A two-day Iran-Venezuela summit started on Sunday in Teheran which aims at expanding bilateral ties. Visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez started talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Khatami at the presidential palace in Teheran. "Iran and Venezuela have several common interests and common aims and therefore we should expand both political and economic ties to the highest level," Khatami told reporters before the talks. While praising Chavez for his resistance against U.S. political pressures, Khatami said that like Venezuela, Iran was also against any kind of unipolar system in the world. Chavez is accompanied by his ministers of foreign affairs, defense, agriculture, energy, trade, culture and communications, industries and mines, as well as the mayor of the capital Caracas. The Venezuelan president, coming to Teheran after state visits to Spain, Libya and Russia, will also meet in Teheran with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and ex-President Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani before flying to Qatar for the final leg of his tour.
