Hezbollah Global Network Weakens

President Mauricio Macri of Argentina (left) and President Mario Abdo Benitez of Paraguay (right).


On 16 July 2019 Argentina became the first country in Latin America to officially designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization. On August 9, Paraguay also officially recognized Hezbollah as a terror organization.

The Financial Intelligence Unit of Argentina froze the assets of 14 individuals belonging to the Barakat Clan, a Lebanese crime family with ties to Hezbollah. One of the conduits for these Hezbollah money launderers was a casino in the city of Iguazú on the Argentine side of the Tri-Border Area (TBA).

The U.S. Treasury Department, through its Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, has sanctioned more than 50 Hezbollah-related persons or entities since 2017 as part of a larger effort at dismantling Hezbollah's global financial network.

Related reading: Morsi to Hezbollah: Get Out of Syria; Thirteen Years Since the Hezbollah-Israel War

Syria Peace Conference Unlikely

25 June 2013 – An international conference to find a political solution to the Syria crisis is not likely to be held in July, the Joint Special Representative of the United Nations and the Arab League for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said today.

“Frankly now, I doubt whether the conference will take place in July,” Mr. Brahimi said ahead of talks in Geneva with Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mikhail Bogdanov and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Wendy Sherman.

This meeting, the first since the officials last met on 5 June, is due to pave the way for a potential conference aimed at finding a political settlement to the fighting between the Syrian army and opposition forces seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad, which since March 2011 has claimed more than 93,000 lives and sent some 1.5 million people fleeing to neighbouring countries for safety.

Read it all here.

Related reading: Morsi to Hezbollah: Get Out of Syria; Saudi Arabia: Iran and Hezbollah in Syria is Dangerous

Morsi to Hezbollah: Get out of Syria

Elizabeth Arrott

Egypt has further aligned itself with those trying to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It remains unclear, though, how far Egypt will back its words with action.

Syria's civil war has increasingly drawn in outsiders, from individual fighters to regional and international powers lining up on opposing sides. Egypt recently has stepped up its role, but the message appears mixed.

President Mohamed Morsi has severed Egypt's already tenuous ties with Syria's government, a move denounced by Syrian officials as influenced by the United States and Israel.

Morsi also lashed out at intervention by Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking at a rally Saturday, he said Hezbollah must leave, adding “there is no space or place for Hezbollah in Syria.”

The open presence of the Shi'ite militant group in Syria has highlighted the conflict's increasingly sectarian nature.


Read it all here.