Seven Editorial Related To The Complexities Of Hezbollah On The German Terrorst List ِAs Well As The Corruption & The Coronviris Crisis That Ignitied massive protests/مقالات سبعة تتناول تعقيدات وضع إلمانيا على قوائم الإرهاب اضافة إلى تعطيل القضاء والفساد والكورونا الذين تسببوا بمظاهرات واحتجاجات شعبية

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*What took so long? Hezbollah ban in Germany was long overdue/Germany’s government could have banned Hezbollah decades ago/Benjamin Weinthal/Jerusalem Post/May 01/2020
تأخرت ألمانيا كثيراً في وضع حزب الله على قوائم الإرهاب

*Hezbollah terror designation shows group’s over-extension in Germany/Khaled Yacoub Oweis/The National/May 01/2020
عملية وضع ألماني حزب الله على قوائم الإرهاب تبن مدى توسعه وتوغله فيها

*Antisemitic al-Quds rally cancelled in Berlin following ban of Hezbollah/Benjamin Weinthal/Jerusalem Post/May 01/2020
ألمانيا تلغي رخصة الإحتفال بيوم القدس عقب وضعها حزب الله على قوائم الإرهاب

*Coronavirus has caused protests in Lebanon to reignite/Jonathan Spyer/Jerusalem Post/May 01/2020
جوناثين سباير/جيرزولم بوست: جائحة الكورونا تتسب بموجة من المظاهرات في لبنان

*Lebanon: When Corruption Discovers the Virtues of Justice/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/May 01/2020
اياد أبوشقرا: عندما يكتشف الفساد في لبنان مزايا العدل

*Germany is right to see Hezbollah for what it really is/The National/May 01/2020
ألمانيا كانت محقة في رؤية حزب الله على حقيقته

*Iran threatens Germany for ban on Hezbollah, says will have to face consequences/AFP, Tehran/Friday 01 May 2020
إيران تهدد ألمانيا لوضعها حزب الله على قوائم الإرهاب

