Dr. Dan Diker, a Middle East, counterterrorism, and national security analyst and the president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, spoke to Arutz Sheva about Venezuela’s contribution to anti-Israel terror.

“The world paid attention to Venezuela’s significant involvement in global terrorism and global drug trafficking, and now, it is all coming out,” he said. “Hugo Chavez and Maduro were responsible for billions in terror funding from Iran. They represent the Iranian regime. Senior Iranian officials don’t need a visa to enter Venezuela and automatically receive Venezuelan citizenship.”

He stressed that Venezuela is not only an extension of Iran in South America but also serves as a transit point for terror to all of Latin America.

Diker noted the Hezbollah bombings of the Israeli embassy and AMAI in Argentina in 1992 and 1994. “Venezuela inherited and advanced this terrorism through Hugo Chavez and later through Maduro. They continue to support Iranian terrorism through Hezbollah and Iran’s other satellites. They finance terrorism on the Brazil-Argentina-Paraguay border triangle. Venezuela is the agent for transporting terrorism from there and from the north, since Venezuela is the northernmost country in South America.”

“There is a full partnership between Venezuela and Hezbollah,” he asserted. “People are unaware of the danger that Venezuela poses to the US. It is responsible for billions in terror funding and the transfer of terror elements. President Trump understood this. It isn’t just a matter of drug trafficking—it’s a terror machine at the US’s back door. Trump wants to send a clear message to the Iranian regime, and I think he was successful in that.”

Dr. Diker rebuffed the claims of those claiming that Trump’s decision was spurred by US interest in taking control of Venezuela’s oil resources. “I heard such criticism over the past few days. There is a war here between the axis of evil and Venezuela, Russia, China, and Iran, which are taking control of the economic axis of evil through oil. What is preferable—that they control it, or that the United States, Saudi Arabia, and the Emiratis, who represent a stabilizing force in the global energy landscape—control it? That’s the choice.”

“In 1983, President Reagan invaded Grenada and captured Cuban military agents. In 1986, the US attacked Libya, and in 1989, captured Manuel Noriega, the dictator of Panama, for the same things—trafficking drugs and supporting terror—and he sat in an American prison for 17 years. So why are they criticizing Trump, who is doing the same thing as his two predecessors? It is subjective criticism like that against Netanyahu.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)