Iran congratulates Venezuelan president Maduro on reelection

Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, sends well wishes to Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro on his reelection.

“We congratulate the people and government of this country on the successful holding of the presidential elections in Venezuela, as well as the elected president of the Venezuelan people,” Kanaani says, according to a report in Tehran’s official news agency IRNA.

Kanaani further notes that the elections were held despite cruel and unjust threats and sanctions imposed on Caracas, and stresses Iran’s strong bilateral ties with the socialist Latin American country.

Maduro has been declared the winner of the presidential election with 51.2 percent of votes, but opposition leaders and various Latin American countries have cast doubts over the result.

Venezuela forged close ties with the Islamic Republic in the late 1990s under Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chávez. Cooperation between the two oil-rich countries is robust in energy production, infrastructure and industrial cooperation. Both regimes have shaped their foreign policy in opposition to the US.