Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will deliver one million hectares of crops to Iran to produce food, announced the Iranian deputy minister for economic affairs Mohsen Kushki Tabar through the Persian agency “Tasmin”.
His counterpart in Caracas has not confirmed the news about the transfer of agricultural land from Venezuela to the Iranians, or under what conditions this negotiation takes place, if it is a loan, sale or loan and for how long. It is the first time that a Venezuelan government has entered into an agreement of this nature. without first consulting parliament.
But the Iranian deputy minister gloated over the announcement. “A plan as important for offshore cultivation as this reveals that Iran has become so big and strong and has reached such a high level in scientific exchanges,” he said.
“It definitely means the technical knowledge of these (Iranian) companies based on knowledge that has transpired internationally,” Tabar said.
Iran requires 7 million hectares of agricultural land abroad to ensure their food safety. In addition to Venezuela, Russia recently offered 100,000 hectares, according to the IRNA agency, for Iranian agricultural projects.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with Nicolás Maduro and President Ebrahim Raisi. AFP Photo
Agreements
The director of the Association of Transterritorial Crops of Iran, Ali Rezvanizade, assured this month that Venezuela can provide a better opportunity than Brazil and Russia for Iran’s agricultural projects abroad, including the cultivation of soybeans and corn, according to the agencies.
The Iranians, neither short nor lazy, have taken very seriously the cooperation agreements with the Islamic Republic of Iran that Maduro signed a month ago, on June 11 in Tehran, with a duration of 20 years in various areas such as oil, energy, mining, agriculture, drone technology, food production, culture, tourism and aviation, among others.
So far the Chavista government has signed about 250 deals bilateral with the Islamic government. After the unusual signing in Tehran in June, Maduro stressed that 70% of Iran’s territory is desert, so its food production covers only 30% of its land.
An Iranian drone at the military parade in Venezuela. Photo Bloomberg
While in Venezuela there are 30 million cultivable hectares that allow not only to increase the internal production of food, but also “to produce food for export to Iran and the entire region of Asia”he explained.
He pointed out that the technological alliance is a fundamental edge to increase production levels, based on the historical experience of Iran, published Telesur.
“I believe that between the two of us it will create an indestructible friendship for the future of our people and we will witness how our countries grow in the face of difficulties and how a new world is growing“Maduro added.
He stressed that joint projects with Iran will be promoted to produce food in Venezuela that will supply the domestic market and to export to Iran and the Asian region. “It is essential to consolidate the sovereignty and food security of our country,” he emphasized.
Maduro’s first visit to Iran came amid tensions throughout the Middle East over the collse of the nuclear pact between the Iranian government and world powers. US sanctions and rising global food prices they suffocate the ailing Iranian economy and increase the pressure on its government and its population, says the AP agency.
But national producers are reluctant to see the landing of Iranians in the Venezuelan countryside. Alfonso from Agro Andino said on his twitter account that “Venezuelan farmers are having a hard time with: the shortage of agricultural inputs, high fuel prices and low crop prices and the government will give Iran 1 million hectares of farmland, Why not support what is ours first?” he asks.
Juan Guaidó has not yet ruled on handing over the land to Iran. However, until now, he has stressed that this type of bilateral agreement that Maduro has signed are out of parliamentary recognition so they are not valid in the future.
Flights Tehran-Caracas
A month ago Maduro also announced that direct flights between Caracas and Tehran are resumed, suspended for six years, on July 18. But officially they began on July 16 with a frequency of two weekly flights, on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
The curious thing is that with the Venezuelan-Iranian line Conviasa you can connect from Tehran to Guangzhou in China with the same frequency of twice a week.
“Venezuela is open to receive tourism from Iran so that they can enjoy the beauties of the Caribbean, South America, the Andes, the Amazon,” Maduro emphasized last June during a joint statement offered at the Saad Abad Palace, located in Tehran.
About six years ago, when flights between Caracas, Damascus and Tehran were suspended, inaugurated in 2009, it was always suspected that Conviasa’s Airbus 340 ttransported uranium for the Iranian nuclear plant. It was a mysterious fortnightly flight that carried few passengers, rather Iranian and Syrian officials and businessmen, with a suspicious internal cargo. “It was not a profitable flight, it was political,” they said at that time.
The restart of flights between Caracas and Tehran has not been interrupted even by the scandal involving the flight of the Venezuelan-Iranian airline Conviasa, detained in Buenos Aires since June 6 on suspicion of serving to transport Iranian terrorists.
