President Raeisi left Tehran for Caracas on Mondy morning Iran local time. In Venezuela, he led many high-level meetings with Venezuelan officials. During the visit, Iranian and Venezuelan officials laid the groundwork for increasing the volume of trade first to $10 billion and then to $20 billion.
After concluding his visit to Venezuela, President Raeisi headed to Nicaragua. The tour also includes Cuba. He is expected to strengthen economic exchanges between Iran and these countries.
But the economic agreements were not the only important thing in Raeisi’s visit, which received much media attention. And that partly because the visit also contributes to the strengthening of Iran-Latin America relations in many areas of cooperation.
During the tour, the legacy of General Qassem Soleimani featured high, which has proved again the general’s work continues to strike a chord with Latin American nations years after his assassination.
General Soleimani was the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) whose assassination in 2020 sent shockwaves throughout the world given his influence in the West Asia region. Due to this influence, the Western media called him the “Shadow Commander.”
By assassinating him, the United States wanted to eliminate the Shadow commander and his influence. They thought that by killing him, his legacy will come to an end. Yet, the assassination of General Soleimani proved more dangerous because his influence spread far beyond the West Asia region – to Latin America. And that is, as a former American official said because Martyr Soleimani is more dangerous than General Soleimani.
This was on full display during President Raeisi’s visit to Latin America, where the memory of the Shadow Commander is still very much alive.
In a meeting of the high-ranking delegations of Iran and Venezuela, the presidents of Iran and Venezuela called Martyr Haj Qassem Soleimani and the late Venezuelan politician Simón Bolivar as heroes of the fight against domination and imperialism.
Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro praised General Soleimani. “I always remember General Soleimani and I pay tribute to him. In 2018, a brutal [cyber] attack from America was launched on our energy infrastructure. He directed a team to investigate the cyberattack and helped us a lot. Many are not in the know about that,” Maduro said, according to Fars News.
He added, “I also pay my respects and we will install his bust in the tomb of Simon Bolivar.”
In a meeting that President Raeisi had with Venezuelan students and elites, some of them raised the photo of General Soleimani along with the late former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
In this meeting, Raeisi paid tribute to the national heroes of the country in a meeting with elites and academics at the Teresa Carreno Theatre in Caracas, and said, “Venezuelan heroes were pioneers in seeking independence, justice and freedom, and they did not stop fighting until full independence in the fight against the global domination and arrogance system.”
President Raeisi saluted the heroic nation of Venezuela who stood up to domination and tyranny.
He also stated that Imam Khomeini and the Leader of the Islamic Revolution have taught us that resistance and standing forces the enemy to retreat, not surrender, adding, “Some think that the enemy will surrender by retreating and surrendering, but this is a miscalculation.”
Raeisi added, “The Leader of the Islamic Revolution taught the Iranian nation that in order to neutralize conspiracies, we must become strong.”
The memory of General Soleimani was also alive during Raeisi’s visit to Nicaragua. Speaking on Tuesday afternoon, local time, after the official welcoming ceremony of Daniel Ortega, the President of Nicaragua, Raeisi honored the national heroes of fighting imperialism in the two countries, according to the official website of the Iranian presidency.
Raeisi called the Nicaraguan people's resistance against arrogance the secret of the nation's victory, and said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran is a democratic system and in the 44 years that have passed since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, people's vote has shaped all the institutions of the Islamic Republic".
President Raeisi called Westerners' claims of democracy and human rights false and said, "Westerners, especially Americans, should respect the system that emerges from people's votes, but they are doing the opposite".
Raeisi continued, "America wanted to stop our nation with sanctions and threats, but our nation not only did not stop, but instead, it used the threats and sanctions to build and progress".
Referring to the role of the Americans in the creation of ISIS and the policy of the Islamic Republic in fighting terrorism, President Raeisi said, "They claim to fight terrorism, but they martyred the hero of fighting terrorism, Haj Qasem Soleimani".
President Ortega, for his part, described hegemony as part of the nature of imperialism and added, "The arrogant put pressure on independent countries under the pretext of human rights and democracy, but we will stand against them with strength".
He also praised the national heroes of the two countries and condemned the crime of Americans in martyring Haj Qasem Soleimani and declared a minute of silence in honor of the Iranian hero of fighting terrorism.
He concluded his speech by chanting: “Long Live Iran,” “Long Live the Memory of Qassem Soleimani.”
By Sadegh Fereydounabadi
First published in Tehran Times
Your Comment