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Chavez skips UN General Assembly
AFP
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 09 26 07
Venezuela announced on Tuesday Hugo Chavez will skip the UN General Assembly, one year after the leftist president caused a stir by calling US President George W. Bush "the devil" in his address to the world body.
As authorities made the last-minute announcement, Chavez came out in support of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, deploring the way the Iranian president was "insulted" during a appearance at New York's Columbia University ahead of his UN speech.
The two controversial allies are due to hold talks in Caracas this week.
Authorities in Venezuela said Chavez, who was initially expected to address the United Nations on Wednesday, had a scheduling conflict and will be represented by his Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro.
Chavez had infuriated US authorities during his 2006 address to the world body, when he said: "yesterday the devil came here," in reference to Bush who had delivered his speech from the same stage the previous day.
"And it still smells of sulphur today," Chavez said at the time.
This year, it is fellow anti-American leader Ahmadinejad who stirred a storm of controversy, with his very presence in New York drawing protests.
One of the few world leaders who supports Tehran's nuclear ambitions, Chavez said he called Ahmadinejad over the phone to congratulate him on his performance at Columbia University "in the face of a new aggression by the US empire."
The firebrand Iranian president was treated to a humiliating dressing down at Columbia, where university president Lee Bollinger introduced him as a "petty and cruel dictator."
"He was the victim of an ambush," Chavez said.
The Iranian president's brief visit to Venezuela on Wednesday will be his third since he took office in 2005.
The two Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members have signed accords over eight billion dollars, mainly in the oil and energy sectors.
Following his address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad is also scheduled to visit Bolivia.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, meanwhile defended his government's "sovereign" decision to establish diplomatic relations with Iran, telling reporters in New York the ties "will not harm anyone."
Impoverished Bolivia is set to sign several bilateral agreements with Iran, a country that is under UN-imposed sanctions for its refusal to heed ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment.
AFP 25 1624 GMT 09 07
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