Chávez, en histórica visita, denuncia a Israel

Venezuelan president visits Damascus, says 'Israel has become a country that annihilates people and is hostile to peace'

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez attacked Israel Thursday during his visit to Syria, calling it an imperialist nation that annihilates other people.

Chavez comments came during a news conference with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad after a one-hour meeting at the hilltop presidential palace.

"Israel has become a country that annihilates people and is hostile to peace," he said, according to the Arabic tras*lation of his remarks to reporters.

In comments carried by Venezuelan state television, he also accused Israel of being part of imperialist efforts to divide the Middle East.

"The entire world knows it. Why was the state of Israel created? ... To divide. To impede the unity of the Arab world. To assure the presence of the North American empire in all these lands," he said.

Chavez is on an 11-day trip to Libya, Algeria, Syria, Iran, Belarus and Russia in his bid to build a multi-polar world and decrease US influence in the region.

"I believe it is a fateful battle. It's either now or never in order to liberate the world from imperialism and change the world from a uni-polar into a multi-polar world," Chavez told reporters in Damascus.

On Tuesday he attended Libya's celebration of the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Moammar Gadhafi to power before heading to Algeria.

The firebrand Latin American leader has built close ties with Iran, Syria, Cuba and other countries while his relations have grown tense with Israel.

Chavez strongly criticized Israel's war against Gaza in December and January and said the Jewish state should return to Syria the strategic Golan Heights that it captured in 1967 Mideast war.

For his part, Assad said that he does not think Israel is ready to make peace, while Damascus is serious about the matter.

Last year, Turkey mediated several rounds of indirect peace negotiations between Israel and Syria. But Syria suspended them in December over Israel's military offensive in Gaza.

Assad said in a newspaper interview in March that the Turkish-mediated talks failed because Israel would not make a clear commitment to return all of the Golan up to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

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The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the repeated US failures in different countries and the loss of its influence both indicate the undeniable fact of world change.

"The US had far greater failures in the Islamic Republic of Iran than in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine," said Ayatollah Khamenei in a meeting with visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday.

The Leader touched upon changing the situation in Latin America and said, "A power has been formed in this region which was once regarded by the US as its courtyard."

Iran and Venezuela should make efforts to prepare the grounds for strengthening their independence, said the Leader.

"Along with political coordination, Iran and Venezuela should enhance industrial, economic, banking and tras*portation cooperation," Ayatollah Khamenei added.

Tehran and Caracas had previously signed an array of agreements, pledging to work together in oil exploration, building low-income housing and assembling tractors and bicycles as well as military projects among other ventures.

Chavez, who is on his seventh official visit to Iran, hailed positive talks between the high-ranking Venezuelan delegation and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other senior Iranian officials.

The Venezuelan president, a vocal critic of the global capitalistic system, said that enhanced cooperation and unity between the two countries would be the only way to fight against enemy plots.

Venezuela has been a vociferous defender of Iran and its nuclear program as Western countries, spearheaded by the US, accuse Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program and demand a halt to the country's uranium enrichment activities.

Tehran, however, denies all such allegations and has called for the removal of weapons of mass destruction from across the globe.

The Venezuelan president visited Libya, Algeria and Syria before coming to Iran. He is also scheduled to go to Belarus, Russia, Turkmenistan and Spain after his Tehran visit.

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