Iran Press/ America: Ebrahim Raisi made the comments in a joint news conference with his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro at the end of the meeting of the Iran-Venezuela joint commission in Caracas.
"Iran and Venezuela have common interests and views on independence, freedom-seeking, and resistance against the domination system which have brought the people of these two countries together," he stated.
Raisi said: "The Iranian nation has proved its friendship to the people of Venezuela and has shown that it is a friend of difficult times."
Raisi further noted, "The Islamic Republic of Iran, thanks to the blessings of the Islamic Revolution, the pure blood of the martyrs, and the resistance of the Iranian people, has been able to turn the pressures and sanctions into opportunities, and in this way has provided various capacities that are ready to be shared with the resilient nation of Venezuela".
Pointing out that the relations between Iran and Venezuela are not ordinary diplomatic relations, but quite strategic, the President stated, "Having common interests, views, and enemies have deepened and strategic the cooperation between Iran and Venezuela". "Today, the two countries are determined to develop relations in various fields."
"Iran has been able to turn the pressures and sanctions into opportunities and in this way has created various capacities that it is ready to share with the nation of Venezuela," he added.
Referring to his talks with Maduro, he stated, "Both sides emphasized that despite the measures taken to develop relations, there is still a lot of capacity to expand Fimabin cooperation."
Raisi also pointed to the increase in the volume of trade between the two countries from 600 million dollars to over 3 billion dollars in the past two years, and added, "The volume of bilateral trade can be increased to 10 billion dollars in the first step and then to 20 billion dollars."
The President described the signing of 19 cooperation documents between the two countries in the fields of industry, mining, agriculture, energy, science, and technology as a manifestation of the will of both sides to expand bilateral relations and stated, "I hope that by implementing these documents, we will be able to take a big step in improving the level of relations between the two countries".
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