2024-10-02 17:30:30
This is the fourth war against Lebanon. This is Lebanon today, and all the horrific and nightmarish stories can be believed. While most estimates indicate that the battle will be long, Israel, in addition to liquidating its human, military, and organizational goals, seeks to inflict the greatest possible strategic damage on the party, including its financial resources, whether through the dismantling of institutions (especially “Arkad Hassan”), as well as the assassination of cadres overseeing the agency, while the party is careful to reveal details of its personal relationships with these figures and its inclusion on the U.S. sanctions list cadres.
This is part of a targeted Israeli plan that is in fact inseparable from the context of US sanctions affecting the party and its cadres. One of the pillars is financial factors. At the same time, the party has been coy about this and avoided talking about the financial losses, which are estimated to be in the millions of dollars, especially after the Israeli air force targeted the party’s financial institutions, including “Al-Qard Al-Hassan”.
Fragmentation of the finance-people structure
On the evening of Tuesday, October 1, Israel expanded the scope of its operation to include businessmen on the U.S. sanctions list for providing funds and arms transfers to Hezbollah. Israel targeted an apartment in the Jnah area of Beirut’s southern suburbs and assassinated Muhammad Jaafar Qasir (also known as Sheikh Salah) and Hussein Ghouli. The party’s finances and were placed on the party’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions list by the U.S. Treasury Department for “providing services and assistance to Iran’s Quds Force, the Houthis and Hezbollah.”
In the Israeli story, Kasir served as commander of Unit 4400 for more than 15 years. In recent years, he was in charge of Hezbollah’s finances. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of funds are transferred from Iran and Syria to Lebanese Hezbollah every year (there is no indication of how the funds are moved, whether through money laundering or smuggling), and Israeli officials also reported that Kasir “passed with the intention of serving the group.” to finance terrorist activities, such as economic projects in Lebanon and Syria, as well as economic networks and businessmen around the world. ”
This new targeting comes just months after the operation that led to the lure and killing of “money changer” Mohammad Surul, who is also subject to US sanctions, in the Beit Meri area-Matern district and killing, when Israeli media quickly announced that he had been killed by the Mossad, who linked the operation to Soroul’s alleged receipt of Iranian funds and their transfer to the Hamas movement. Bassam Maurawi, minister of the interior and municipal affairs of the caretaker government, revealed at the time that “preliminary data available to the authorities show that the Israeli Mossad was behind the killing of Mohammad Surul.”
It is worth noting that the US “Rewards for Justice” program offers rewards of between US$5 and US$10 million for information leading to “the destruction of Hezbollah’s financial machinery”, including cadres against whom the US has imposed sanctions. Although targeting any of them would have been condemned by the party, no one was forced to reveal their relationship or formally mourn them, but in popular circles that support the party, they are regarded as its supporters.
Fragmentation of financial structures: external and internal
Israel has repeatedly targeted Hezbollah trucks and tanks near the Lebanese-Syrian border, particularly in the past two weeks, in an effort to cut off Hezbollah’s supply routes in Syria. Ironically, the next front Israel is trying to open is the Syrian front, although the latter has not yet participated in any support fronts. In this way, Israel will move out of the “dismantling front” stage. to destroy them. Israel’s ultimate goal is to dismantle the “axis of resistance.” Therefore, despite the Syrian regime’s efforts to distance itself, the possibility of military intervention in certain areas of Syria remains on the table.
Domestically, Israel has carried out continuous air strikes against several “Arkad Hassan” branches in the southern suburbs, as well as other social, media and food outlets of the party, as well as military centers. While the party has yet to make any statement regarding the damage to its private banking sector, it is estimated that losses could result from the Israeli land and air military (or strategic) blockade of the party, as we noted above . Extended to include his financial resources, this may inevitably affect his financial capabilities and increase the severity of the turmoil of managing the current phase of the war.
The importance of financial structure
When Lebanese banks began halting dollar withdrawals and imposing informal capital controls in October 2019, many depositors decided to withdraw as many dollars as possible. Since then, Lebanese have withdrawn about $6 billion in cash from banks, and the party has sought to benefit from this unofficial public cash reserve. One of the tactics he adopted was to encourage his supporters to exchange and deposit funds using his financial institutions, specifically the “Al-Qard Al-Hassan” institution, which was included on the terrorist list by the United States and became a major bank center.
Because the institution is not a bank or financial institution, it does not accept funds from the central bank or any other official state agency. This arrangement allows it to set its own rules, shape its own deals, and strengthen Hezbollah’s economic and financial system. However, since the party has avoided the Lebanese financial crisis from 2019 to the present and many of its popular base are relatively speaking, today the party may be forced to experience the Israeli war, with its financial resources under systematic attack, not least of which is “Al -Qard Al-Hassan,” a large bank with dozens of branches and cash machines but now “in ruins.”
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