Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has accused the CIA of being behind anti-government protests rocking Iran, and repeated his support for Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Chavez, who has tried to cultivate ties with the Islamic republic, said the "imperial hand" of the US Central Intelligence Agency -- and of Europe -- was behind post-election clashes that had killed at least 17 people.
"People are in the streets, some are dead, they have snipers, and behind this is the CIA, the imperial hand of European countries and the United States," he said, "from my point of view that is what is happening in Iran."
Chavez made his comments late Wednesday on the margins of a gathering of Latin American leftist leaders in Maracay, central Venezuela.
