Lieberman says Chávez maintains relations with Hezbollah and Hamas

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez of cooperating with "radical branches of Islam" and of anti-Semitism. "I will not speak about intelligence specifics, but we have enough to be concerned about the collaboration between radical branches of Islam and Hugo Chávez," Lieberman told the Colombian newspaper ‘El Tiempo'. Lieberman said he saw "no reason" to communicate with Chávez while the latter maintained "relations with Iran, with Hezbollah and with Hamas".

"Israel had a bad experience when attacks occurred in Buenos Aires [in 1992 and 1994]. Today we see the closeness between Chávez and the Iranians, and of course we want to prevent further attacks against Israelis," Lieberman said when answering questions seeking evidence to support Israel's claim that the Iran-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah has cells in Venezuela.

Chávez has repeatedly expressed support for Iran's controversial nuclear program. Iran has recently sought to expand its interests and make new allies in the Latin American region, specifically with Bolivia and Venezuela.

Lieberman completed his ten-day tour of Latin American with a stop in Colombia. He pledged more involvement by his country across South America. "We think that today Israel must be more and more active in this continent," said Lieberman. Earlier this week, President Chávez severed diplomatic relations with Colombia over accusations from Bogotá that he supplied the guerrilla group FARC with weapons. Chávez said Colombia was becoming the "Israel of Latin America" having agreed to host US military operations.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Embassy in Caracas soon will be able to help Venezuelan Jews obtain Israeli visas, the Canadian government said. Currently, diplomatic relations between the two countries are suspended, following a decision by Chávez in the wake of the Gaza War.