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What took so long? Hezbollah ban in Germany was long overdue/Germany’s government could have banned Hezbollah decades ago/Benjamin Weinthal/Jerusalem Post/May 01/2020
تأخرت ألمانيا كثيراً في وضع حزب الله على قوائم الإرهاب
BERLIN – After years of pressure from the US (both the Obama and Trump administrations) and the Israeli government, Germany’s interior minister on Thursday banned all activities of the Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah within the federal republic’s territory.
“That was overdue,” wrote Frank Jansen about the ban in his Tagesspiegel newspaper commentary. Jansen is one of Germany’s leading national security reporters.
erman Interior Minister Horst Seehofer declared that Hezbollah’s activities “violate criminal law and the organization opposes the concept of international understanding.”
In other words, Germany’s government could have banned Hezbollah decades ago.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration declined and furnished a series of bogus arguments. Germany linked a ban to the Israel-Palestinian peace process in 2018. Last year, after the UK outlawed Hezbollah, Germany’s deputy foreign minister, Niels Annen, said when asked about a ban: “Hezbollah is however also a relevant factor in Lebanese society and an integral part of the country’s complex domestic-policy make-up. It has seats in Parliament and is part of the Government.”
A veteran German journalist, who has written extensively about Iranian regime-sponsored terrorism and intelligence agencies in the federal republic, told me Germany cut a deal with Hezbollah after the organization’s 1992 terrorism attack in a West Berlin restaurant.
A joint Hezbollah-Iran operation assassinated three Iranian-Kurdish leaders and their translator in the Greek restaurant Mykonos. The quid pro quo, according to the journalist, was: Hezbollah and Iran discontinued terrorism operations on German soil in exchange for permission to fundraise, build structures, recruit new members, and spread their deadly ideologies.
In contrast to the foreign policy view held by France and Germany, my Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ colleague and Lebanon expert, Tony Badran, has over the years debunked the belief that the Lebanese state is independent from Hezbollah. Writing in December in the Washington Examiner, he noted that “ The reality is that Hezbollah took over Lebanon years ago” and the Eastern Mediterranean nation is a “failed state run by a terrorist group.”
Jansen said that by proscribing Hezbollah’s activities, interior minister Horst Seehofer sent a message to the State of Israel, Jews and many non-Jewish democrats who have long sought the ban of the Shi’ite terrorist entity. He noted that Hezbollah has over the decades carried out “antisemitic agitation.”
The Jerusalem Post has written hundreds of articles on Hezbollah’s nefarious activities over the decades in Europe, including a Hezbollah member declaring last year in a Hezbollah-controlled mosque in the German city of Münster: “We belong to the party of Ruhollah [Khomeini]. We have been accused of being terrorists – we are proud of terrorism.”
In 2018, this journalist exclusively reported that the Al-Mustafa Community Center in the northern German city-state of Bremen is a major hub for raising funds for Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to a German intelligence report.
The Bremen intelligence agency’s report stated, “The Al-Mustafa-Community Center supports Hezbollah in Lebanon, especially by collecting donations.”
The financial pipeline between Bremen and Beirut means Hezbollah secures funds from German territory to wage war against Israel and Syrian civilians.
Hezbollah’s infamous 1985 manifesto demands Israel’s “obliteration from existence.” Merkel claimed during her 2008 speech in the Knesset that Israel’s security is “non-negotiable” for her government.
Hezbollah fighters have aided Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in wiping out over 600,000 people in Syria.
All of this helps to explain that Germany had a prima facie case to ban Hezbollah. The political will in Germany was non-existent. A sea change appeared with the appointment of Richard Grenell as US ambassador to Germany in 2018.
“The world is a little bit safer with this German government ban of Hezbollah. The entire US embassy in Berlin has worked with the German government and the Bundestag for two years to push for this ban. It’s an incredible diplomatic success that we hope will motivate many officials in Brussels to follow suit with an EU-wide ban,” Grenell said on Thursday.
The US congress has also flexed its muscles with a view toward seeking a change in German Hezbollah policy. In 2019, congress once again urged Germany to designate the entire organization as a terrorist entity, not only its military.
Representatives Ted Deutch, Grace Meng, Gus Bilirakus and Lee Zeldin wrote a letter to Merkel saying in part: “The alliance between our two countries, whether for combating terrorism or supporting democracy, has been a cornerstone of the transatlantic relationship and NATO alliance, and our coordinated efforts have been critical to our collective national security.”
The group of democrats and republicans added “ That is why we hope that Germany will consider this decision to, once and for all, fully designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.” The letter came after the Bundestag failed to pass a resolution that would refer to the entire organization as a terrorist group.”
Moving forward, Germany has positioned itself, along with the Netherlands and the UK, to push the European Union to include Hezbollah’s entire organization on its foreign terrorist entities. In 2013, the EU merely banned Hezbollah’s so-called “military wing” after the organization blew up an Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria. The terrorist operation murdered five Israelis and their Muslim Bulgaria bus driver. Hezbollah defines itself as a unitary organization without political and military wings. Holland outlawed Hezbollah in 2004.
Germany has still not internalized via counterterrorism methods that Hezbollah is an extension of Iran’s clerical regime.
In 2018 Nathan Sales, the Coordinator for Counterterrorism within the US Department of State, spoke at the Washington Institute’s Counterterrorism Lecture Series. Sales said “Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Period. It has held that dubious distinction for many years now and shows no sign of relinquishing the title.” He noted that at the time that “Iran provides Hezbollah alone some $700 million a year.”
Germany has not taken the anti-terrorism plunge and joined US economic sanctions against Tehran. Merkel has also refused to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.
Economic interests are one of the factors in Germany’s opposition to US sanctions along with its view that the Iran nuclear deal is functioning, despite overwhelming evidence that Tehran has violated the terms of the atomic accord. Germany is Iran’s most important European trade partner.
Merkel continues to permit US sanctioned Iranian banks ( Bank Melli Bank Sepah European Iranian Handelsbank, to operate within German territory.
Iran’s financial system is riddled with terror finance and support for its illegal nuclear and missile programs.One could argue that the pressing question for the counterterrorism community is, when will Germany finally confront Hezbollah’s paymaster, the Islamic Republic of Iran? Critics of Germany’s anti-terrorism strategy believe it is long overdue.
Benjamin Weinthal is a fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Hezbollah terror designation shows group’s over-extension in Germany/Khaled Yacoub Oweis/The National/May 01/2020
عملية وضع ألماني حزب الله على قوائم الإرهاب تبن مدى توسعه وتوغله فيها
Internal security considerations and external pressure prompted move in Berlin against Iran-backed organisation
At the end of every Ramadan, Hezbollah followers in yellow bandanas wave flags and march through the heart of West Berlin to commemorate a call by former Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Rohollah Khomeini to restore Palestinian rights in Jerusalem.
Giant loudspeakers on Kurfurstendamm, next to a statue of Konrad Adenauer, father of Germany’s post-war democracy, blare songs in Arabic laced with anti-Semitism and calls to destroy Israel.
Ku’damm, as the thoroughfare is fondly called, was a centre of the 1920s and of German Jewish business families who perished among the six million Jews in the holocaust.
When the next Al Quds Day comes in a fortnight, the same Hezbollah followers might think twice about turning up to this act of provocation, in fear of breaking new laws pushed through by the country’s interior minister.
Germany designated the whole of Hezbollah a terrorist organisation on Thursday, ending a distinction between the group’s armed wing and the rest of the organisation
Berlin became the second European government to break away from EU policy of distinguishing between Hezbollah’s militiamen and its political wing.
Police raided buildings and made arrests across Germany on Thursday, in a campaign against 1,050 Hezbollah operatives who the Interior Ministry said were in the country.
On a visit to Berlin last year, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington hoped Germany would follow Britain in banning Hezbollah, joining Saudi Arabia in urging action.
Britain introduced legislation in February 2019 that classified all of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.
France, which has been leading with Germany a European drive to accommodate Iran, has only a partial ban on Hezbollah.
But German officials in Berlin told The National that the German move was mainly prompted by the Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer.
“Seehofer acted but the German security services have not been blind to the presence of Hezbollah,” one official said.
Mr Seehofer, a right-of-centre politician from Bavaria and ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, has sought since his appointment in 2018 to counter what he calls a soft German line on terrorism.
His decision went against many in the German establishment and Berlin’s influential think tanks, who have been advocating open channels with Hezbollah.
These players have been arguing that Hezbollah’s presence in the Lebanese government and legislature gives it legitimacy and as such the group’s status in Germany should not be touched.
Mr Seehofer had purely domestic political and security considerations in mind, the sources said, including electoral gains by the extreme right in recent years.
Mr Seehofer has dealt a blow to Iran through the legislation.
Tehran relies primarily on Hezbollah and the rest of its militia allies in the Middle East in its foreign policy.
But Hezbollah’s presence in Europe’s largest economy is important for logistical purposes and to keep connection with, and funding from, sympathisers living away from home.
Many of the group’s members and followers in Germany are refugees who fled in the 1980s during the Lebanese civil war, and their descendants.
Official sources said Hezbollah had done itself no favours in Germany through the increased activities of charities associated with the group in the past five years, along with its higher profile on the streets and among Muslim communities.
They said Hezbollah’s operatives were careful to appear law-abiding and none appear to have been linked to any recent violence in Germany or assassinations and attacks in Europe against Iranian dissidents since 2017.
But not far from Ku’damm, a plaque on Pragerstrasse commemorates three non-violent Iranian-Kurdish dissidents assassinated in 1992 in Operation Mykonos, named after the site of the restaurant where they were gunned down with their interpreter.
The assassins, an Iranian intelligence agent and a Lebanese Hezbollah operative, were released under murky circumstances from a German jail in 2007 and sent to Iran.

