MONTEVIDEO - The Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, Moshe Yaalon, said today in an interview with EFE in Montevideo, Uruguay that Iran is developing, with the help of Venezuela, a "terrorist infrastructure" in Latin America to attack the U.S., Israel and its allies.
"The idea is to build a terrorist infrastructure that is latent for a while and then later could attack U.S. interests or the United States" or "Israelis or Jews or any other country that opposes their political stance " he said.
Yaalon's diplomatic trip ended in a visit to Montevideo, Uruguay, where he met with the vice-president, Danilo Astori, among other authorities. Yaalon gave as an example of this theoretical strategy the alleged plot to attack the Saudi ambassador to the United States that was recently uncovered.
"This type of terrorist infrastructure, which acted in 1992 against the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and in 1994 against the Amia Jewish mutual association, has happened before", he said.
According to Yaalon, this strategy is part of Tehran's plans to "export the Iranian revolution, first to neighboring countries" such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territory, "and then to the West."
The Deputy Prime Minister, who in the nineties was head of military intelligence, said that the data available on Latin America shows that "this type of infrastructure enlists Muslim elements that already live in the area, and also relies on the drug barons. "
This illicit activity "is supported by Iranian diplomats in the area" who "are treated very hospitably, especially the way they are received by President Hugo Chavez, who allows them to enter the continent under false identities," he added.
Yaalon continued, "The fact that Iranians do not need visa to enter Venezuela", a country that broke relations with Israel in 2009 over the situation in Gaza, opens the door to enter and move throughout Latin America. "
Yaalon also referred to the attack on the British Embassy in Tehran as a demonstration that "the enemy is not the State of Israel" but "the Western world, the free world."
He also warned that Israel intends to "convince" the Iranian regime to cancel their plan to develop nuclear weapons, "but if this is not possible" the Iranians would have "to decide whether to create a nuclear bomb or exist as a State."
