(IANA) - President Daniel Ortega brushed aside Washington's concerns by agreeing to trade bananas, coffee and meat in exchange for Iranian help with infrastructure projects.
Mr Ortega and Iran's energy minister, Hamid Chitchian, signed the accords in Nicaragua's capital, Managua, on Saturday, cementing Tehran's toehold in what the US considers its backyard.
In return for Nicaraguan agricultural goods, Iran is to help fund a farm equipment factory, 4,000 tractors, five milk-processing plants, a health clinic, 10,000 houses and a deep-water port.
In November Iran is also expected to choose a site for a £59m hydroelectric power station, with another three plants potentially to follow. As the head of a small, impoverished central American state lacking military might, and with his approval ratings slumping, Mr Ortega hardly poses a strategic threat to the US.
However, the Sandinista leader has shown a willingness to defy and irritate the superpower. He has upgraded ties with Cuba and North Korea, and in June visited Iran, Algeria, Libya and Cuba in a jet lent by Libya's Muammar Gadafy.
The Iranian deal was the boldest move yet. Just last week the US ambassador to Nicaragua, Paul Trivelli, made a typically blunt warning: "Iran can be a dangerous partner."\
Translated By: Aref Mohammadzadeh
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