power plant with assistance from Iran and will also buy military and civilian planes from Iran.
These announcements were made in Bolivia several days after President Ivo Morales completed a state visit to Iran. There was no explanation as to why the announcements were not made while Morales while still in Iran, as is normal.
Morales told reporters in Bolivia, “There is nothing to lie about; one of the things we are working on with Iran is, of course, to have a nuclear plant to generate energy. When we talk about a nuclear plant, people will claim it is linked to a nuclear bomb, but we are not talking about nuclear bombs.”
But no one was heard talking about nuclear bombs. However, some voices were raised asking why Bolivia would have a nuclear power plant built by a country that has never built a nuclear power plant itself.
In another announcement made in La Paz days after the visit ended, Finance Minister Luis Arce said Bolivia is looking into buying Iranian-made aircraft. He cited the Fajr-3, S-68, Iran-140 and a four-seat helicopter. The first two are military training aircraft. While Iran is forbidden under UN sanctions from selling military gear abroad, Bolivia may believe that it can procure such unarmed training aircraft.
The Iran-140 is the version of the Ukrainian Antonov-140 assembled in Iran. Officials have acknowledged that the Iran-140 costs twice as much to make as the Antonov-140, but Arce did not say how much Bolivia would pay.
Iranian Economy Minister Shamseddin Hossaini also announced that the two countries had signed a preliminary agreement for establishing a joint Iranian-Bolivian bank. The Washington Post reported last week that Iran was seeking to set up or buy banks in foreign countries to try to evade US banking sanctions. However, this joint bank is unlikely to draw much American concern as the Iranian link has already been publicly acknowledged and Washington should not have much trouble preventing it from being used as a sanctions-buster.
Morales seemed chiefly concerned on his visit to tap into Iranian resources to help his desperately poor country. The two countries signed five new memoranda of understanding at the end of the visit. Morales said most of them focused on Iranian assistance for Bolivia’s mining and agricultural sectors.
Morales made a rare speech by a foreigner to the Majlis. In it, he said he was certain his country would win its battle against “imperialism.”
He said, “Imperialism dominated our country in all economic and human fields for years, but at the beginning of my presidency, I tried to make fundamental changes and nationalize gas and oil for the interest of my nation.” Before the nationalization, the oil and gas sector in Bolivia was dominated by Brazilian and Argentine firms.
The two presidents seemed to strike up a personal relationship. At one point, they played on the same soccer team in a pickup game that ended in a 4-4 draw. But the presidential squad won the penalty shootout 8-6 with Ahmadi-nejad driving in the final goal.
Bolivian officials denied news reports that the two countries had signed agreements for Iran to mine uranium ore or industrialize lithium in Bolivia. Arce said the two countries never even discussed uranium. He said Bolivia doesn’t yet know whether it has any significant uranium ore reserves to even think of doing anything with it.