Ties between the Palestinian Authority and Venezuela were strengthened in Caracas on Friday during talks between Mahmoud Abbas and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that saw both leaders sign in a new accords between the two governments in the areas of energy and finance. Oil-rich Venezuela has been a firm ally of the Palestinian Authority since President Hugo Chavez, who had long criticized Israel and the United States. Abbas thanked his Venezuelan counterpart for standing with the...

Victims’ families, government officials and diplomats gathered in Buenos Aires at the former site of the Israeli embassy to mark the 22nd anniversary of the terrorist bombing there. “The terrorist goes against the Koran, the Torah and the New Testament,” Israel’s ambassador to Buenos Aires, Dorit Shavit, told the gathering on Tuesday. “The State of Israel state speaks out against those that brandish a religious flag with fanaticism.” The March 17, 1992...

The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday criticized the recent visit of Guatemalan President Perez Molina to east Jerusalem. PLO Executive Committee member Saeb Erekat expressed “strong dissatisfaction with the response given by the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry regarding complaints made by the State of Palestine on the issue,” according to a statement issued by the PLO. “We will not accept any attempt to legitimize Israel’s occupation policies, particularly in East...

Iran has built an infrastructure of terror in Central and South America in order, among other goals, to target Israelis and Jews there and have a base from which to attack the US, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Monday. Ya’alon, meeting with Guatemalan President Otto Fernando Perez Molina, himself a former director of military intelligence, warned that Iran, which operates the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah as a proxy, was using diplomatic cover to spread terror in the...

Tijuana has now become the first city in Baja California to have a mosque, which is located in Playas de Tijuana under the name of Masjid Omar. Here the followers of Allah have a safe place where they perform their prayers and scheduled prayers as established in the Koran, from Fajr (dawn) to Isha (night). The center offers various activities including the teachings of the Koran and Arabic classes. You do not need to be Muslim to take these classes or attend the mosque. Islam is probably...

The AMIA authorities and victims’ families marked this morning the 19th anniversary of a deep-rooted wound among all Argentineans: the bombing of the Jewish community center that claimed the lives of 85 people and left 300 seriously injured. President CFK, absent. Criticism to the MoU signed with Iran stirred up. As every year, a siren sounded loud at 9.53 with victims’ families bringing back the beginning of one of the saddest chapters in Argentina’s history. AMIA head...

House Republicans this week accused Argentina of trying to block their investigation into suspected Iranian ties to terrorism in the Western Hemisphere by refusing to let an Argentinian prosecutor testify on the matter Tuesday. Lawmakers had invited the testimony from Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, in hopes that it would refute the report by the State Department that asserted Iran’s influence in the hemisphere is...

An Argentine special prosecutor's accusation that Iran has established terrorist networks throughout Latin America has renewed debate over how big a threat that poses to the region and the United States. Alberto Nisman, who is investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people, said in a 500-page report released last week that Iran has been building the networks for nearly 30 years. That assessment coincides with a viewpoint held by many Western...

A Lebanese bank accused of laundering money from drugs and other operations for clients tied to Hezbollah militants agreed Tuesday to pay US authorities $102 million to settle the charges. Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank was singled out in February 2011 for allegedly moving hundreds of millions of dollars for criminal groups and traffickers operating in Latin America, West Africa and the Middle East. Some of the customers it served were closely linked to Hezbollah, which Washington has...

The Government of Guatemala on Monday announced it has recognition of a Palestinian state, bringing the number of countries that recognized the State of Palestine to 133 countries. The Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations in New York said that it had received from the Permanent Mission of Guatemala to the United Nations a Letter from Fernando Carrera Castro Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, to the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al Malki in this regard. ...