Hezbollah controlling foreign exchange market in Lebanon

Menna Abdelrazik

Lebanon has been suffering an acute liquidity crisis since the beginning of 2020. The crisis got worse in the past few weeks against the background of the rise in the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the Lebanese lira, which now sells for 4,000 a dollar.

However, there is proof that Yehia Murad, a brother of the head of the Exchanges Association, Mahmud Murad, is making the crisis to serve the interests of the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah.

Lebanese police arrested Mahmud, who took over as head of the Exchanges Association in 2018, in May and accused him of abusing the exchange market, causing the collapse of the Lebanese lira.

Lebanese authorities also accused Mahmud of forming a network of exchanges to squeeze the Lebanese market dry of U.S. dollars.

The two brothers own a major exchange company that mainly operates in the southern Lebanese region, a Hezbollah stronghold. The company controls the exchange market through the Exchanges Association.

Meanwhile, the Mena Media Monitor described Yehia Murad in a recent report as a main player in the Lebanese exchange market.

Yehia works as part of Unit 140, the Hezbollah group responsible for financial affairs of the militant group, the monitor said.

It noted that Hezbollah restricts its financial dealings to the company owned by Mahmud and Yehia.

There are fears now that Hezbollah can put pressure on Lebanese authorities to release Mahmud, the monitor said.

Before his arrest, Mahmud lashed out at Lebanese authorities for asking the nation’s exchanges to sell the dollars they had to the Central Bank of Lebanon.