TEHRAN — Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said during a visit to Nicaragua on Wednesday that Tehran sought cooperation and unity with like-minded states to neutralize US sanctions.
Iran’s state TV showed Raisi next to his Nicaraguan counterpart Daniel Ortega, presidents of two countries under US sanctions for their human rights records, among other contentious issues.
“My trip to Nicaragua comes in line with the policy of expanding ties with independent nations,” Raisi declared, as he attacked the United States as a “bullying” power. “The world would be a better place if they put an end to their despotism, and respect the will of other nations.”
The Iranian president promised that a new world order was emerging as he heaped praise on Latin America’s leftist countries, “which have put up resistance against the dominance and excessive demands of the United States and its supporters.”
With officials from the two sides signing three agreements in energy, technology and healthcare, Raisi talked up Iran’s progress in science, expressing readiness “to share our experience with friendly nations.”
Iran’s state media said Ortega had welcomed Raisi’s visit as a turning point in what he described as “ties among independent nations.”
According to the IRNA News Agency, Raisi’s 21 months in office have included 14 visits abroad to meet state leaders or attend international summits, during which a total of 126 deals have been clinched.
Later on Thursday, Raisi departed from Nicaragua to visit Cuba, the last leg of his Latin America tour which began with Venezuela last weekend.
In Havana, where he was greeted by Cuban leader Miguel Diaz-Canel, the Iranian president was expected to finalize agreements on biotechnology, engineering, medicine and energy.
While Raisi’s Latin America trip has been lauded by his loyalists as a key step in expansion of economic ties, figures of non-oil trade with the three states remain low. According to a report by the Iranian economic outlet Navad-e Eghteasadi, the Islamic Republic’s non-oil exports to Nicaragua and Cuba in 2022 stood at zero. And business with Venezuela was for the most part focused on crude. The same data indicates that Iran’s share from the three countries’ imports combined was barely half a percent last year.
“Iran and Cuba are among frontrunners of regional convergence, capable of providing one another with opportunities to join regional alliances forged on their sides of the globe,” tweeted Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who is accompanying Raisi in Havana.
