Venezuela and Bolivia are supplying Iran with uranium for its nuclear program, according to a secret Israeli government report obtained on Monday.
The two South American countries are known to have close ties with Iran, but this is the first allegation that they are involved in the development of Iran’s nuclear program, considered a strategic threat by Israel.
“There are reports that Venezuela supplies Iran with uranium for its nuclear program,” the Foreign Ministry document states, referring to previous Israeli intelligence conclusions, adding “Bolivia also supplies uranium to Iran.”
The report concludes that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is trying to undermine the US by supporting Iran.
Venezuela and Bolivia are close allies, and both regimes have a history of opposing US foreign policy and Israeli actions.
Venezuela expelled the Israeli ambassador during Israel’s offensive in Gaza this year, and Israel retaliated by expelling the Venezuelan envoy. Bolivia cut ties with Israel over the offensive.
There was no immediate comment from officials in Venezuela or Bolivia on the report’s allegations.
The three-page document about Iranian activities in Latin America was prepared in advance of a visit to South America by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who will attend a conference of the Organization of American States in Honduras next week. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is also scheduled to visit the region.
Israel considers Iran a serious threat because of its nuclear program, development of long-range missiles and frequent references by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Israel’s destruction.
Israel dismisses Iran’s insistence that its nuclear program is peaceful, charging that the Iranians are building nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear work is aimed only at producing energy. Its enrichment of uranium has increased concerns about its program because that technology can be used both to produce fuel for power plants and to build bombs.
Israel has been pressing for world action to stop the Iranian program. While saying it prefers diplomatic action, Israel has not taken its military option off the table.
Experts believe Israel is capable of destroying some of Iran’s nuclear facilities in airstrikes.
Iran, under Ahmadinejad, has strengthened its ties with both Venezuela and Bolivia, where it opened an embassy last year. Its alliance with the left-led nations is based largely on their shared antagonism to the US but is also a way for Iran to lessen its international isolation.
The Israeli government report did not say where the uranium that it alleged the two countries were supplying originated.
Bolivia has uranium deposits. Venezuela is not currently mining its own estimated 45,000 tonnes of untapped uranium reserves, an analysis published in December by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said.
The Carnegie report said, however, that recent collaboration with Iran in strategic minerals has generated speculation that Venezuela could mine uranium for Iran.
The Israeli government report also charges that the Iran-backed Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon have set up cells in Latin America.
It says Venezuela has issued permits that allow Iranian residents to travel freely in South America.
The report concludes, “Since Ahmadinejad’s rise to power, Tehran has been promoting an aggressive policy aimed at bolstering its ties with Latin American countries with the declared goal of ‘bringing America to its knees.’”
The document says Venezuela and Bolivia are violating the UN Security Council’s economic sanctions with their aid to Iran.
As allies against the US, Ahmadinejad and Chavez have set up a US$200 billion fund aimed at garnering the support of more South American countries for the cause of “liberation from the American imperialism,” the report said.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor refused to comment on the secret report.
Also See: Pyongyang, Tehran are roadblocks to Obama’s hopes for a dialogue
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
A Virginia man having an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair on Monday was found guilty of murdering his wife and another man that prosecutors say was lured to the house as a fall guy. Brendan Banfield, a former Internal Revenue Service law enforcement officer, told police he came across Joseph Ryan attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. He shot Ryan and then Juliana Magalhaes, the au pair, shot him, too, but officials argued in court that the story was too good to be true, telling jurors that Brendan Banfield set
RSS