"I have no interest in maintaining diplomatic relations, or offices, or businesses, or anything with a state like Israel," Chavez said. (Reuters)

CARACAS — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said late Tuesday, August 8, his country would likely severe diplomatic ties with Israel in protest of its bloody four-week aggression on Lebanon.

"We have withdrawn our diplomatic representation from the state of Israel and they have also withdrawn their ambassador," Chavez said in a speech broadcast on the state television, Reuters reported.

"The most likely next step will be for us to break diplomatic relations, because I have no interest in maintaining diplomatic relations, or offices, or businesses, or anything with a state like Israel."

Chavez on Thursday, August 3, ordered the withdrawal of his country's ambassador in Israel in protest the onslaught on Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

In response, Israel withdrew its ambassador in Caracas on Monday, August 7.

Israel killed more than 1,000 Lebanese people, a third of whom were children, since unleashing a wide-scale offensive against Lebanon on July 12, on the pretext of seeking the release of two soldiers taken prisoners by Hizbullah resistance group.

No Arab country has dared to take similar diplomatic measures against Israel over its war on fellow Arab country Lebanon.

Countries like Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania have full diplomatic relations with Israel while several others have lower-level diplomatic ties, including trade representation offices.

Arab analysts expect the failure to stand by the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance and the defeating silence regarding the Israeli killing of civilians and destruction of infrastructure to "expedite" the ouster of some Arab rulers, through military coups or at the hands of reformists.

Holocaust

The Venezuelan president blasted the systematic Israeli killing of Lebanese civilians, including women and children.

"You see what Israel is doing: bombing cities, finishing off the entire country, it doesn't matter that there are children, women, dead mothers embracing their children."

Seven Lebanese family members; a father, wife and five children, were killed on Wednesday, August 9, in an Israeli air strike on their home in the Bekaa valley of eastern Lebanon.

Chavez on Sunday, August 6, accused Israel of committing a "new Holocaust" in Lebanon.

"Israel has gone mad. It's attacking, doing the same thing to the Palestinian and Lebanese people that they have criticized - and with reason - the Holocaust. But this is a new Holocaust."

Up to 170 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since Israel launched an open-ended military offensive on Gaza on claims of recovering a soldier taken prisoner by Palestinian groups to swap for 95 women and 313 children who are among almost 10,000 Arabs in Israeli prisons.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday, August 3, accused Israel of committing war crimes and deliberately targeting civilians in its weeks-long war on neighboring Lebanon.