TEHRAN, Iran - Iran awarded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez its highest state medal on Sunday for supporting Tehran in its nuclear standoff with the international community, while Chavez urged the world to rise up and defeat the U.S., state-run media in both countries reported.

The leftist Venezuelan leader also condemned Israel for what he called the "terrorism" and "madness" of its attacks in Lebanon, Venezuelan state television reported.

"Let's save the human race, let's finish off the U.S. empire," Chavez said. "This (task) must be assumed with strength by the majority of the peoples of the world."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presented Chavez with the Islamic Republic Medal in a ceremony at Tehran University. The award was to show Iran's gratitude for his "support for Iran's stance on the international scene, especially its opposition to a resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency," Iranian state-run television said.

"He is the one who has resisted imperialism for years and has defended the interests of his and other Latin American countries," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.

In February, Venezuela opposed an IAEA decision to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council over its disputed nuclear program.

A draft proposal Friday by permanent members of the U.N. Security Council gives Iran until the end of August to suspend uranium enrichment or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions.

The U.S. accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons. Tehran maintains its program is purely peaceful and aimed at generating electricity.

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Published: Sunday, 30 July, 2006, 11:26 AM Doha Time

TEHRAN: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday invited his close ally Iran to deepen its investment in his country’s energy sector, particularly seeking help to develop tarry Orinoco crude and offshore gas.
Chavez boasts his country has the largest oil reserves in the world, an honour normally accorded to Saudi Arabia.
Chavez is due to sign several commercial agreements on the Iranian leg of his world tour. Iranian firms have already poured $1bn into the Caribbean state, primarily in energy, construction and tractor-building projects.
“We hope that Iranian oil companies come to set up activities in the Orinoco Belt,” Chavez told a news conference.
“We invite Iranian companies to the Gulf of Venezuela and the delta for gas production,” he added.
Venezuelan Energy and Mines Minister Rafael Ramirez attended the same news conference but declined to speak to reporters seeking information on the type of investment the world’s N. 4 oil exporter Iran could bring to the No 5 Venezuela.
However, Ramirez told a Venezuelan newspaper that while in Qatar, prior to his arrival in Iran, he had given Qatar Petroleum the green light to participate in the Mariscal Sucre gas project. Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA envisages $2.7bn investment to explore its Mariscal Sucre blocks and to construct a 4.7mn tonnes-per-year LNG terminal.
Ramirez said he also foresaw the participation of Brazilian oil firm Petrobras in the project, which Venezuela says will start producing gas in 2008.
Last year PDVSA dropped Anglo-Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell from its plans to develop gas fields in waters off the eastern Paria peninsula and construct an LNG export terminal.
Venezuela and Iran are two of the most vocal critics of the US on the world stage. Caracas has staunchly backed Tehran’s nuclear work, rejecting US charges Iranian atomic scientists are building warheads and not just reactors.
Iran’s Petropars is already certifying some heavy oil reserves in the Orinoco Belt and is looking to expand operations there into development.
Petropars is also looking to provide services to offshore gas extraction in the Norte de Paria field.
Managing director Gholamreza Manouchehri told the oil ministry website last week his firm hoped to sign a long-term investment deal with Venezuela during Chavez’s visit.
Venezuela is trying to boost its official reserves by counting heavy crude, such as that in the Orinoco Belt, which is economic only at $40 a barrel.
According to the US Energy Information Administration website, Venezuela has 77.2bn barrels of proven conventional oil reserves and up to 270bn barrels of extra-heavy and bitumen deposits. – Reuters

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Iran and Venezuela signed here Sunday 11 memoranda of understanding on expansion of bilateral cooperation in different fields.


The agreements were inked in presence of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez before the latter wound up his official two-day visit to Tehran.

Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh and his Venezuelan counterpart Rafael Ramirez inked an MoU on bolstering oil cooperation.

Iran's Minister of Mines and Industries Alireza Tahmasbi and Venezuela's Ramirez signed an MoU an establishment of a joint housing company.

Iranian Minister of Health Kamran Baqeri Lankarani and his Venezuelan counterpart signed an agreement on medicine and hygiene.

Lankarani and Venezuelan Minister of Science and Technology Marlene Yadira Cordova signed an agreement on establishment a joint pharmaceutical company.

Iranian Vice-President and Head of the Department of the Environment (DoE), Fatemeh Javadi Amoli, and Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister Alcides Rondon inked an MoU on expansion of bilateral cooperation in various environmental fields.

Senior Iranian and Venezuelan officials signed agreements on petrochemical and oil training, oil exploitation and exploration, construction of a bicycle manufacturing company, aviation
cooperation and establishment of an industrial molding factory.

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