The commander of U.S. forces in Latin America says the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is involved in drug trafficking in Colombia. The admiral is worried about increased Iranian and Hezbollah activities throughout the region. At Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday Admiral James Stavridis accused Hezbollah of involvement in the drug trade. "We have seen in Colombia a direct connection between Hezbollah activity and the narco-trafficking activity," he...

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Senators Tuesday that although much attention was given to Russia's recent courting of some Latin American countries, he is more concerned about new activities of Iran in the region. Secretary Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee he is worried about efforts by the Iranian government to gain influence in Latin America. "I'm concerned about the level of, frankly, subversive activity the Iranians are carrying on in a number of...

"We have a very serious problem on the northern border with Colombia, an irresponsible government that does not take care of its… border," AFP quoted Correa as saying on Saturday. "We need to equip ourselves… Iran can supply us and help us with credit," the president explained. Correa, heading a high-ranking delegation, paid an official visit to Tehran earlier this month after he received an invitation from his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. ...

TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamadinejad said here on Saturday that Iran is determined to establish comprehensive cooperation with Ecuador, despite the fact that the two countries still have no diplomatic relations. In a joint press conference with his Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Correa, Ahmadinejad said that he discussed the possibility of establishing cooperation in the oil, energy, industrial, and trade spheres with the Ecuadorian president and his delegation. He also stated...

Iran's vice president for science, research and technology announced Saturday that Tehran is prepared to put its scientific and technological achievements at Ecuador's disposal. Sadegh Vaez-Zadeh explained in a meeting with Ecuadorian National Secretary of Planning & Development Fander Falconi Benitez, that Iran can help reform Quito's scientific and technical foundation. Iran was, in turn, urged to assist Ecuador in the fields of space science and satellite technology. ...

President Rafael Correa starts an official visit to Iran in search for market investments in the oil and energy sectors. With a delegation of near 100 ministers and businessmen, Correa will submit to his Iranian peer Mahmud Ahmadineyad six projects including oil exploration, production, residue processing and modernization of refineries. Ecuador Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador noted that the statesmen will talk offshore exploration, development of Panacocha oil field and the 31st...

U.S. officials have warned of a real danger Islamist extremists could form alliances with wealthy and powerful Latin American drug lords to launch new terrorist attacks against the United States. According to recent remarks made by Under Secretary of Intelligence and Analysis in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Charles Allen, at a two-day conference hosted by SOUTHCOM and the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA); “The threat of ties between criminal...

Friday afternoon, the Ecuadorian Vice President, Lenin Moreno, met with the Iranian Vice President, Hamid Baghael. During the meeting, the Vice Prime Minister of Ecuador expressed interest in the Tehranian Regime’s opening of a diplomatic mission in Quito. During Rafael Correa’s time in power, relations between Ecuador and Iran have strengthened. On the 31st of July last year, the Chancellor, Maria Isabel Salvador, inaugaurated the commercial office of Ecuador on Iranian soil in...

In a Friday sermon that aired on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV on April 11, 2008, Yunis Al-Astal, Hamas MP and cleric, told worshipers that Rome, "the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital," would soon be conquered by Islam, just as Constantinople was. It then, he said, would become "an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe." The following are...

MANTA, Ecuador - Military and diplomatic sources see a link between the Manta air base, operated by the United States in Ecuadorean territory, and this month’s bombing raid by Colombia on a FARC guerrilla camp in Ecuador. The U.S. air force was granted a 10-year concession in 1999 to use the base, located in the port city of Manta on Ecuador’s northern Pacific coast, in its counter-drug trafficking activities in the region. A high-level Ecuadorean military officer, who...