It should be a joyful time for Israel this week, as the country prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary . The air hangs heavy, however, as the reality of a nuclear Iran in the region grows closer every day. Appearing before journalists earlier this week, Israeli President Shimon Peres, one of the last members of Israel's founding generation, issued birthday wishes as well as concerns about the future of the nation.
"In a way it's more complicated than in the time of the Nazis....Hitler didn't have a nuclear bomb," Peres said referring the growing Iranian threat. Calling the situation a "nightmare for the world," Peres warned the world against believing Iran's claims of a peaceful nuclear program.
Israel has also faced indirect scorn from across the Atlantic, when earlier this year Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez pronounced neighboring Columbia the "Israel of South America" in his attempt to legitimize the ordering of Venezuelan troops to the border .
"We aren't going to permit Colombia to become the Israel of these lands. ... Uribe, we aren't going to permit you." The reference to Israel comes from U.S. support of Columbia's attacks on the Marxist FARC terrorists in the region.
The news comes as a State Department official expressed concern that Iran is using Latin America as a place to potentially plan attacks against the U.S.
"It's a way to push back on us," Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, told a conference of officials from North and South America.
Shannon reminded the group that Iran was a likely suspect in bombings against Israeli and Jewish targets in Argentina in the 1990s. "Our broader concern is that it ... maintains that capacity in the Americas as a threat against us in the event of any conflict," Shannon said.
These comments come as relations between Iran and Venezuela took another step forward this week. Reports indicate that Iran has established weekly shipping routes to Venezuelan and Cuban ports. The first shipment is planned from Bandar Abbas Port to Venezuela and Cuba on May 16 though the contents of that shipment remain unclear.
Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez spoke by phone earlier this week to plan new meetings to boost cooperation between the two countries.
"Presidents Ahmadinejad and Chavez agreed to meet as soon as possible to continue boosting their industrial, scientific and technological development plans in benefit of their two nations," the Venezeulan foreign ministry said in a statement. Ahmadinejad also reportedly congratulated Chavez for Venezuela's "victory over ExxonMobil, and ratified his solidarity with Venezuela's fight to secure its natural resources."
