| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Brazilian governor apologizes for welcoming Hezbollah official |
| 2018-04-26 |
| [IsraelTimes] Marcio Franca says visiting Lebanese delegation was not vetted properly, and that he was not familiar with Sheikh Bilal Mohsen Wehbe The governor of Brazil’s Sao Paulo state apologized to the Jewish community for welcoming a Moslem clergyman accused of having ties with Hezbollah. Gov. Marcio Franca welcomed Sheikh Bilal Mohsen Wehbe as part of a Lebanese delegation visiting the state government headquarters on April 17. On Saturday, Veja magazine’s online edition revealed that the meeting took place and that the sheikh "is the main representative of the terrorist group Hezbollah in South America." A day later, the Sao Paulo Jewish Federation released a statement condemning the meeting. "Unfortunately, Gov. Marcio Franca and his team ignored the organization’s links to smuggling and drug trafficking in the Triple Frontier region between Brazil, Argentina ...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita... and Paraguay, as well as its radical stance calling for the destruction of the State of Israel, and gave legitimacy to a group recognized as terrorist by countless democratic countries," the statement said, referring to Hezbollah. Franca apologized to Jewish officials that he welcomed on Monday, including the president of the Brazilian Israelite Confederation, the country’s umbrella Jewish organization. During the meeting organized by Congressman Floriano Pesaro, who is Jewish, the governor said he was not familiar with the names in the Lebanese delegation and admitted that "the check may have been flawed." "Lebanese-born and naturalized Brazilian Wehbe took on this role after Mohsen Rabbani was forced to flee from Argentina accused of having been the architect of the AMIA attack," Veja wrote. The federation criticized the fact that "the highest authority of our state" welcomed the sheikh, who appears on a US government watchlist of terrorists. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |