US designates son of Hezbollah leader as ‘global terrorist’ واشنطن تفرض عقوبات على نجل نصرالله وتعتبره إرهابياً/Hezbollah Associate on Trial in Paris over Drug Links تاجر المجوهرات الممول لحزب الله محمد نورالدين يحاكم في فرنسا بتهم المتاجرة بالمخدرات
واشنطن تفرض عقوبات على نجل نصرالله وتعتبره إرهابياً
دبي – العربية نت/13 تشرين الثاني/18
فرضت وزارة الخارجية الأميركية عقوبات على كل من جواد نصر الله ابن زعيم حزب الله حسن نصر الله، وكتائب المجاهدين. وصنفت الخارجية الأميركية جواد وهو قائد بارز أيضا في حزب الله، إرهابياً عالمياً.
وستشمل العقوبات عليه حظر جميع ممتلكاته، كما تحظر التعامل معه أو مع كتائب المجاهدين. ووصفت الخارجية جواد بأنه القائد الصاعد للحزب. وكانت وزارة #الخزانة_الأميركية قد فرضت عقوبات على عناصر من حزب الله يديرون عمليات في العراق. واتخذ مكتب مراقبة الأصول الأجنبية التابع لوزارة الخزانة الأميركية (OFAC) إجراءات، الثلاثاء، لاستهداف أربعة أفراد مرتبطين بـ “حزب الله” يقودون أنشطة عملياتية ومالية واستخبارية في العراق. موضوع يهمك ? أعلن وزير الخارجية الأميركي، مايك بومبيو، أن العقوبات الأميركية الجديدة ستمنع إيران من امتلاك المال والثروة التي تحتاجها…بومبيو: العقوبات ستمنع إيران من تمويل حزب الله والحوثي أميركا والأربعة هم: شبل محسن عبيد الزيدي، ويوسف هاشم، وعدنان حسين كوثراني، ومحمد عبد الهادي فرحات. وقال سيغال ماندلكر، وكيل وزارة الخزانة لشؤون الإرهاب واستخبارات التمويل “إن حزب الله هو وكيل إرهابي للنظام الإيراني الذي يسعى إلى تقويض السيادة العراقية وزعزعة استقرار الشرق الأوسط. نحن نستهدف الميسرين الإرهابيين مثل الزيدي الذي هرّب النفط إلى إيران، وجمع الأموال لصالح حزب الله، وأرسل مقاتلين إلى سوريا”. وتبرز إجراءات وزارة الخزانة، الثلاثاء، مرة أخرى الدرجة التي يعمل بها حزب الله كذراع إرهابي سري للنظام الإيراني، وفقا لبيان أميركي.
US designates son of Hezbollah leader as ‘global terrorist’ واشنطن تفرض عقوبات على نجل نصرالله وتعتبره إرهابياً
AFPTuesday, 13 November 2018/The US State Department on Tuesday designated Jawad Nasrallah, son of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, as a global terrorist and accused him of carrying out attacks against Israel in the West Bank. The department also blacklisted Al-Mujahidin Brigades (AMB), which it said had links to Hezbollah and had plotted a number of attacks against Israeli targets from a base in the Palestinian Territories. “Today’s designations seek to deny Nasrallah and AMB the resources to plan and carry out terrorist attacks,” the State Department said in a statement. It said the actions denied Nasrallah and AMB access to the US financial system. More sanctions would be announced later in the day, the State Department’s top counter-terrorism official Nathan Sales said separately without elaborating. “We will be making some additional announcements at the State Department’s briefing later this afternoon,” Sales told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Earlier on Tuesday, Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri blamed Hezbollah for what he called “a big obstacle” in efforts to form a new government. Hezbollah, a heavily armed Shiite Muslim group, has been pressing a demand for one of six Sunni Muslim lawmakers allied to it to get a cabinet position. Hariri has refused to give up one of the seats allocated for his mainly Sunni party
Hezbollah Associate on Trial in Paris over Drug Links تاجر المجوهرات الممول لحزب الله محمد نورالدين يحاكم في فرنسا بتهم المتاجرة بالمخدرات
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 13 November, 2018
An associate of the Lebanese Hezbollah group went on trial in Paris on Tuesday along with 14 other suspects for their suspected involvement in a vast crime ring accused of laundering Colombian drug money through luxury jewellery. The chief defendant is Mohamad Noureddine, a 44-year-old Lebanese businessman with interests in real estate and jewellery.
He was arrested in France in January 2016 during police raids that also took place in Italy, Belgium and Germany, after an alert from the US Drug Enforcement Agency.
US officials, who have imposed sanctions on Noureddine over his supposed links to Lebanon’s Hezbollah party, suspect the network of operating between South America, Europe and the Middle East since 2012. They identified France, where several of the defendants reside, as being at the center of the syndicate’s operations in Europe, reported AFP. The proceeds of cocaine sales were allegedly collected in Europe, then channeled to Lebanon before being transferred to Colombian traffickers. The funds were moved using a centuries-old system of payment dating from the spice trade called “hawala”, passing through a tested network requiring ironclad trust.
Hawala operators also offer the advantage of leaving no trace of the transactions. A few months after Noureddine’s arrest US police detained the suspected head of the network, Mohamad Ammar, in Florida on charges that he illegally moved hundreds of thousands of dollars into Miami banks. Ammar, who regularly shuttled between California and Colombia’s second city Medellin, has since admitted his ties to Colombian drug cartels, prosecutors say, said AFP. Investigators in the “Lebanese Connection” inquiry, also dubbed the “Cedar Affair” after Lebanon’s national tree, suspect a main client was a Colombian drug king known as El Chapulin who shipped large quantities of cocaine to Europe. After the drugs were sold, the network used hawala operatives to gather the proceeds, employing well established techniques such as regularly changing mobile phones, coded language and hiding money in cars.
Investigators listening in on phone conversations deduced that a “Mercedes 250” referred to a pickup of 250,000 euros, while a “truck” referred to one million euros. The “oven” was a reference to the Netherlands, and Belgium was known as the “mill”. The collected cash was then used to buy luxury jewellery, watches and cars which were resold in Lebanon or West Africa. The freshly laundered funds were transferred to the Colombians through currency exchange or money transfer bureaus, reported AFP. Noureddine has admitted to organizing pickups of cash but pleaded ignorance about the provenance of the funds. He has staunchly denied that some of the money could have been destined for Hezbollah as the DEA has suggested. William Julie, a lawyer for one of the defendants who is familiar with cross-border cases handled by both US and European investigators, said such cooperation is “indispensable” but often leads only to “second-tier individuals who shouldn’t be caught up in the crackdown”. His client, who is considered close to Noureddine, has strongly denied any wrongdoing. He was detained for 18 months before being freed on bail. None of the defendants have criminal records. The trial is scheduled to wind up on November 28.