Antisemitic al-Quds rally cancelled in Berlin following ban of Hezbollah/Benjamin Weinthal/Jerusalem Post/May 01/2020
ألمانيا تلغي رخصة الإحتفال بيوم القدس عقب وضعها حزب الله على قوائم الإرهاب
Berlin’s Mayor Michael Müller has faced intense criticism over the years for not seeking to ban the al-Quds march.
BERLIN — The organizer of the annual anti-Israel al-Quds Day rally, which is attended by Hezbollah operatives, pulled the plug on its mid-May event in the heart of Berlin after the German government banned all Hezbollah activities within the territory of the federal republic.The office of the Berlin Senator of the Interior, Andreas Geisel, tweeted on Thursday: “The organizer of the al-Quds march canceled today the demonstration for this year. Interior Senator Andreas Geisel: We are all spared one of the most disgusting antisemitic events. Good news for Berlin.”Berlin’s city-state has permitted the Iranian regime-sponsored demonstration to proceed each year since 1996. The current Berlin government and its social democratic party mayor Michael Müller have faced criticism over the years for not seeking to legally ban the al-Quds march. Müller’s administration said it would lose a legal battle to outlaw al-Quds.Al-Quds Day calls for the obliteration of the Jewish state and is attended by neo-Nazis, Hezbollah members and supporters, left-wing activists for the Palestinian terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) activists are also present at the protest. The al-Quds Day rally was called into global action in 1979 by the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 2019, roughly 1,000 demonstrators participated in the al-Quds march along Berlin’s main shopping district. They screamed “child murder” to describe Israel.The German Interior Ministry on Thursday said it considers Hezbollah a “Shiite terrorist organization”.Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told Germany’s Bild daily: “Hezbollah is a terrorist organization deemed responsible for numerous attacks and kidnappings worldwide.”Seehofer’s spokesman said Germany “has banned the operation of the group” within German territory. According to German intelligence reports reviewed by The Jerusalem Post, there are 1,050 Hezbollah members in Germany. Berlin’s domestic intelligence agency said there are 250 Hezbollah operatives in the capital city.

