A miner looks for gold at La Culebra gold mine in El Callao, which sits in Venezuela's Orinoco Mining Arc. (AFP)

Asharq Al-Awsat

An MP opposed to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro revealed that the Lebanese Hezbollah group was exploiting gold mines in his country in order to finance its “destabilizing terrorist activity in the Middle East.”

MP Americo De Grazia said that the armed group owns two mines in the Orinoco Mining Arc project that is supported by Maduro.

He said that cooperation between the Venezuelan government and Hezbollah is mutually beneficial for both parties.

The government, he explained, was generating a lot of revenues from the partnership, while the group was making economic profits and avoiding international sanctions.

The lawmaker added that the entire world is aware of the Orinoco Mining Arc project that is looting Venezuela’s wealth for the benefit of foreign countries at the expense of the national economy

The project lies over an area of 112 kilometers in the Bolivar state in southeastern Venezuela and holds a reserve of some 7,000 tons.