Chavez vows solidarity with Syria against U.S., Israel

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
pledged solidarity on Wednesday with Syria in its struggle
against Israel and the United States and predicted the demise
of U.S. “imperialism.”

Chavez, a harsh critic of U.S. foreign policy, also said he
would seek a front-row seat if President George W. Bush
accepted an invitation from Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a
televised debate, adding he would be cheering on the Iranian
president.

“Syria and Venezuela share the same firm positions and a
resistance to imperialism and imperialist aggression,” Chavez
told a news conference after talks with Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad, speaking in Spanish through an Arab interpreter.

“This age will witness the end of American imperialism,” he
said, pointing a laser pen at a map of the world showing
countries where Washington has intervened militarily or whose
governments it has helped to topple over the last 50 years.

Chavez denounced what he called Israel’s “Nazi crimes” in
Lebanon during the recent war and said the Jewish state should
pull its remaining troops out of that country and also out of
the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in 1967.

“Nothing equals the Nazi crimes Israel has committed in
Lebanon and against the Palestinians,” said Chavez, who arrived
in Syria on Tuesday evening from Malaysia.

Chavez’s popularity shot up across the Arab world after he
ordered Venezuela’s envoy to Israel home earlier this month to
protest Israel’s military offensive against Hizbollah
guerrillas in Lebanon. Many civilians died in the fighting.

He has threatened to break off diplomatic ties with Israel.

FIGHTING “IMPERIALISM”

Commenting on Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s challenge to
Bush on Tuesday to discuss the world’s problems in a televised
debate, Chavez said: “I wish I could be sitting at the front
row and watch Ahmadinejad deal Bush a knock-out blow.”

The White House has called the proposal a “diversion.” The
U.N. Security Council has given Iran until Thursday to suspend
its uranium enrichment program or possibly face sanctions.

Ahmadinejad has shocked the West with his calls for Israel
to be “wiped off the map.” He and Chavez established a warm
rapport when the Venezuelan leader visited Tehran last month.

Chavez, a robust ex-paratrooper, has courted other
anti-U.S. leaders from Belarus to Cuba in recent months as he
tries to build a broad global coalition against “imperialism.”

After Chavez’s talks on Wednesday with Assad at a hilltop
palace overlooking both Damascus and the Golan Heights, the two
countries signed a raft of deals on cooperation in sectors
ranging from agriculture to oil.

The United States imposed sanctions on Syria in 2004 for
allegedly backing terrorism. Damascus shrugged off calls by
Washington, Israel’s chief ally, to pressure Hizbollah to
accept Israel’s demands during the recent war.