Coronavirus has caused protests in Lebanon to reignite/Jonathan Spyer/Jerusalem Post/May 01/2020
جوناثين سباير/جيرزولم بوست: جائحة الكورونا تتسب بموجة من المظاهرات في لبنان
The virus has no political preferences, and its generalized assault has led to cooperation in some arenas between bitter rivals.
Throughout the country, Lebanese bristle against the issues of economy and living standards
One of the immediate effects of COVID-19 on the Middle East has been to clear the streets of the mass demonstrations that had filled the public squares of a number of regional capitals in the preceding months. The virus has no political preferences, and its generalized assault has led to cooperation in some arenas between bitter rivals.
In certain Middle East countries, however, the virus has provided a boon for authoritarian regimes. Specifically, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, in the first months of 2020, all witnessed widespread protests against economic mismanagement and corruption. In Iran, brute force dispersed the demonstrations. In Iraq and Lebanon, the virus brought them to an abrupt end.
In Lebanon, however, the demonstrations have now recommenced. And there are strong indications that policies enacted as a result of the virus are now exacerbating, rather than containing, public anger.
The virus arrived in a country already in deep crisis. Lebanon is, put plainly, a failed state and a failed economy. The national debt stood at 170% of GDP in 2019. Roughly 50% of government spending went toward servicing this debt in 2019. In March 2020, for the first time, Lebanon defaulted on its debts. In that month, the government suspended payment on a $1.2 billion Eurobond, due on March 9.
As the Lebanese currency declined in value, banks sought to protect themselves and avoid bank runs by restricting withdrawals of dollars and other foreign currency. This increased the burden facing the public and fueled anger.
The Lebanese pound has devalued by more than 50% over the last six months. The government has refused to formalize the currency controls imposed by the banks. As a result, wealthy and/or well-connected Lebanese have been able to access and move funds.
Those without connections are left to bear the brunt of the discretionary controls imposed by the banks. Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced this week that in January and February, $5.7b. was transferred out of Lebanon’s banks.
THE CURRENT domination of the Lebanese political system by the Iranian proxy Hezbollah group and its allies has further contributed to the deteriorating situation. Since the elections of May 2018, Hezbollah and its allies have openly controlled both the legislative and executive branches of government. Hezbollah is the dominant force in a bloc controlling 74 seats in the 128-member parliament, and 19 of 30 cabinet portfolios. The movement, incidentally, has direct control of the public health ministry. Its minister, Jamal Jabak, is the former personal physician of Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah.
Iran/Hezbollah’s increasingly open control of Lebanon has led to a precipitate decline in foreign investment in the country over the last decade. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were once Lebanon’s main trading partners in the Gulf. They have sharply downgraded their involvement in recent years. Once, the Gulf monarchies might have been willing to dig deep to prevent a Lebanese default. But Hezbollah-owned Lebanon will find no such generous benefactors. And, of course, the sanctions-strapped masters in Tehran have no cash to spare.
Indeed, even Hezbollah itself is seeing its funding from Tehran slashed. US sanctions and the urgent need to respond to the COVID-19 crisis make sharp reductions in Tehran’s funding to its Lebanese IRGC franchise likely.
Lebanon responded early to the COVID-19 crisis. Parliament was shuttered on March 9. Schools, universities, malls and public institutions are closed. A strict curfew operates in the night hours, and the authorities advise citizens to stay at home during the day.
The result is that the virus appears to have been contained. The spread has been reduced to less than 10 new reported cases per day.
The economic impact of the government’s containment measures, however, has been severe. Social Affairs Minister Ramzi Musharrafieh told CNN on Tuesday that 75% of Lebanese citizens are in need of aid. The already high unemployment rate has risen to 30%, including 60% of young people. Many small and medium-sized businesses have collapsed.
The combination of restrictive moves by the banks, which have severely impacted on the lives of citizens, the preexisting economic crisis, international isolation because of Iran/Hezbollah’s control of the country, the deterioration in living standards as a result of stringent efforts over two months to contain COVID-19, and now the relative success of these efforts has produced a return to popular protest in recent days.
The largest-scale protests have taken place in Tripoli, a poverty-stricken and majority-Sunni city in the north of the country. But Beirut, Sidon, Nabatiya, Akkar and the Bekaa have also witnessed demonstrations. The banks, predictably have been a focus for much of the anger. A number of banks have been torched and vandalized by the protestors.
So far, one demonstrator has been killed in Tripoli. Fouaz el-Samaan, according to witnesses, was shot dead by the army.
The current protests differ from those that preceded the pandemic in their more confrontational and violent nature. Unlike in Iraq and Iran, the previous protests in Lebanon were characterized by an avoidance of clashes with the representatives of the state. This has now changed. A woman demonstrator in Beirut told Al Jazeera that “the army are not our brothers. They are shooting at us to protect the politicians.”
At the present time, the situation remains fluid. But the protests show no signs of dissipating. While temporary fixes may be found, it is difficult to see how the deeper problems of Lebanon can be addressed short of a major overhaul of the system, which would be resisted by the most powerful forces in the country.
As in Iraq and Iran, the Lebanese are discovering what it means to be under the ownership of a system that has neither answers to, nor any particular interest in, issues of economy and living standards.
What this means in the specific Lebanese case is that the IRGC-implanted deep state, which today controls the country, is of necessity protecting the corrupt and dysfunctional system within which it lives. A parasite, after all, must among other things preserve the life of its host.
The growing visibility of the IRGC system and its dominance, meanwhile, is gradually driving away those forces whose input has traditionally served to mitigate the effects of the system’s dysfunctionality. As a result, the Hezbollah deep state is running out of resources to siphon off.
Against this reality, Lebanese are once again taking to the streets. Given the relative strength of the sides, however, ongoing strife and instability rather than rapid change seem the most likely outcome.

