Venezuela dismisses US accusations of Hezbollah financial support

Venezuela's foreign minister on Thursday rejected U.S. government accusations that a Venezuelan diplomat helped finance Hezbollah in Lebanon. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro did not specifically refer to Ghazi Nasr al Din, who was targeted Wednesday in a U.S. Treasury Department action ordering any assets he controls in the United States to be frozen and forbidding U.S. citizens from doing business with him. But Maduro told reporters that «there are no terrorists here,» and said officials should be going after the assets of U.S. President George W. Bush. «If they want to search for terrorists, look for them in the White House,» he said. Washington considers the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah a terrorist group and has no dealings with it. Hezbollah is both an armed group and a political party in Lebanon.