Iran, Cuba to boost ties

[struggle4progress]

Jan 22, 2005, 03:09

Iran extended a 20 million euro ($26 million) credit line to Cuba and will open a Cuban biotechnology factory in Tehran this year to make vaccines and other medicines, Cuba's Communist Party newspaper Granma said on Friday.

Increased cooperation between two nations facing mounting U.S. hostility was agreed during a visit to Cuba by a delegation headed by Iran's Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati.

The Iranian credit line will be used to export manufactured products to Cuba, mainly clothes, shoes and plastic goods.

The biotech joint venture in Iran will open in April and produce a hepatitis B vaccines developed by Cuba, as well as interferon and other medicines for treating heart and kidney disease, Granma said. <snip>

http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_5392.shtml


US 'outposts of tyranny' banding together
AFP Saturday, January 22, 2005

HAVANA (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 yesterday. <snip>

Under the deal, cash-strapped Cuba will get a 20-million-euro (US$26-million) 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. <snip>

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. <snip>

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20050121T190000-0500_73635_OBS_US__OUTPOSTS_OF_TYRANNY__BANDING_TOGETHER.asp