Cochabamba, Bolivia October 18, 09 (Hamsayeh.Net) - Bolivarian Revolutionary Leader of Venezuela Hugo Chavez is asking all the world powers to eliminate their nuclear weapons stock piles, Reuters reported.

 

Chavez said Iran and Russia are helping Venezuelan experts explore for uranium deposits in Venezuela but stressed his government's intentions to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes only. He said so far there have been signs of major deposits based on preliminary testing.

 

"We're working with several countries, with Iran, with Russia. We're responsible for what we're doing, we're in control," Chavez told reporters in the central Bolivian region of Cochabamba during a gathering of leading Latin American presidents.

 

Chavez said neither Venezuela nor Iran seeks nuclear weapons and would use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 'What we propose is for nuclear weapons to be eliminated. Venezuela will never build a nuclear bomb,' he said.

 

Chavez, a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy, has forged strategic ties with Iran and Russia in recent years.

Earlier, Venezuela's Science and Technology Minister, Jesse Chacon announced that Iran has assisted his country in discovering large deposits of uranium as well as gold, diamonds and coltan which is a valuable black mineral combining niobite and tantalite; used in cell phones and computer chips. 

 

After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the emergence of a leading and progressive Latin America led Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian ideals has dealt a second major blow to Western particularly US hegemonic attitudes in the region.

 

Source: Agencies

October 18, 2009