Thread by @Levitt_Matt

THREAD: French President Macron recently denounced #Hezbollah's attempts to pose as a legitimate political party while engaging in militant activity independent of the Lebanese state. Here I explore why it's time for Paris resent on Hezbollah washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysi…

2. Last month #Hezbollah threw a wrench in French efforts to stabilize the Lebanese political system following the tragic Aug 4 explosion in Beirut. Macron's response caught the group off guard & came on heels of new revelations re Hezbollah activities in Europe

3. According to U.S. officials, Hezbollah has been stockpiling caches of ammonium nitrate—used to make explosives for terrorist attacks—in Europe, including in France washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

4. Bulgaria’s Specialized Criminal Court recently convicted 2 Hezbollah operatives 4 the July 2012 Burgas bus bombing. French-Lebanese dual citizen & #Hezbollah operative Mohammad Hassan El-Husseini died carrying out the attack

5. Background: Though the narrative is little known, #Hezbollah has a long history of targeting French interests domestically and abroad.

6. In March 1984, @CIA reported that French officials expressed concern about pro-Iran militants targeting French interests in Lebanon & Middle East citing Feb 22
killing of a French soldier at a UN MNF position in
Beirut washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

7. In Feb 1984, #Hezbollah operatives participated in the Iran-led assassination of a regime critic and Paris resident,
Gholam Ali Oveisi, and his brother on Paris’s Rue
de Passy.

8. Also in Feb 1984, @CIA reported that Husayn al-Musawi was entering into an agreement with international terrorist Carlos the Jackal to cooperate on terrorist operations in Europe, especially those targeting French interests washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

9. The years 1985–86 saw more French citizens
kidnapped in Lebanon & additional attacks
targeting French soldiers there, including the
Sep 1986 assassination of French military
attaché Christian Gouttière outside the French
embassy annex in East Beirut washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

10. In June 1985, @CIA warned of an increased likelihood of “attacks against U.S., French, or Kuwaiti interests in the near future,” given #Hezbollah’s inability to achieve its goals through acts such as kidnapping Westerners in Lebanon washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

11. From Dec 1985-Sep 1986, #Hezbollah operative Fouad Ali Salah orchestrated a series of Paris bombings. Authorities later arrested Salah & other members of his cell in March 1987, including Mohammad Mouhajer, a nephew of Hezbollah leader Ibrahim al-Amin washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

12. In Nov 1989, Spanish authorities arrested several #Hezbollah operatives attempting to smuggle 440 pounds of explosives packed in fruit jars from Lebanon into Spain. According to a French police report, the explosives were headed for France washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

13. Beyond US officials' statements re ammonium nitrate being smuggled to France since 2012, #Hezbollah has engaged in other activities in France too, as underscored by shuttering of Centre Zahra France & arrest of key officers washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

14. In ref to France-based case, @Europol noted #Hezbollah suspected of trafficking diamonds & drugs & of money laundering via trade in second-hand cars. Capital is sent to Lebanon through banks but also by carrying cash on airplanes washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

15. Dec 2019 @ustreasury exposed dual French-Lebanese citizen Saleh Assi as major #Hezbollah financier who sent bulk cash transfers or laundered thu the diamond
business of another Hezbollah financier, dual
Belgian-Lebanese citizen Nazem Said Ahmad washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

16. Other cases, part of @DEAHQ Project Cassandra, revealed extensive #Hezbollah money laundering and drug running through France (cases like Noureddine, Kobeissi, Asmar) & included joint US-French operations & arrests washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

17. Meanwhile, French citizens are tied to at least 4 #Hezbollah foreign plots to conduct surveillance, procure weapons or ammonium nitrate for explosives, or carry out attacks. In Burgas, the bomber was French & his French father financed Hezb terror wing washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

18. Before he carried out surveillance of Israeli tourists in Cyrpus, #Hezbollah operative Hossam Yaacoub went on courier mission to Lyon, France, to retrieve a package from 1 person & deliver it to another washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

19. In 2010, according to Cypriot authorities, #Hezbollah used a French-Lebanese professor, Jalal Jomaah, then teaching in Lyon, as a cutout to purchase a safe house where other operatives were stockpiling ammonium nitrate to assemble explosives washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

20. In April 2014, Thai officials arrested two
Hezbollah operatives, French-Lebanese dual national
Daoud Farhat and Filipino-Lebanese national Yosef
Ayad, for plotting an attack targeting Israeli tourists
in Bangkok washingtoninstitute.org/hezbollahinter…

21. Speaking after Hezbollah thwarted French stabilization plans 4 Lebanon, Macron said that #Hezbollah “must not believe that it is stronger than it is. It must show that it respects all Lebanese. These last days, it clearly demonstrated the opposite."

22. Indeed, #Hezbollah prioritizes its own & Iran’s interests over those of Lebanon, from building missile facilities in urban areas, to undermining the Lebanese financial system, to assassinating Lebanese officials not to its liking washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysi…

23. 1 reason #Hezbollah is so aggressive is that it believes it can get away with it. Failure to hold Hezb accountable has not prompted any moderation in the group’s behavior, but rather has emboldened it to amplify its aggressiveness both in Lebanon & in France

24. When Hezbollah engages in boundary-probing behaviors, and those behaviors are neither challenged nor disrupted, the lack of a response serves to normalize such behaviors in Hezbollah’s eyes.

25. Hezbollah leaders are vocal about the group’s unitary identity, as opposed to consisting of separate wings. In the words of Hezbollah parliamentarian Mohammad Hassan Raad, “Hezbollah is a military resistance party...there is no separation between politics and resistance."

26. Hezb MP Raad partnered with #Hezbollah security official Wafiq Safa to develop a list of 100
#Hezbollah members who were to acquire foreign
citizenship & then be sent by Hezbollah on long-term missions to Arab & Western countries

27. Designating #Hezbollah as a terrorist org is no panacea, but it would be an important & effective first step
toward changing the current dynamic. Paris should now support the German EU presidency efforts to ban Hezbollah

28. Paris should ban Hezb not only to address challenges #Hezbollah poses to French interests, but to give Lebanon leverage to address the challenges Hezb poses to the safety of Lebanese citizens & to the political reform & economic transparency the country desperately needs /END