US to examine ties between Venezuela and Hezbollah

The House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will conduct a hearing on Thursday to examine the ties between the Venezuelan government and Islamic group Hezbollah, which is viewed by some countries as a terrorist organization.

"The focus of the hearing will be the expansion of Hezbollah's presence in Latin America, with the support of Iran, and the relation of the group with Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, as well as increased Hezbollah's support to drug cartels," said Patrick Meehan (R-PA), a member of the House of Representatives' subcommittee.

Ilan Berman, Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council; Douglas Farah, Senior Fellow, International Assessment and Strategy Center, and Roger Noriega, Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, will attend the meeting to be held at 2:00 p.m.

The hearing is expected to address likely sanctions on Venezuelan airline Conviasa because its flights to Iran and Syria are allegedly used by international organizations for criminal purposes.

Noriega, a former US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, has said that "It is clear that Conviasa flight (to Iran and Syria) is a critical tool for Iran and Venezuela and their allied terrorists and drug traffickers. (Obama's) Administration has the authority to act now to pre-empt this menace before it is too late."

Source: EL UNIVERSAL