Qatar maintaining financial support to Hezbollah

Noura Bendari

New information is emerging to prove that the Qatari regime is financing the Lebanese militant movement Hezbollah.

This adds Hezbollah, an Iranian arm, to the long list of militant and terrorist organizations Doha is financing in the region and beyond it.

The German national weekly, Die Zeit, referred on July 20 to documents proving Doha’s financing to Hezbollah. It said it has proof that wealthy Qataris and Lebanese nationals living in Doha send money to Hezbollah through a charity it did not name.

The newspaper said it received this information and this proof from a contractor who works in a number of countries, including in Qatar.

The contractor, it said, handed a file containing information proving Qatar’s financing to Hezbollah over to German authorities.

It said Qatari authorities tried to get the same file from the contractor for money.

According to the file, a Qatari military official had transferred 15,000 Euros to Hezbollah in March 2019.

The Qatari government was aware of this money transfer to the Iran-backed movement, the file says.

Despite this, it did not penalize this official, meaning that the Qatari government approved of such a move, it added.

Germany had designated Hezbollah a “terrorist” organization in April this year. Other European states are aware of the negative actions of the Lebanese movement, viewing them as a threat to the security of the European continent.

Qatari deal

Doha’s relations with Hezbollah are strong. In 2013, Qatar paid millions of dollars to al-Nusra Front, in return for releasing a number of Hezbollah hostages in its custody. Al-Nusra took these Hezbollah members hostage after it took over Arsal, an area on the Lebanese-Syrian border.

In April 2017, Qatar hammered a deal with Hezbollah for the release of a number of Qatari hunters in Iraq. The Qatari nationals were kidnapped during a hunting trip near the Iraqi-Syrian border in 2016.

Hezbollah agreed to release the Qataris in return for $2.3 billion, according to Lebanese media.