CARACAS, Venezuela, March 22 (UPI) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias has defended the Third World's right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Prensa Latina news agency reported on March 21 that Chavez also accused the Bush administration of threatening Iran over its nuclear programs because it is in fact interested in Iran's energy resources.
Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, is like Iran studying the possibility of using nuclear power to generate electricity.
At the opening of a natural gas-powered thermoelectric plant Chavez said of the Bush administration's allegations that Iran was covertly pursuing a nuclear weapons program, "The U.S. imperialists invaded Iraq looking for oil and now they are threatening Iran for oil, not because the Iranians are developing some kind of nuclear bomb. That is a lie, there is no evidence of that."
Chavez insisted that countries of the southern hemisphere have the right to develop nuclear technology, as have more advanced countries. Chavez said, "Why can't Third World countries develop this energy whenever we are in a position to do it?"
