Iran smuggles cash to Hezbollah via Istanbul after flight ban - Israel's N12

A man wrapped in Hezbollah flag watches the large crowd in the funeral of slain leader Hassan Nasrallah
A man wrapped in Hezbollah flag watches the large crowd in the funeral of slain leader Hassan Nasrallah

Iran is using diplomats and couriers to smuggle cash to Tehran's ailing ally Hezbollah in Lebanon via flights from Istanbul, Israel's N12 reported, after new authorities in Beirut banned Iran's state carriers.

Lebanon barred arrivals by Iranian airlines Mahan Air and Iran Air last month after the Israeli military said Iran was using the civilian carriers to get funds to Hezbollah.

As a tenuous ceasefire barely holds between Hezbollah and Israel, Lebanon's new president Joseph Aoun has appeared to take a stronger line against the group.

A Lebanese courier Muhammad Arif Hussein was arrested last month at Beirut's international airport with a suitcase containing $2.5 million in cash, in a case highlighting the Tehran's emphasis on physical cash deliveries to skirt sanctions.

Washington last week announced a $10 million reward for information on Hezbollah financing networks.

"The method is based on connecting flights via Istanbul and other third countries, to obscure the Iranian origin," Israeli intelligence analyst Ronen Solomon, editor of IntelliTimes said. "The exchange takes place in the duty-free areas of the airports, without going through customs counters.”

His investigation, published by N12, reported that the courier arrested last month took off from Beirut for Istanbul International Airport on the evening of February 27 and the next morning he arrived at another airport in Istanbul with a ticket for a Pegasus Airlines flight back to Beirut in order to gain access to the duty-free area.

There he met an Iranian official who had landed from Tehran an hour earlier and handed him the suitcase with the money.

The two boarded a Pegasus Airlines flight to Beirut, and the courier was caught by a new security system installed at the airport designed to track drug smugglers.

Diplomatic immunity

In other cases, the couriers arrived directly in Beirut on Mahan Air flights operated by Iran's elite military unit the Quds Force or on Iran Air planes.

They hold Iranian diplomatic passports granting them immunity from customs inspection if they are in possession of a suitcase or sealed diplomatic mail bags.

Once the money leaves the airport it is transferred to a Hezbollah financial bunker in the group's stronghold in southern Beirut, the report added.

After his arrest, Hussein said the suitcase was intended for a religious body, the Supreme Islamic Shi'ite Council of Lebanon, which officially announced it was the intended recipient of the funds.

Standoff

In early January, tensions flared at Beirut Airport when an Iranian diplomat refused to have his bags searched, triggering a brief standoff.

Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry later said that the funds in the diplomat’s possession were for embassy expenses and were allowed entry under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem said in December that $50 million had been earmarked to over 233,000 displaced Lebanese households, openly acknowledging Iranian financial support for the group.

Reports of cash transfers to Iran’s allies have surfaced multiple times over the years. In 2006, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas official, said on Iranian Al-Alam TV that during a visit to Tehran that he received several suitcases containing $22 million from Qassem Soleimani, the late commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force.

While Lebanon has committed to protecting its borders from arms smuggling, it is harder to enforce the transfer of cash.