Iran, Cuba vow to confront US ‘aggressive imperial policy’

The presidents of Iran and Cuba vowed Thursday to jointly confront the “aggressive imperial policy” of the United States, which has sanctions in place against both countries.

Hosting his counterpart Ebrahim Raisi in Havana, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said both nations “have had to face heroically, with tenacious resistance, the sanctions, the pressures, the threats, the blockades and the indifference of US imperialism and its allies.”

Apart from sanctions, the United States also has Cuba and Iran on its list of state sponsors of “terrorism.”

The men presided over the signing of memoranda on cooperation in areas including customs, telecommunications and justice.

In the morning, Raisi had attended a business forum where he said Iran would work with communist Cuba in science and technology, on hydroelectric and thermoelectric plants, and mining.

The Iranian president’s official visit to Cuba closed a tour of “friendly countries” that also included US-sanctioned Nicaragua and Venezuela, that share what he called “common enemies.”

All are allies of Russia, which is waging a war on Ukraine.

In Venezuela, Raisi and Nicolas Maduro said they had signed 25 accords in sectors ranging from education and health to mining. 

Deepening trade and exchange was also on the agenda in Nicaragua, whose President Daniel Ortega said the leaders had signed a “basic memorandum” that will seek to boost economic, commercial and scientific-technical cooperation.

Ortega has said that Tehran has a right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and in February questioned the moral authority of Western powers to ban Iran from having nuclear weapons.