Iran leader to visit commies on way to U.S.

WorldNetDaily: Ahmadinejad will pay respects to Castro, Chavez before going to U.N.

Rather than make his first international visit as the new leader of Iran to the United States, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will drop in on communist leaders Fidel Castro of Cuba and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez on his way to the United Nations headquarters in New York next month.

According to Iranian news agency Farda News, Ahmadinejad's advisers let him know it would be best if his steps on foreign soil as president were not in the U.S., known by Iran's ruling elite as "The Great Satan."

Ahmadinejad is scheduled to attend the 60th meeting of the U.N. General Assembly beginning Sept. 14. READ MORE

Both Iran and Cuba are on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism and have enjoyed a close relationship.

In 2001, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, visited Castro in Cuba. The aging communist dictator told Khamenei to help defeat the U.S. "as you toppled the Shah" in 1979. Castro also said together Cuba and Iran would bring America "to its knees."

As WorldNetDaily reported, Ahmadinejad is being allowed in the U.S. despite persuasive evidence he was instrumental in the holding of 52 U.S. hostages for 444 days at the U.S. Embassy in 1979, was involved in the assassination of a Kurdish leader in Austria in 1989 and has helped recruit and train thousands of suicide bombers in his country over the last year.

Meanwhile, Ramon Rodriguez, Cuba's ambassador to Iran, met with chairman of Iran's Expediency Council, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to discuss expanding cooperation between the two countries, the IRNA news agency reported.