Venezuela to provide one million hectares of agricultural land to Iran

The regime of Nicolás Maduro will provide Iran with one million hectares of new land for cultivation, the Islamic Republic's Deputy Interior Minister for Economic Affairs, Mohsen Kousheshtabar, confirmed on Tuesday.

The Iranian deputy minister said that Venezuela will provide the land while the world faces a shortage of strategic reserves, highlighting the cooperation of both nations and their increasingly strong alliance. 

"It definitely means that the know-how of these (Iranian) knowledge-based companies has transcended internationally," Kousheshtabar said in remarks with Iran's state-run Tasnim News Agency.  

Last June, Maduro traveled to Iran as part of a 12-day international tour in which he also visited Algeria, Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar, and Azerbaijan.

The Venezuelan dictator held talks with his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, where both signed a 20-year strategic cooperation agreement "in all areas."

"We have great cooperation fronts between Iran and Venezuela," Maduro claimed in a press conference together with Raisi. "At the energy level, oil, gas, refineries, petrochemicals, at the financial level, at the defense level.”

"A truly amazing cooperation map," he added.

Raisi stressed that relations between the two nations are "strategic" in the face of "imperialism," referring to the United States. "The signing of the 20-year cooperation document is a sign of the willingness of the high authorities of both countries to expand ties in different areas," said Raisi.

The Iranian president said that Venezuela has shown "perfect resistance to the sanctions and threats of imperialism," the same "sanctions and threats" that the people of Iran have suffered "for more than 40 years."

In May, Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji met with Maduro and his Venezuelan counterpart Tareck El Aissami during an official visit to Venezuela to seek solutions to the economic sanctions imposed on both countries by the United States.

In 2020, Venezuela received two shipments of fuel and derivatives from Iran to help the country with severe shortages, despite having one of the largest oil reserves in the world.