Chavez and Ahmadinejad crack nuclear-themed jokes

**cheguevara** · 01-10-2012

"They accuse us of being warmongers," Chavez said. "They're the threat."

"They say we're making (a) bomb," the Iranian leader said through an interpreter. "Fortunately, the majority of Latin American countries are alert. Everyone knows that those words ... are a joke. It's something to laugh at."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Iranian ally Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met in Caracas on Monday, where they expressed their love for one another, took jabs at the United States and joked about having an atomic bomb.

"That hill will open up and a big atomic bomb will come out," Chavez said, pointing to an area in front of the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, according to a report from Reuters.

"The imperialist spokesmen say... Ahmadinejad and I are going into the Miraflroes basement now to set our sights on Washington and launch cannons and missiles," Chavez continued. "It's laughable."

Ahmadinejad arrived in Venezuela on Sunday to kick off a Latin American tour that will also take him to Cuba, Nicaragua and Ecuador -- all of whose governments lean left.

The anti-American buddies hugged effusively and Chavez called Ahmadinejad his "true brother," Spanish newswire EFE reports.

"Despite those arrogant people who do not wish us to be together, we will unite forever," Ahmadinejad said, according to Reuters.

“They present us as aggressors,” Chavez said of U.S. officials as he received the Iranian leader at the presidential palace.

“Iran hasn’t invaded anyone,” Chavez said. “Who has dropped thousands and thousands of bombs ... including atomic bombs?”

The visit comes after the U.S. imposed tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, which Washington believes Tehran is using to develop atomic weapons. Chavez and his allies back Iran in arguing the nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes.

Adding to the tensions, Iranian state radio reported on Monday that a court in Iran has convicted dual U.S.-Iranian citizen Amir Mirzaei Hekmati of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death.

Both leaders joked that their relationship shouldn’t cause any concern.

Ahmadinejad said if they were together building anything like a bomb, “the fuel of that bomb is love.”

Chavez countered, saying Iran has been helping manufacture an "atomic bicycle plant in the country."

Chavez played on the same theme in his remarks: “We’s going to work a lot for some bombs, for some missiles, to keep the war going. Our war is against poverty, hunger and underdevelopment.”

The Venezuelan leader said in his nationally broadcast speech that Iranians assistance has helped the South American country build 14,000 homes as well as factories that produce food, tractors and vehicles.

“We will always be together,” Ahmadinejad said through an interpreter. Smiling as he put his hand on Chavez’s arm, the Iranian leader called the Venezuelan president “the champion of fighting against imperialism.”

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