Lebanon: When Corruption Discovers the Virtues of Justice/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/May 01/2020
اياد أبوشقرا: عندما يكتشف الفساد في لبنان مزايا العدل
Among the most interesting landmarks in the life of any country, whose people delude themselves that they were living in a normal “state”, is when its government goes to war against one of its most senior civil servants. This is exactly what happened last week when the de facto rulers of Lebanon held Riad Salameh, the Governor of Lebanon’s Central Bank, responsible for the horrific financial and economic collapse.
The fact is that this collapse is but yet another advanced step in Hezbollah’s “creeping coup”, aimed at taking over Lebanon and annexing it to the “Iranian Crescent”. This is now taking place after the pro-Tehran militia had already imposed its candidate as president, and its electoral law, which would guarantee a secure parliamentary majority protected by its illegitimate weapons.
In any case, many things may change between now and next November, under the welter of COVID-19 and its repercussions. Many facts are expected to emerge, many calculations may take shape, and many priorities may impose themselves, whether here in the Middle East or the world at large.
Rarely has the world been so helpless and confused as it is before the COVID-19 threat, while the decision-makers in the world’s major powers are having difficulty in choosing between saving lives and saving the economy.
I shall not discuss Russia and China’s policies in this instance, hoping to do that later, but I will deal now with what is happening in western Europe and the US.
In Europe, all is not well, where there are no firm signs that it is past the worst, or that its countries are well prepared to contain the second wave of the pandemic next autumn. Moreover, in the midst of peoples’ worries and businesses pains, many in several countries feel that the “European Identity” itself is in doubt, especially in those countries where utra-nationalist and secessionist forces have been emboldened by the UK’s leaving of the EU. Indeed, some go further to say that among the most dangerous factor brought by the endemic to the fore is that the Euroskeptics feel that some European countries “let down” others in their time of need.
As for the US, we all know that it is in a presidential election year. This particular election year is really exceptional, not only because the country is suffering in terms of lives lost and economic difficulties, but also politically (and constitutionally) given the contradicting approaches between the federal government and many several governors. This is why the daily press briefing, held by President Donald Trump and his task crisis force, is looking more and more like political duels between the right-wing president and his enemies in the liberal media. Worse still for Trump, is that latest opinion polls show that he is trailing his Democratic presidential challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, significantly, in certain swing states.
So, the two major western powers are not in great shape.
Given the above, Iran is quite aware of what is going on, and is working hard to exploit the situation even though it has been in a race against economic collapse for years. For decades, the Tehran regime has grown used to adjusting to hardships and running away from its internal problems by starting external adventures and exploiting regional and international contradicting interests, and temporary conflicts inside neighboring countries in order to further its ambitions.
Today, the “lobbies” financed by the regimes and some of its regional allies in the Arab world, Europe, and even in the heart of Washington DC, lament the international community’s “depriving” the Iranian people of relief and aid. Yet, those leaders, politicians and media, who are defending the Tehran regime totally ignore the fact that the real culprit, who is robbing the Iranian people of their national wealth, is the sectarian militaristic gang that is plundering Iran’s resources and siphoning them in a military machine with limitless aggressive ambitions.
It is clear that Iranian leaders are betting on a change in the White House next November. We know that their henchmen enjoy a strong presence inside the Democratic Party, compared with an almost complete Arab absence, which is politically costly.
The fact of the matter is that the Iranian leaders do not care about the suffering of their people as long as the branch of their Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) is taking over Lebanon, their militias are squandering Iraq’s resources and the United Nations ignores the aggression of the Houthi militias in Yemen, all along while maintaining beneficial economic, military and political relations with China and Russia,.
Those leaders in Tehran have forced the Iranian people to accept backwardness, illusions, and sectarian and revolutionary slogans. They have also succeeded in “domesticating” a good percentage of this wronged and abused people. Unfortunately, their “students” are perpetrating the same thing in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and even Gaza where they ruined the economy, corrupted society, destroyed coexistence, and distorted the culture and identity.
Almost all international reports speak about the bad economic situation in Iran, its long-term oil agreement with China and its continued military cooperation with Russia. However, while the commanders of the IRGC continue their boasting about its military prowess and “innovations”, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, along with his “lobbies” direct the “soft power” alternative outside Iran, using misleading diplomatic propaganda.
Yes, Iran is in a race against time. It is a race between internal collapse and favorable political changes abroad, while its leaders pursue the same strategy, which they have mastered, and for which they have no other alternatives.
Everywhere the Tehran regime have succeeded in imposing its influence, its henchman have applied the same concepts and priorities. Everywhere Tehran’s puppets have won control, they destroyed its institutions and replaced them with copies of the “Khomeinist Revolution” with all its branches and financial, military and intelligence networks. Everywhere, pro-Tehran banners have been raised, the legitimate state fell, and a “statelet” replaced it under the leadership of a local “guide” that governs in the name of Iran’s “Supreme Guide”.
Today, as the Lebanese people suffer under the severe economic and financial crisis, and are threatened by COVID-19, they know that only a handful of their “leaders” are above suspicion. Worse still, while some of them have been the main cause and mainstay of corruption, and the avowed enemies of the justice system, they are now the loudest lecturers about honesty and the leading admirers of justice.

