Israel Matzav

'Let's nuke America'

Both men hugged, beamed, held hands and showered each other with praise, making macabre jokes which appeared to threaten the U.S., the principal enemy of both leaders.

Mr Chavez said that he was hiding a bomb under a grassy knoll before the steps of the presidential palace, saying: 'That hill will open up and a big atomic bomb will come out.'

As the two men laughed, he added: 'The imperialist spokesmen say Ahmadinejad and I are going into the basement now to set our sights on Washington and launch cannons and missiles... It's laughable.'

During a welcome ceremony for Mr Ahmadinejad, the speeches were mostly limited to mutual adulation and anti-U.S. snipes.

Mr Chavez said: 'The imperialist madness has been unleashed in a way that has not been seen for a long time.'

Mr Ahmadinejad called his host, who is recovering from cancer, 'the champion in the war on imperialism'.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Hugo Chavez, Iranian nuclear threat, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuelan nuclear plant

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:52 AM