Iran to boost medical aids to Venezuela
Iranian envoy to Venezuela voiced Tehran’s preparedness to provide Venezuela with the required technologies to produce medicine and construct medical laboratories in the Latin American country.
The announcement was made during a meeting between Iranian Ambassador to Caracas Abdolreza Mesri and Venezuela’s Minister of Public Health and Social Development Luis Reyes Reyes in Caracas on Friday.
At the meeting, the Iranian diplomat briefed the other side about Iran’s standing in the production of medicine and also the country’s self-sufficiency in the field.
The two sides also underlined the necessity for pursuing implementation of the agreements already signed by Tehran and Caracas.
According to official reports, the two countries are currently studying feasibility of a plan for building a drug production plant in the Latin American state.
Iran has moved to expand ties with Latin America in recent years and it has worked out an eye-catching number of economic, political and cultural agreements on mutual cooperation with what was formerly known as the US backyard. The move by Tehran which gained a much faster momentum under President Ahmadinejad has raised eyebrows in Washington.
Venezuelan Ambassador to Tehran had announced in December that over 300 agreements and contracts as well as 80 special projects have recently come into effect between the two countries.
Iran has also recently augmented efforts to help other countries with a wide range of medical aids, including transfer of technology for drug-manufacturing, construction of labs and other medical facilities, specially in the third-world countries.
Last month, Iranian Red Crescent Society (RC) Director-General for Overseas Treatment, Mohammad Baqer Saffarzadegan, announced that Tehran plans to construct more medical centers in different parts of the world.
“Expansion of RC’s medical centers in African, Latin American and Middle-Eastern states is among the most important goals of the Red Crescent Society,” Saffarzadegan told FNA in May.
He added that the move by the RC to provide medical services abroad is part of the country’s efforts to boost export of medical services to other countries and make the other nations acquainted with Iran’s rich Islamic cultures.
Accordingly, Iran has constructed two medical centers in Bolivia for treatment of patients with kidney problems, the official added.
Saffarzadegan further said that the two medical centers have 30 beds for patients and provide homodialyse services.
Saffarzadegan had also earlier told FNA that RC’s specialized polyclinic in Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, would be inaugurated within the first three months of the current (Iranian) year (started on March 21).
