mr. Trump’s remarks.
Mr. Raisi left Venezuela in the middle of the day to continue his tour of Nicaragua and Cuba, two other strategic allies opposed to the United States.
The last visit by an Iranian president to Cuba and Venezuela dates back to 2016, when Hassan Rouhani went there before attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
In January 2007, his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was received in Nicaragua. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega defended Iran’s right to acquire nuclear weapons in February.