Germany is right to see Hezbollah for what it really is/The National/May 01/2020
More countries need to recognise that the Iranian-backed group is indeed a terror outfit with a political front
On Thursday, Germany joined the US, UK and a number of other countries, including members of the Arab League, in designating Hezbollah a terrorist entity. This decision means banning all activities carried out by the group on German soil. The Interior Ministry in Berlin also confirmed that police had conducted early morning raids to detain suspected Hezbollah operatives.
Germany’s decision is a welcome one. It comes five months after the Bundestag – Germany’s legislature – approved a motion calling on the country’s authorities to put a stop to Hezbollah’s local activities. It also represents a significant step within the international community towards curbing the influence of a rogue operator that has for years window-dressed itself as a responsible political actor in Lebanon. In reality, Hezbollah has been little else but an armed proxy for Tehran’s wider geopolitical interests, holding Lebanese politics – and the Lebanese state – hostage. It has also succeeded in spreading its tentacles across the Middle East and elsewhere in the world, including within the European Union and even Latin America.
These new developments then amount to yet another setback for Iran, which is already saddled with an economy battered by US-led sanctions in response to its illegal nuclear and ballistic programmes, as well as its military adventurism in the region. The regime has often relied upon on the EU to act as an interlocutor between itself and Washington in its bid to get sanctions relief. Now, the largest EU member state has sent an extraordinary signal that there is a limit to European patience with Iran’s broader extremist agenda.
Perhaps the most immediate hit to Hezbollah will be financial. Already set to lose 40 per cent of its income from Iran after the dramatic fall in oil prices as a result of coronavirus, Hezbollah’s ability to raise funds from its activities in Europe, including its running of fake orphanages, will be significantly hampered.
There is also a renewed spotlight on Hezbollah’s decades-long cloak-and-dagger operations, which include terror plots across the Middle East and the world, and a range of illegal activities from money-laundering to drug-smuggling. It has become an integral part of a global nexus between rogue states and organised crime. In Venezuela, for instance, Hezbollah has been linked to Caracas’s newly appointed oil minister, Tareck El Aissami, a man accused of a host of illicit activities by the US State Department.
Worryingly, despite its transgressions, Hezbollah has been able to use its status as the dominant political party within the Lebanese parliament to garner some political legitimacy abroad. Its status in Beirut, where it is a significant backer of the government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab, gives it the look of one among many parties operating within the confines of a national political system. But Hezbollah runs its own militias, who not only enforce its power in certain parts of Lebanon, but also conduct independent operations in neighbouring Syria, where they support President Bashar Al Assad, and further afield in Iraq. These units often answer directly to senior commanders of the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Berlin had previously made a distinction between Hezbollah’s political arm and its military units. But the two are by no means cleanly separated, and the sooner more countries recognise this, the better the outcome will be for the victims of Hezbollah’s activities. It would also present a victory for proponents of the rule of law; states should have a monopoly on the use of force, not individual political parties. If this is well understood now in Berlin, perhaps someday it will be understood just as well in Beirut.

