AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Caracas: A Venezuelan general said Tuesday that Iran might be interested in buying Venezuela's US F16 fighter jets that he has recommended selling.
The comment by General Alberto Muller Rojas, a member of the Venezuelan chiefs of staff, came a day after the United States ordered an arms sales ban against Venezuela, accusing Caracas of failing to provide assistance in the “war on terror”.
The US administration highlighted Venezuela's ties with Iran and communist led Cuba in justifying its move.
The Venezuelan foreign ministry responded by issuing a statement accusing the United States of creating the conditions to “attack” the South American country.
Venezuela is a key oil supplier to the United States, but tensions between the two countries have increased in recent months. Washington has regularly expressed concern about the activities of the leftwing President Hugo Chavez.
Amid the new tussle over the US military sanctions, General Rojas said Venezuela is considering selling its ageing American F16 jets and to replace them with Russian Sukhoi-35s.
Rojas told AFP: “I made a proposal to the defence minister today to sell the F16s, whole or in parts, and to use the technology (from the planes) to attract people around the world who might be interested.”
He added: “Many countries, such as Iran, would be interested in buying the material.” Rojas said countries in Africa or Chile, which also uses F16s, might also be possible customers.
Venezuela's F16s are more than 20 years old and the United States now refuses to maintain them.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said there was little hope that the United States would agree to Venezuela selling the fighters to Iran, another arch-foe of the US administration.
McCormack told reporters: “Any time you have the sale of US military equipment to a foreign government, there are clauses and there are agreements that are signed. And part of those agreements are that, without the written consent of the United States, you can't transfer these defense articles, and in this case F16s, to a third country.
“And I would expect that, even if such a request were made, that it would not be forthcoming from the US government.”
The US administration on Monday imposed a ban on arm sales and technology transfers to Venezuela, and accused Chavez's government of failing to cooperate in the US-led “war on terror”.
In announcing the ban, McCormack cited US concerns over Venezuela's ties with Iran and Cuba, which Washington considers state sponsors of terrorism, and their “intelligence-sharing relationship, which has made it very difficult for the United States to work on anti-terrorism efforts with them.”
McCormack alleged on Tuesday that Venezuela has “developed a much closer and stronger intelligence-sharing relationship with the intelligence agencies of Iran and Cuba.”
The United States also was concerned that Caracas had failed to stop the transit of suspects and arms through its territory and had links to leftist paramilitaries in Colombia, the spokesman said.
The Venezuelan foreign ministry responded by saying the US government is seeking to “isolate Venezuela, destabilize its democratic government and prepare the political conditions for an attack.”
It said the arms ban was designed to prevent Venezuela from being able to defend itself.
President Chavez on Monday slammed the US action as “a demonstration of the empire's policy against Earth's smaller countries”, but said he would not suspend oil exports to the United States.
