Friday, June 20, 2008

Venezuela denies Hezbollah links

The Venezuelan government rejected charges made on Wednesday by the U.S. Treasury Department (USTD) regarding links with Hezbollah. The USTD accused the Chavez administration of “employing and providing safe harbor” to two people who reside in Venezuela and allegedly aided Hezbollah.

The Venezuelan government denied any wrongdoing:

In response to Treasury's action, the Venezuelan government issued a statement saying that "Hezbollah is a political party legally operating in Lebanon".

"We do not have any formal complaint from Lebanon regarding this or other issues," said Andres Izarra, the Minister of People's Power for Communication and Information. "If they had any problem requiring investigations, they would have informed our country about it, and they have not."

U.S. officials have previously blamed Venezuela with ties to Hezbollah vis-à-vis Iran.

Image- BBC News

Sources- ABC News, CNN, Reuters, The Latin Americanist

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