July 03, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 17, 1428

ASALUYEH (Iran): Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez sealed their anti-American alliance on Monday by laying the foundation stone of a joint petrochemical plant.

The two leaders pledged to “stand against all enemies,” a reference to the United States, as they inaugurated construction of a 700-million-dollar methanol plant in the Asaluyeh industrial zone on the Gulf coast.

Chavez, on his first trip to Iran, promised to “unite the Persian Gulf and the Caribbean” and even adopted Persian slang for the benefit of reporters assembled for the occasion.

“We as two united countries will build a better world. I thank God that Iran and Venezuela are standing together for ever,” he said on the last day of a trip which has already taken him to Russia and Belarus.

“We are going to unite the Persian Gulf and the Caribbean. We are together and we want to go forward with a multi-polar world,” he said.

The two members of the powerful OPEC oil cartel pledged to boost cooperation and trade ties during a day of talks between Chazez and leaders of Iran's Islamic regime on Sunday, while predicting the downfall of the United States.—AFP