Hezbollah suspect denies links: "I sell tickets to everybody ... do I have to ask them if they belong to Hezbollah?"

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): Faozi Mustapha Kanaan, one of two Venezuelans whom the United States Treasury Department accuses of being linked with the radical Shiite Islamic group, Hezbollah, is reported to have denied having any such connection. Kanaan was quoted by As Safir, a newspaper in Beirut, as saying he was not involved in political activity with "neither Hezbollah nor any other group." He reportedly spoke from Caracas.

Financial accounts in the United States belonging to Kanaan and Ghazi Nasr al Din, the other Venezuelan against whom similar allegations have been made, have been frozen by the Treasury Department.

Kanaan, who is said to have been born in Lebanon but acquired Venezuelan nationality, denied belonging to any political party. "I left Lebanon to educate my family, I don't have any determined political position," he said. "Are my crimes being a Shiite Muslim?" He owns a travel agency in the United States. "I sell tickets to everybody, I don't know who buys them," he said. "Do I have to ask them if they belong to Hezbollah?"