EL UNIVERSAL

The United States accused a Venezuelan diplomat, Ghazi Nasr al Din, of working for Hezbollah and the Venezuelan government of providing safe harbor to agents of the radical Islamic Shiite group.

Al-Din had served until recently as charge d'affaires at the Venezuelan embassy in Damascus. He is currently working as Political Affairs Officer of the Venezuelan embassy in Lebanon, reported the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Efe quoted.

OFAC included Nasr al Din in its list of individuals tied to terrorism and froze also any of his assets in the United States.

It took a similar step against Fawzi Kan'an, another man "based in Venezuela" who presumably helped Hezbollah members to enter Venezuelan territory and has collected money for the organization, according to Washington.

For the same reason, the United States blacklisted two travel agencies property of Kan'an; Biblos Travel and Hilal Travel, located in Caracas. The US government accused this man of having met with Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon to speak about potential kidnappings and terrorist attacks.

"It is extremely troubling to see the Government of Venezuela employing and providing safe harbor to Hezbollah facilitators and fundraisers," said Adam Szubin, Director of the OFAC, in a press release.

Nasr al Din has advised Hezbollah's donors and provided them with bank accounts to deposit the money, according to the US Treasury Department, which accuses him also of facilitating the trips of the organization members.

According to the communiqué, in 2005 Nasr al Din organized the visit of Hezbollah's members to Iran, where they were presumably trained. The next year, in January, he reportedly coordinated the visit to Caracas of the organization representatives who were also Lebanon parliamentarians. They raised funds in Venezuela and announced the establishment of a community center and Hezbollah office in the country.

This is not the first time the Venezuelan government is linked with the Islamic terrorism. A report dated 2006 and entitled "Venezuela: Terrorism Hub of South America? by the International Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, attached to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, found potential ties with extremist groups.

In the report, Representative Brad Sherman is certain that Hezbollah has criminal and semi-legal businesses to collect money for this organization in island Margarita.

Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information Andrés Izarra said that his government had received no "formal complaint" from the Lebanese government on two alleged Hezbollah followers whose assets in the United States were frozen by the US Treasury Department.

Translated by Conchita Delgado