Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that Washington has recognized the abject failure of the policy of maximum pressure on Iran, and that the Iranian people are determined to turn the sanctions imposed on them for years into an opportunity to achieve progress in the country, stressing that Iran and Venezuela's strategy in confronting the "enemy" is based on steadfastness.
Today, Saturday, on the sidelines of a meeting between Presidents Ibrahim Raisi and Nicolas Maduro, who is currently visiting Tehran, Iran and Venezuela signed a 20-year cooperation agreement between the two oil-producing countries that are subject to US sanctions, according to Iranian state television.
The official news agency "IRNA" said that the two sides signed a "comprehensive strategic cooperation document" for 20 years, in addition to cooperation documents in the fields of politics, culture, tourism, economy, oil and petrochemicals.
According to the Iranian news agency, Raisi described relations between Tehran and Caracas as strategic, saying during a joint press conference with Maduro that "the signing of a 20-year cooperation agreement between the two countries shows the determination of senior officials in the two countries to develop relations in various fields."
He stressed that what he described as Washington's acknowledgment of the failure of the maximum pressure policy proves Iran's success in the face of the sanctions policy, pointing to Iran and Venezuela's adoption of a strategy of resistance in the face of what he described as arrogant powers.
Maduro arrived in Tehran yesterday, Friday, at the head of a political and economic delegation, on his second visit as president to Iran, after his first visit to it in November 2015.
Raisi gave his counterpart an official reception this morning in the historic Saadabad complex in the north of the Iranian capital.
Maduro's visit to Tehran comes at the invitation of Raisi, and comes weeks after a visit by Iranian Oil Minister Javad Ogi to Caracas, which has the largest proven reserves of crude oil in the world, during which he met President Maduro.