St. Vincent/Iran ties stir concerns

By VonDez Phipps
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

Dr. Ralph Gonsalves

According to Caribbean Net News, the US Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Mary Ourisman, had questioned Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, shortly after his return from visits to Barbados and St. Lucia, on the ties St. Vincent and the Grenadines has with Iran.

Gonsalves explained that from his visit to Libya in 2001, he had made an assessment on the condition of that country, saying, “Libya wants to come out from the cold and we are building bridges with Libya.”

Gonsalves added that Iran needs to have a more involved role on the international scene and mentioned that it is a responsibility of countries to engage others. He further informed that there are seven other Caribbean countries soon to have relations with Iran, and more than 90 percent of the UN has ties with the oil-producing country.  ~~Adz:Right~~

“I know the US has a quarrel with Iran on the nuclear issue and others...They asked why not wait until we have finished with our negotiations with them on the nuclear issue, and I said that Germany is one of the leading members of NATO, do you ask them not to trade with Iran?

“The matter comes down simply at the end of it: Do you trust the leadership of a small country to be sufficiently mature to handle relations or do you trust our democracy to be sufficiently resilient to handle relations? My answer to both questions is yes,” Gonsalves stated.

The Prime Minister added that the country’s democracy is sufficiently mature and strong enough to handle any set of relations with any countries anywhere in the world and to do so openly.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Iran established ties early August 2008 after Gonsalves’ visit to Iran for a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. The Caribbean country subsequently announced that it would “receive US$7M in aid from Iran” which is expected to go toward building a new airport.