Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Monday denounced before the Paraguayan parliament that Venezuela’s socialist regime is the main “nexus” that facilitates the presence of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis in the region.
Sa’ar traveled to Paraguay as part of a whirlwind South American tour that will continue on Tuesday with a visit to Argentina, where he will meet with President Javier Milei. During his stay in Paraguay, the Israeli foreign minister met with conservative President Santiago Peña and other government officials.
Sa’ar described Paraguay as one of Israel’s greatest friends and noted that relations between the two nations are based not only on mutual interests but on shared values. Sa’ar welcomed the Paraguayan government’s designations of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as terrorist organizations.
The Israeli Minister and his Paraguayan counterpart Rubén Ramírez Lezcano signed a memorandum of understanding in security and intelligence that aims to improve the capabilities of Paraguay’s law enforcement agencies in the head-on fight against transnational organized crime. Paraguayan Defense Minister Óscar González explained to reporters that the memorandum will go into effect “immediately.”
Sa’ar also visited the Paraguayan Congress and was welcomed by the head of the Paraguayan Congress, Senator Basilio Núñez, who said that his presence in Congress was beyond a mere protocolar act, but rather, a renewal of the historic friendship of both countries.
Speaking to the Paraguayan Congress, Sa’ar said that Venezuela’s socialist regime led by dictator Nicolás Maduro acts as the main “nexus” in South America that allows Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis to maintain an active presence in the region.
The foreign minister warned that the Venezuelan regime’s alliances with those terror groups have turned Venezuela into a key hub for the expansion of drug trafficking and terrorist networks with global reach.
“In South America, criminals are forming narco-terrorism alliances with the Middle East. The hub of this network is Venezuela,” Sa’ar reportedly said, stressing that Maduro has “destabilized the region by causing a refugee crisis, and is the basis for Hezbollah’s terrorist operations.”
Sa’ar noted that Maduro has publicly claimed that Venezuela forms part of Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance,” and identified Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen as three “terrorist states” in the Middle East that are not just insurgent groups, but “organizations integrated into state structures with the capacity for transnational cooperation,” which extends to Africa and Latin America.
“Today, terrorist states do not focus solely on areas they control, but threaten the region and the world,” Sa’ar said.
Sa’ar referred to Israel’s recent military strike that resulted in the death of Hezbollah senior commander Haytham Ali Tabatabal. The Israeli minister said that “the world is a better place” without him and denied that Israel had violated Lebanon’s sovereignty with the strike. The Lebanese government has consistently protested the growing number of Israel strikes in its southern region, asserting that it is working to eradicate Hezbollah on its own.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil responded to Sa’ar’s accusations on behalf of the Maduro regime in a Telegram post accusing the Israeli minister of being a “war criminal and a genocidal maniac.”
“What you should be doing is not mentioning Venezuela, but preparing to be tried for the crimes your government commits against the Palestinian people,” Gil wrote. “The name Venezuela is too big for your dirty mouth and hands stained with innocent blood.”
“We are an independent people, a people who fight for our sovereignty, who liberate, who defend equality, human rights, and international law,” he continued. “You, on the other hand, represent barbarism and the systematic violation of all the norms that govern civilized humanity.”
Gil asserted that the Maduro regime is “not interested” in his opinion, nor is it “affected by your desperate rhetoric.” According to the Venezuelan official, “the only thing that matters is that, sooner rather than later, you will have to answer to international justice.”
During his stay in Argentina this week, Sa’ar and his delegation are expected to participate in commemorative events in remembrance of the victims of Hezbollah’s two terrorist attacks in the 1990s against Jewish targets in Buenos Aires. According to the Israeli government, Sa’ar is scheduled to speak at an event marking the 90th anniversary of the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations (DAIA) alongside Argentine government officials and the nation’s Jewish community.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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