Venezuela’s Chavez Blames US for Possible “Nuclear War”

Yesterday Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez blamed the United States government for the danger of a possible “nuclear war” in the Middle East, as a result of “tensions over the last few weeks” between the West and Iran.

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Mérida, November 15th 2011 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Yesterday Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez blamed the United States government for the danger of a possible “nuclear war” in the Middle East, as a result of “tensions over the last few weeks” between the West and Iran.

“There’s a nuclear war threat…The most guilty [of this risk] is the United States government and its allies such as Israel, who have many nuclear bombs,” Chavez said.

Last week the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had “serious concerns” over Iran’s nuclear program and had supposed “credible” information that the country is looking to develop nuclear arms. The IAEA reports to the UN General Assembly and the Security Council. Iran says its nuclear program is purely for medicinal and peaceful purposes.

On Monday the European Union increased its sanctions against Iran but for the time being has rejected military intervention. US president Barack Obama said the world was “united” in opposing Iran’s nuclear program. He said his “preference” was to resolve the issue “diplomatically” but he was “not taking any options off the table”.

Chavez said that Obama was not fulfilling his electoral promises. “If President Obama had started to fulfil 10% or 20% of what he offered to do during his [electoral] campaign, they’d get him.” Chavez explained his point saying that US ex-President John Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 for not being “convenient”.

“Obama prefers to live and to become the anti-Obama to who he was as candidate, offering to put an end to war,” Chavez said referring to US intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It is worth calling on the world to reflect about where they [the U.S] want to take us, a nuclear war could be the last war,” he said, adding that no countries should use nuclear weapons, as they don’t just affect governments but “also the people… and the radiation that nuclear arms emit damages the planet’s life”.

The U.S invaded Iraq on the pretext of it having nuclear weapons, though none were ever found. According to the Federation of American Scientists, the US has a total of 8,500 nuclear weapons and according to ex US President Jimmy Carter Israel has 150.

In March this year Chavez ended the country’s nuclear energy program after the crisis that followed Japan’s earthquake.