Iraq News Now

The United State has

expressed support for Argentina’s efforts to bring the culprits of the deadly

terrorist attack on the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994 that

killed 85 people.
The Argentinian prosecutor’s office believes that the Iranian regime backed

Lebanese Hezbollah was responsible for that bombing and that the execution

order had come from the highest authorities in Iran.
Ambassador

Nathan Sales, the U.S. Coordinator for Counterterrorism, delivered keynote

remarks on the significance of the attack and continuing concerns regarding

terrorist financing in the Western Hemisphere. He said the administration of

the U.S. President Donald Trump is working with Argentinian authorities, along

with officials from other Latin American governments, to bring both the Iranian

regime’s officials and the Lebanese Hezbollah to justice.
n

1982, exploiting a political power vacuum in Lebanon, the Iranian regime sent

in a thousand-man strong group of Revolutionary Guard agents into the country

to train and equip a Shiite group that sided with Khomeini to create the

terrorist Lebanon Hezbollah. The aim of the Iranian regime was to create a

military and political presence in the heart of the Middle East for itself.

Hezbollah, Iran’s most important tool for

spreading terrorism in the Middle East
Over the past 35

years, Hezbollah acted as the Iranian regime’s most important tool for

spreading fundamentalism in the Middle East. Following are some of its most

important roles in this regard include participating in the Syrian war on behalf of the Iranian regime, delivering

arms and missiles to and training Yemen’s Houthi militias, training Iraqi

militias with ties to the Iranian regime, participating in terrorist attacks on

a global level, like the bombing of AMIA, a Jewish center in Argentina’s Buenos

Aires, Hezbollah behind the

murder of Rafiq Hariri, Lebanon’s former PM.
After the 2005

terrorist attack in Lebanon that left its former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri

and 21 others dead, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) was created to carry

out the investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators.
On March 1, 2009, the

Tribunal officially opened. The four accused individuals are trialed in

absentia. Their names are Mustafa Badreddine, Salim al-Ayyash, Assad Sabra and

Hassan Oneissi. The Tribunal is unique among international criminal tribunals

in that it can hold trials in absentia, and it is the first to deal with

terrorism as a distinct crime.
International and regional stances towards

Hezbollah
The US first

designated Lebanon’s Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in 1997. Canada, the

Arab League, and the Gulf Cooperation Council followed suit with similar

designations.
The Gulf Cooperation

Council has blacklisted Hezbollah, its military wing, its leaders and its

descendants and linked groups.
The European Union has

blacklisted the military wing of Hezbollah. According to Reuters and AFP,

Hezbollah’s terrorist activities on European soil has led the Union to

blacklist it.
Diplomatic sources in

Brussels indicate that Hezbollah’s activities to send militants to Syria to

help Bashar al Assad has helped change the balance in favor of blacklisting the

group in EU.
The Combating

Terrorism Center (CTC), a US military think tank in West Point, published a

report last August, calling on the European Union to include Hezbollah in its

entirety in its list of terrorist organizations.
CTC’s report lists an

ever-growing catalog of the Iranian regime’s terrorist attacks and activities

in the region and on a global scale. Referring to the regime’s latest attempt

to bomb an opposition political rally in Paris, CTC’s report calls on the

European Union to include Hezbollah in its entirety in the Union’s list of

terrorist organizations.
“The international

response to Iran’s international terrorist activity should not be limited to

law enforcement action alone. A regulatory action would also be helpful, and it

is worth noting there have been calls for the European Union to designate not

just Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist group but to include the

organization in its entirety, as well as expanded financial and diplomatic

sanctions,” the report writes.
Referring to the

Iranian terrorist diplomat that was recently detained in Europe the report

concludes that, “in the wake of the Assadi affair, the State Department

released timelines and maps depicting select incidents of Iranian-sponsored

operational activities in Europe from 1979 to 2018, including both incidents

involving Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, as well as those carried out by Iranian

agents themselves. Developing an appreciation for the extent of Iranian

operations in Europe over the years is important, and not just as some kind of

academic exercise.” 
Hezbollah’s financial sources
In addition to Iranian

arms and money, Hezbollah makes money by trafficking illegal drugs to Europe

and South America.
In a TV interview with

Iranian backed television, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader openly admitted

that Iran provides us with money, arms, missiles, food, and clothing.