SOHR: “Hezbollah” evades drug charges by drawing attention to Saudi Arabia

The Lebanese “Hezbollah” continued to accuse the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of being behind the drug smuggling case, by accusing a person arrested at Beirut International Airport of being a Saudi security man.

Al-Manar TV, affiliated with the Lebanese Hezbollah, said today, Sunday, May 29, that “a Saudi security man named Adel Al-Shammari was arrested at (Beirut International) airport, after he was seized with 18 kilograms of the narcotic Captagon pills.”

The sources pointed out that the arrested Al-Shammari was on his way to Kuwait and an investigation is underway with him, and a photo of his passport was published.

However, the media office of the Minister of Interior and Municipalities in the Lebanese caretaker government, Judge Bassam Mawlawi, denied what was circulated about the arrest of a Saudi security man at Beirut International Airport on charges of Captagon smuggling, according to what was reported by the National News Agency.

The office said in a statement, “During the initial investigations, it was found that the Saudi national is residing in Kuwait and in possession of Kuwaiti security papers. Saudi”.

The statement added, “Minister Mawlawi affirms that work is continuing to protect our Arab societies from all kinds of harm, stressing that Lebanon will not be a corridor or platform for the export of evil or smuggling.”

Accusations are thrown at each other

The party had attacked the Saudi channel, Al Arabiya, which published a report on May 22 about its involvement in drug smuggling into Saudi Arabia.

The statement published by the party’s “Al-Manar” channel accused the “Saudi regime” channel, Al-Arabiya, of “spreading lies, fabricating false accusations, and engaging (Hezbollah) in the drug industry, trafficking and promotion.”

The statement explained that the goal was also to obscure what it considered irrefutable facts about the involvement of senior Saudi princes in the drug trade and “Captagon” pills, pointing out that a Saudi prince was arrested at Beirut airport as a “red flagged crime.”

But the party did not name the prince, who said he was arrested at the airport.

The statement pointed to the spread of the drug scourge in Saudi society, considering that publishing accusations will not lead to a cure for the problem in Saudi Arabia.

Hezbollah owns the largest military faction in Lebanon outside the authority of the Lebanese state, despite the demands of various Lebanese currents and forces to place the party’s weapons at the disposal of the Lebanese army.

In addition, Lebanon has faced a major economic crisis for years that has been no less severe than its counterpart in Syria, which opens the door to questions about the sources of funding for the “party”, which its Secretary-General repeatedly declares to be supported by Iran, and which is not living its most glorious economic days as well. Especially before a nuclear deal with the United States is on the horizon.

For its part, Al-Arabiya channel responded to Hezbollah’s statement that it based its information on a report published by the “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights” and stated that one of the four killed on the Jordanian border on May 22, while thwarting a drug smuggling operation coming from Syrian territory, Connected to the “Hezbollah militia”.

The report indicated that the intended victim was a relative of a former leader of the “Maghawir al-Thawra” faction, who left the areas under the control of the International Coalition in April 2020, to the regime-controlled areas in the countryside of Homs, and he was working in the drug trade and was in contact with leaders from “Hezbollah”, and he heads a local group that operates In the southern region of Syria.

Groups linked to Hezbollah and the Fourth Division led by Maher al-Assad, brother of the head of the Syrian regime, have intensified their activities by trying to bring drugs into Jordan.

Several countries, international bodies, and organizations accuse “Hezbollah” and the Syrian regime of being behind the drug smuggling attempts to neighboring countries, and at the world level as well.

On May 23, the Director of Military Information in the Jordanian Army, Mustafa Al-Hiyari, stated on the state-run Al-Mamlaka channel that the Jordanian forces are facing a “drug war” on the northeastern borders of Jordan, noting that the last three years have witnessed a double increase in smuggling and infiltration operations. .

Enab Baladi had published a special file entitled “Drugs… Assad’s recipe for the economy and blackmailing the neighborhood,” in which it referred to the suffering of Jordan, which is experiencing a state of increasing anxiety over the escalation of drug smuggling attempts from Syria, which have not stopped yet.