Alleged Hezbollah-linked banker may relinquish post to son Osama Habib/The Daily Star/June 17/2015
BEIRUT: Kassem Hejeij, accused by the United States of links to Hezbollah, may consider resigning as chairman of Middle East Africa Bank and hand over his post to his son or sell the majority shares if an opportunity arises, sources said Tuesday.
“Mr. Hejeij may contemplate handing over the affairs of MEAB to his son, Ali. We realize that as long as Mr. Hejeij is still the head of the bank then it’s difficult to conduct transactions with some correspondent banks abroad in U.S. dollars,” one of the lawyers and close friends of Hejeij told The Daily Star. On June 10, the U.S. Treasury named Hejeij and two other Shiite businessmen as having direct links to Hezbollah, which is labeled by Washington as a terrorist organization.
“Hejeij is a Lebanese businessman that maintains direct ties to Hezbollah organizational elements. In addition to his support to Adham Tabaja and his affiliated companies in Iraq, Hejeij has helped open bank accounts for Hezbollah in Lebanon and provided credit to Hezbollah procurement companies. Hejeij has also invested in infrastructure that Hezbollah uses in both Lebanon and Iraq,” the U.S. Treasury said. But the U.S. Treasury did not name the bank or even suggest that the lender should be sanctioned or closed by Lebanese financial authorities. In February 2012, the U.S. Treasury accused the now defunct Lebanese-Canadian Bank of money laundering and terrorist financing. This accusation prompted the bank’s management to sell all its assets to SGBL. The chairman’s lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, insisted that Hejeij has no direct or indirect links with Hezbollah. “I don’t understand this fuss. Hejeij has no interest in forming any relations with Hezbollah because he is aware of the consequences.”The lawyer said no one raised the issue of selling the assets of MEAB to another bank. “We were not approached by any bank, but this matter can be discussed if there was a serious interest.” The lawyer said handing over the chairman position to Ali Hejeij is one of the options on the table for the time being.
“Ali will be surrounded by top bank advisers to help him run the bank,” the lawyer added. The lawyer claimed that Washington is targeting all Shiite investors and businessmen in Lebanon for fear they might start financing Hezbollah in the future. He also alleged that some Lebanese banks have taken advantage of the case to encourage the depositors of MEAB to withdraw their accounts and deposit them elsewhere. But another banker, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said appointing a successor to Kassem Hejeij would not solve the problem. “This case is way too sensitive and you can’t solve this matter by resigning from the position and giving it to your son.
Things don’t work this way in the banking sector.”He argued that most Shiite investors and bankers are beginning to feel the mounting U.S. pressure. “MEAB is one of the banks in Lebanon controlled by Shiite families. I don’t think any commercial bank would show any interest in acquiring this bank under the current circumstances,” he stressed. With $1.7 billion in assets, MEAB is considered rather small compared to most Lebanese banks. There are some who believe that the bulk of MEAB deposits belong to Kassem Hejeij himself and some powerful and rich Shiite families. Insiders dismiss the possibility that Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh may take any action against the bank or encourage the owner to sell the assets. “I don’t think Salameh will consider taking any action soon because the Americans did not blacklist the bank in their report,” a source told The Daily Star.
ISIS luring youth from Ain al-Hilweh to war in Syria, Iraq
The Daily Star/ June 17, 2015
SIDON, Lebanon: “My son won’t be the last one,” Assem Hreish said of his son Ahmad Hreish, who died fighting alongside ISIS in Syria, before gesturing with his hand and refusing to take more questions. In a small hall in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh, Hreish sat with family members to receive condolences for the death of his son, also known as Abu Misaab Al-Maqdisi. While other members of the family refuse to speak to the media, the father is succinct. “Ahmad is now between the hands of God and he chose his path,” Assem Hreish said. “My son chose the path of jihad and martyrdom and he won’t be the last one.”At least 25 of the camp’s men have died fighting in Syria.
Although Islamist factions attempt to downplay the numbers, saying those from Ain al-Hilweh who are fighting in Syria are few, the overcrowded and impoverished camp is also considered a transit point for militants wishing to join the uprising next door.
Assem Hreish himself is a member of Osbat al-Ansar, Ain al-Hilweh’s largest Islamist faction, which has a long history of sending fighters to Iraq to combat the American presence there between 2003 and 2011.Lebanese security sources say the group stopped sending fighters to Iraq after Lebanese security bodies and Palestinian officials succeeded in convincing it to “abandon the path of jihad and join the political life.” In 2008, Hezbollah and Hamas played the role of mediators between Osbat al-Ansar and the Lebanese state; their efforts bore fruit and led to relaxing several sentences issued by the Lebanese judiciary against members of the group.
The sources say the 2006 visit to Ain al-Hilweh of General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim – who was back then the head of Military Intelligence in south Lebanon – and his policy of openness toward Islamist factions, “curbed Osbat al-Ansar’s zeal and contributed to the faction adopting more moderate behavior.”But despite those efforts, and although Osbat al-Ansar committed to maintaining law and order within the camp, other Islamist factions such a Fatah al-Islam and Jund al-Sham did not stop exporting fighters to Iraq.
At the onset of the Syrian uprising in 2011, those factions turned to sending fighters across the border to join the battles against the regime of President Bashar Assad. In Ain al-Hilweh, support for ISIS grew by the day as more youth were tempted to join the group in Syria in response to Hezbollah’s involvement alongside Assad’s forces, the Lebanese security sources said.
But Islamist Palestinian sources from Ain al-Hilweh expressed surprise that the spotlight was being cast on “the very few youths from the camp who have joined the fight in Syria.” These sources insist that Ain al-Hilweh residents fighting in Syria are few. “Compared to the [thousands] of fighters Hezbollah is sending to Syria, there are very few men leaving Ain al-Hilweh to go to Syria,” one source said. The sources said there was no mass recruitment of fighters being carried out within Ain al-Hilweh. Although the sources maintain that recruitment of fighters is still done clandestinely, they admit the presence of several mediators on site in the camp who facilitate the flow of youths into Syrian territories. “Palestinian participation in the ongoing battles in Syria cannot be accounted for,” one source said. “In the end you cannot prevent passionate youths from traveling to Syria or Iraq.”
