Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's trip to South America this week is in part at stemming Iranian influence there, deputy Danny Ayalon said on Monday.
Lieberman leaves later Monday for a 10-day tour in Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Colombia.
In Argentina, Lieberman is slated to attend a memorial marking the 15th anniversary of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and injured 200. That attack came two years after a bomb flattened the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and killed 29 people.
Argentine officials claim Iran orchestrated the attack and that Hezbollah agents carried it out. The United States and Israel also say Iran is behind the bombing. Iran has denied involvement.
During his visit, Lieberman plans plans to address the issue of Iran's infiltration, said deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon. In particular, he will discuss the close ties Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales have built with Tehran.
The visit is meant to emphasize the high importance the Foreign Ministry ascribes to Latin America, a statement from the ministry said.
Chavez and Morales are both fiercely opposed to Israeli and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
According to a secret Israeli government report revealed last month, Venezuela and Bolivia are supplying Iran with uranium for its nuclear program.
The two South American countries are known to have close ties with Iran, but this is the first allegation that they are involved in the development of Iran's nuclear program, considered a strategic threat by Israel.
"There are reports that Venezuela supplies Iran with uranium for its nuclear program," the Foreign Ministry document states, referring to previous Israeli intelligence conclusions. It added, "Bolivia also supplies uranium to Iran."
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department said in its latest global terrorism report that lax controls in the border region between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay provide a safe haven to Islamic extremists and Hezbollah in particular.
A top U.S. military commander also said earlier this year that Hezbollah has been active in the drug trade across the Colombian border.
"We have been seeing in Colombia a direct connection between Hezbollah activity and narco-trafficking activity," said Navy Admiral James Stavridis, who oversees U.S. military interests in the region as head of U.S. Southern Command.
Colombia said last October that it had smashed a drug and money-laundering ring suspected of shipping funds to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has denied links to drugs and money-laundering and described allegations as part of a propaganda campaign aimed at harming its image.
