CARACAS (Dispatches) -- Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello has laid bare a plot orchestrated by the country’s opposition leaders, in coordination with the son of Iran’s deposed monarch, to stage an attack on a synagogue in Caracas.
In remarks delivered on Thursday, Cabello accused opposition figure María Corina Machado and former security chief Iván Simonovis of planning the false-flag attack on a synagogue frequented by many members of the Jewish community in the South American nation.
According to Cabello, the scandalous plot – coordinated with Reza Pahlavi, the U.S.-based son of the former Iranian dictator - involved a meeting with opposition politician Edmundo González and was intended to create a media spectacle that would “tarnish the reputations of Iran and Venezuela.”
Cabello said the plan was to carry out the attack and then circulate false accusations that the Islamic Republic was using Venezuelan territory to target Jews and launch operations against the United States from Venezuela.
He warned that the aim was to disrupt the fragile diplomatic dialogue between Caracas and Washington and to stoke further tensions between Iran and the U.S., particularly in the aftermath of recent Israeli-American aggression against Iran.
The Venezuelan minister also denounced U.S. attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, describing them as a “catastrophic failure,” citing American intelligence assessments that the strikes failed to achieve their objectives.
Venezuela remains one of Iran’s all-weather allies in Latin America, with both nations strengthening diplomatic and trade ties in recent years despite cruel U.S. sanctions.
Following Israel’s recent 12-day unprovoked military aggression against Iran, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro expressed strong support for Tehran, condemning the aggression as “unjustified” and in violation of international law.