by Alberto Galvi –

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi signed a 20-year cooperation agreement in Tehran that strengthens links between the oil and petrochemical industries, their respective military and the world of economy.
Maduro thanked Iran for sending much-needed fuel to a country under US sanctions. Despite pressure from the United States, Iran supplied Venezuela with several shipments of fuel and helped it repair refineries. Venezuela began importing Iranian heavy crude last month, expanding a swap agreement signed last year to swap Iranian condensate for Venezuelan heavy crude.
At the Summit of the Americas, which concluded last June 10, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua were not invited, so Maduro began a series of visits to different countries, and after being in Tunisia and Algeria he went to Iran. Maduro announced direct flights between Tehran and Caracas next month

. In addition, Iran has handed over to Venezuelan officials the Aframax-2 oil tanker, the second of four ships Iran has commissioned to build for Venezuela.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of directors blamed Tehran for its failure to provide reliable information on nuclear materials found at three undisclosed sites. After the censorship, the Iranian currency fell to 326,300 riyals to the dollar, its lowest level ever.