Iran threatens Germany for ban on Hezbollah, says will have to face consequences/AFP, Tehran/Friday 01 May 2020
Iran has slammed Germany’s ban on the activities of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement on its soil, saying it would face consequences for its decision to give in to Israeli and US pressure. Germany branded Hezbollah a “Shiite terrorist organization” on Thursday, with dozens of police and special forces storming mosques and associations across the country linked to the Lebanese militant group. In a statement issued overnight, Iran’s foreign ministry said the ban ignores “realities in West Asia.”The Islamic republic said the move was based solely on the goals of the “propaganda machine of the Zionists and America’s confused regime.”Read more: The domestication of Hezbollah in the time of coronavirus. It “strongly” condemned the decision it said showed “complete disrespect to the government and nation of Lebanon, as Hezbollah is a formal and legitimate part of the country’s government and parliament.”Iran said Hezbollah had a “key role in fighting Daesh’s [ISIS] terrorism in the region,” using the Arabic acronym for the extremist group. “The German government must face the negative consequences of its decision in the fight against real terrorist groups in the region,” it added. Hezbollah supporter, US fugitive Tareck El Aissami appointed Venezuelan oil minister Israeli drone targets Hezbollah near Lebanon’s border with Syria: Sources
Israel and Hezbollah’s tug of war
Hezbollah was established in 1982 during the Lebanese civil war and fought a 2006 war with Israel. Iran is a major supporter of the Lebanese Shiite group and its “resistance” against the Islamic republic’s arch foe Israel. The United States and Israel have long designated Hezbollah as a terrorist group and urged allies to follow suit. Like the European Union, Germany had until now outlawed only Hezbollah’s military wing while tolerating its political wing. Britain outlawed Hezbollah’s political wing last year, making membership of the Shia movement or inviting support for it a crime.