The US State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information on Lebanese Hezbollah’s financing network.
“Smuggled cash from Iran supports Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon,” the department said in a post on X. “Help us stop the money flow.”
In a more detailed pamphlet attached to the post, the State Department said that Hezbollah funds its “terrorism through various illicit activities including use of commercial and other civilian aircraft to smuggle cash". Anyone with information on “airport employees, customs officers or aviation officials” who may be involved in Hezbollah financing networks were urged to come forward.
The US has often offered cash incentives to try to gather information on foreign terrorist organisations and wanted people. In 2021, it offered $10 million to anyone with information on Salim Ayyash, a Hezbollah member sentenced in the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri 16 years earlier. In 2020, it offered the same amount for information on an Iran-Hezbollah financing network.
Hezbollah, once a powerful political and military organisation, is reeling from a string of defeats by Israel. Last year, the Israeli military killed Hezbollah’s long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah, an influential figure in Lebanon and the wider region, as well as other leaders. It severely hampered the group’s military capabilities.
"Hezbollah's main challenge now is money," Hanin Ghaddar, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told The National.
The group has long been accused of smuggling money and goods through Beirut's airport.
"They're not 100 per cent sure that Lebanon is still is capable to 100 per cent stop Hezbollah from bringing in money into Lebanon, which is happening," Ms Ghaddar said.
She said the reward money is probably an effort to stop or curtail Hezbollah's ability to get money into the country through the airport and other ports of entry.
The US has thrown its support behind Lebanon’s new government led by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and President Joseph Aoun, and urged the country to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding.
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