The government of Iran agreed to build and equip a $2 million medical facility in Nicaragua as part of a deal the Iranian government signed with Nicaragua's foreign minister, Samuel Santos.

Santos spent the last week in the Iranian capital of Tehran at “the movement of non-aligned nations” summit for top government officials of Iranian allies, according to a Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry statement released yesterday.

“Our two people are brothers that should prepare themselves for new conditions in the world by strengthening relations,” Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said after meeting with Santos.

After speaking with Ali Lariyani, president of the Iranian parliament, Santos said the two agreed to deepen ties economically and politically, though he did not specify how.

Iran has also promised to build several hydroelectric and dairy plants in Nicaragua as well as a deep-water Caribbean port in conjunction with Venezuela, among other projects.