Washington responds to Iranian-Venezuelan missile link
U.S. says it's watching reports on issue
: December 10, 2010
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Venezuela's Hugo Chavez
A published report that Iran recently agreed to send to Venezuela medium-range ballistic missiles that could reach the United States has been questioned by U.S. government sources who say they are monitoring Tehran's increasingly close relations with the Latin American country, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The report first appeared in the German newspaper Die Welt and was then recounted in the blog site Hudson New York from the conservative Washington-based think-tank Hudson Institute. It said such an agreement was signed when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visited Tehran last October.
Government sources, however, say that while they are watching for such developments, the report in its present form cannot be substantiated.
The report said the agreement would provide for a jointly operated military base in Venezuela, along with joint development of a ground-to-ground missile.
Tehran usually announces with great fanfare any agreements it signs with countries such as Venezuela since it displays the Islamic Republic's projection of influence, especially if is designed to raise alarms in the U.S. However, neither Iran nor Venezuela has made any such announcement.
"We've seen the reports," said Charles Luoma-Overstreet, spokesman for Western Hemisphere affairs at the State Department said in an e-mail to the G2Bulletin.
"The Department of State, with other agencies throughout the U.S. government," he said, "continually review all information pertaining to such matters and is always open to receiving additional information, but as you know, we will not comment publicly on intelligence matters."
If such a report were verified, another source reported, all of the "alarms" within the U.S. government would have sounded, suggesting conditions reminiscent of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. |
