UANI Resource: Perspectives on Lebanon and Hezbollah

Perspectives: Lebanon and Hezbollah  July 12, 2019 Perspectives: Lebanon and Hezbollah, is a UANI weekly resource highlighting developments in Lebanon and the activities of the terrorist group Hezbollah.   Hezbollah Internationally Argentina to Designate Hezbollah as Terror Group The Argentine government is planning to designate Hezbollah as a terror organization for its role in the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy and 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center, both in Buenos Aires. According to reports, President Mauricio Macri tasked the Ministry of Security and the Financial Intelligence Unit to find the quickest method of listing the Shiite organization as a terror group, due to the amount of time it could take to pass a law in the Argentinian Parliament. Sources within the government said that one alternate possibility was passing a decree designating Hezbollah as a terror group-which La Nacion reported on Thursday that Macri was preparing to sign.   U.S. Treasury Sanctions Three Hezbollah Officials The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned three Hezbollah officials on Tuesday: Member of Parliament Mohammad Raad, the head of Hezbollah's Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc; Member of Parliament Amin Cherri; and security official Wafiq Safa. Although the U.S. considers Hezbollah in its entirety a terrorist group and rejects any distinction between Hezbollah's political and military "wings" as artificial, the move was the first time Washington has sanctioned the group's elected officials. Lebanese officials-including President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri-expressed their displeasure with the sanctions. Berri called them a "flagrant assault against the Lebanese parliament and all of Lebanon." Hezbollah likewise condemned the new U.S. sanctions as an "assault on Lebanon," while its Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc dismissed their impact on the group's actions or convictions. Hezbollah Operatives Who Killed Hariri May Have Carried Out Other Political Attacks The Special Tribunal For Lebanon (STL), announced that the same Hezbollah operatives responsible for the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri may have also carried out three other bombings against political opponents. These attacks included the killing of George Hawi, the general-secretary of the Lebanese Communist Party and a Syria critic and the attempted assassinations of current Education Minister Marwan Hmadeh of the predominantly-Druze Progressive Socialist Party and Former Defense Minister Elias al-Murr. The STL is a tribunal made up of Lebanese and international judges tasked with the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the February 14, 2005 assassination of Hariri and the deaths of 21 others. The STL has thus far tried four Hezbollah operatives in absentia for Hariri's assassination. The trial officially ended in September 2018, and the STL's judges are currently deliberating over the verdicts. Lebanon Internationally Border Demarcation Talks Between Lebanon and Israel Halted Lebanon and Israel have reportedly halted negotiations over land and maritime borders mediated by the U.S. State Department's Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield. According to informed sources, Iran and Syria intervened and "the Lebanese side, specifically Hezbollah, has decided to stop the negotiations," due to rising tensions between the U.S., Iran, and Israel. U.S., France Warn Regional Powers Against Actions That Would Destabilize Lebanon The United States and France-through both diplomatic and military channels-recently warned Iran, Syria, and Israel against destabilizing Lebanon. The joint French-American message said that Lebanese stability is an issue on which there is international consensus, including Russia and China, and that countries must therefore not use Lebanon as a proxy battlefield for their conflicts. In related news, European Union ambassadors upbraided Lebanese officials for their "irresponsibility" in handling recent domestic tensions, expressing their surprise at how "a country on the brink of the abyss was still acting in such a way rather than prioritizing national and economic issues." Lebanon Domestically Lebanese Actor Questioned by Security Officials for Insulting Aoun and Nasrallah Lebanon's Central Criminal Investigations Department questioned Lebanese actor Patrick Moubarak over alleged insults to the Islamic religion, President Michel Aoun and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Following the questioning, Moubarak was released early Thursday morning for health-related reasons.

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