Israel Matzav

How Hezbullah operates overseas

As in Lebanon, Hezbollah embeds itself in tightly-knit Shia communities of the diaspora. In this way it makes it difficult for law enforcement and other agencies to penetrate their networks.

In the course of discussing the group’s sources of funding with a reporter in 2004, Hezbollah parliamentarian Mohammad Raad noted that the party also counted on the support of “wealthy Shia.” Raad was being truthful. When Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashed off the Lebanese coast this year, one passenger, Hassan Tajeddin, received the Hezbollah equivalent of a state funeral. Tajeddin was identified as the owner of the Angola-based Arosfran Company, which he ran with his brothers. One of the firm’s board members, Kassim Tajeddin, was designated by the US Treasury Department in May of last year.

The Treasury declared that Kassim and his brothers ran several cover companies for Hezbollah in Africa. Kassim had also “contributed tens of millions of dollars to Hezbollah and has sent funds to Hezbollah through his brother, a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon.” He was also previously imprisoned in Belgium on charges of large-scale tax fraud, money laundering and trade in conflict diamonds.

Another Tajeddin, this one named Ali, also said to be involved in the conflict-diamond trade, is better known in Lebanon for buying swaths of real estate in Druze and Christian areas. In this way, he has helped provide geographical continuity between Lebanon’s disparate Shia areas, in which Hezbollah has allegedly established “security zones.”

Much in the same way that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps has set up multiple business ventures, Hezbollah is partnering with Shia businessmen in the diaspora, voluntarily or through coercion and intimidation. This is not without consequences for the Shia communities abroad. For instance, in October of last year, news broke that the Emirati authorities had deported dozens of Lebanese Shia, perhaps more, on suspicion of working with Hezbollah.

Aside from embedding themselves with local diaspora communities and taking advantage of lawless areas in weak or failed states, Hezbollah and its Iranian patrons have also allegedly collaborated with accomplice states such as Venezuela. There, the US Treasury has designated Ghazi Nasreddin as a Hezbollah facilitator and financier employed by the Venezuelan government.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:36 AM