Caracas – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro this week described the self-declared interim president and opposition leader Juan Guaido as “a CIA agent who serves the interests of the United States and the Zionists”.

Maduro’s comments were made in an interview with the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese Al-Mayadin TV and were quoted by JTA.

He added that he feels “love for the noble Palestinian cause,” and sent words of “encouragement to the Palestinian and Arab prisoners confined in Israeli jails.”

Maduro denied that there are Hezbollah operatives acting in Venezuela and blamed the United States for trying seize the wealth and oil of Venezuela.