A TOP Israeli diplomat for Latin America on Friday accused Venezuela of giving fake documents to Iranians to help facilitate their travel in the region, Argentine Jewish news media said.

'Venezuela is offering fake documents to the Iranians,' Dorit Shavit told Jewish News Agency (AJN) of Argentina, home to the largest Jewish community in South America.

'With these documents, they don't need a visa to enter any other country in Latin America... No tourist enjoys these benefits and nobody knows what these Iranian citizens are doing,' she added, without providing further details on the documents.

Ms Shavit also stressed that the 'friendship' between Iran and Venezuela was 'clear,' citing several visits to Caracas by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and to Teheran by his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez.

The diplomat, who was accompanying Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on a Latin American tour intended to counter Iran's influence in the region, had already deplored the growing ties between Caracas and Teheran.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry had reacted angrily to the remarks, categorically denying Ms Shavit's claims that the Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia Hizbollah had cells in Venezuela.

Iran, Ms Shavit alleged, 'has a terrorist past on this continent and especially in Argentina,' while also warning that another attack could take place 'anywhere' in the region.

She was referring to the 1992 bomb attack against the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people and another attack two years later on a Jewish community center also in the Argentine capital that killed 85. Iran has denied being involved.

Source: StraitsTimes.com