HAVANA, Cuba (AP) — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with Cuban chief Miguel Díaz-Canel on Thursday, wrapping up a Latin America journey that additionally included visits to Iran’s two different allies within the area — Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Throughout a commerce discussion board with native businesspeople in Havana, Raisi stated Cuba and Iran would search to work collectively in biotechnology, mining, electrical energy technology and different areas.
“I hope this assembly will assist facilitate integration in addition to an change of concepts and opinions,” Raisi stated.
Not like his earlier stops in Nicaragua and Venezuela, Raisi kept away from making harsh feedback in public towards Washington or the financial sanctions imposed on his nation and its three allies within the area.
After the discussion board, Raisi and Diaz-Canel toured biotechnology manufacturing crops within the western a part of the capital, then headed to a closed-door reception at Cuba’s Palace of the Revolution.
The leaders additionally signed a number of agreements on customs, justice, telecommunications and diplomatic motion.
Whereas the scope of the agreements was not but clear, the vitality sector is one in every of specific significance for Cuba, the place fuel shortages have increased dramatically prior to now weeks amid a extreme financial disaster.
Raisi’s tour of allied nations in Latin America comes amid rising tensions with the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.
Requested about Raisi’s Latin America tour earlier this month, White Home Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby declined to touch upon the Iranian chief or his agenda. However Kirby acknowledged the administration was involved about Iran’s “destabilizing conduct, and stated it should “proceed to take steps to mitigate that conduct.”
The U.S. has accused Iran of offering Russia with supplies to construct a drone manufacturing plant east of Moscow, whereas the Kremlin seeks to make sure a gradual provide of weapons for its invasion of Ukraine. U.S. intelligence officers imagine the plant in Russia might begin operations early subsequent yr, however Iran has stated it provided drones to Russia earlier than the beginning of the conflict.