CUBA NEWS
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'Outposts of tyranny' Cuba and Iran
thumb noses at Bush with cooperation deal
HAVANA, 21 (AFP) - Branded as "outposts
of tyranny" by the US administration,
Cuba and Iran have decided to step up bilateral
cooperation in banking, farming and biotechnology,
state media underscored.
"We have confirmed the potential that
exists and, beyond that, the will and the
determination of both governments to move
forward in their relations," Interior
Minister Ricardo Cabrisas told the Communist
Party of Cuba's newspaper Granma.
Under the deal, cash-strapped Cuba will
get a 20-million-euro (26-million-US-dollar)
credit from Tehran; food production cooperation
will be increased; and equipment to help
fight the effects of the drought plaguing
Cuba will be brought in.
Effects of the drought have been serious
for a decade in Cuba's east, but in recent
months the crisis has spread nationwide.
The report quoted Iranian Agriculture and
Reconstruction Minister Mahmud Hojjati as
saying the credit line could be increased.
In turn, Iran will get a factory to produce
Cuban-engineered vaccines and greater cooperation
on biotechnology. The US administration
has accused Cuba of having a worrisome potential
biological weapons capacity, which Havana
denies. Washington has offered no proof
to back up the claim.
In her Senate confirmation hearings this
week, US Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza
Rice named Cuba as one of the "outposts
of tyranny" in the world with which
the US administration is concerned.
On the campaign trail in October in Miami,
US President George W. Bush vowed to "keep
the pressure on" to rid Cuba of President
Fidel Castro, an appeal to the hard-line
Cuban-Americans Bush was counting on to
win Florida and the White House.
"I strongly believe the people of
Cuba should be free from the tyrant,"
Bush told a boisterous crowd of supporters
two days before the vote, adding: "Over
the next four years, we will continue to
press hard and ensure that the gift of freedom
finally reaches the men and women of Cuba."
Last May, Bush called for tightening restrictions
on cash flows to Cuba and stepping up pro-democracy
broadcasts to the island, vowing to hasten
the political demise of the only communist
government in the Americas.
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