by RAMIN MOSTAGHIM
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, left, embraces Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas. PHOTO/Marcelo Garcia/AFP/Getty Images
The Iranian government declared Wednesday as a national day of mourning for the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, praising the leftist firebrand as a foe of imperialism.
In a cable to the Venezuelan presidential office, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Chavez a “martyr” for Venezuela who “bravely and firmly stood against the quest for hegemony of the arrogant power,” the United States.
He cast suspicion on the causes of his illness and praised Chavez effusively as a leader.
“I have no doubt that he will return to Earth alongside Jesus Christ,” as well as Imam Mahdi, a prophesied redeemer in Islam, and “all righteous people, to establish justice, peace and freedom,” Ahmadinejad wrote in a Farsi version of the letter posted online.
The ardent words from Ahmadinejad triggered some backlash among Muslim leaders in Tehran, who felt it was over the top to compare Chavez to such exalted religious figures. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said the president had sent out an incorrect and “overblown” message.
“Mentioning Chavez along with the Twelfth Imam and Jesus Christ is wrong,” Khatami said Wednesday, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency. “He could simply send a diplomatic condolence.” The religious references were notably absent from a Spanish version of the letter also posted on the Iranian presidential website.
Seyyed Mehdi Tabatee, a theologian, told another Iranian news website close to reformists that saying Chavez would return alongside the two was “wrong both religiously and legally.”
Ahmadinejad told reporters he would probably attend the funeral in Venezuela.
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