Hezbollah is planning to file a lawsuit against the
US administration because of a statement made by the
US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern
Affairs Jeffrey Feltman about Washington spending 500
million dollars on disfiguring Hezbollah’s image [in
Lebanon]. Lebanese MP Nawaf al Moussawi said, “If the
US Embassy wants to be transparent then let it present
a list of the names of the people who received the
biggest share of the money claiming that it is to help
the Lebanese people.”
This remark is acceptable and there is no objection
to it. It is Hezbollah’s right to know who received
the money to disfigure the image of Hezbollah whose
image was already disfigured after Hezbollah used arms
against the people of Beirut on May 7, 2008 and after
taking Lebanon hostage with weapons to serve Iran and
its agenda. But as long as the discussion here is
about transparency and the use of funding to disfigure
somebody else’s image and using Lebanon as an open
field for physical elimination and even character
assassination at which Hezbollah and its media excel
then all money issues should also be looked at with
transparency.
The first of those issues is the money coming from
Iran or what Hassan Nasrallah calls “pure money.” How
does it reach Lebanon? Who receives it? Who
distributes it? How much was spent on the media and
how many media figures and politicians did it buy? How
much was spent on buying weapons? How much was paid in
compensation to the victims of the 2006 war with
Israel who Hezbollah said it would pay? It is the
right of the Lebanese to know the amount of money
[Iran gave to Lebanon] and where and how it was spent.
It is also the right of the Iranian people to know how
much of its money and savings its government spent on
Hezbollah and others in Lebanon especially as the
Iranians are complaining about the worsening economic
situation in Iran, not to mention the new problems the
economy will face with the increasing Western
sanctions on Iran.
If Hezbollah wants transparency then there should
be transparency regarding all issues in everybody’s
interest i.e. the Lebanese and the Iranians, as
transparency is not one way; it is for you and
incumbent upon you. Hezbollah must be asked to do what
it is asking the Americans to do today both legally
and in the media. There must be endeavors in that
regard so that Hezbollah does not undertake an
operation of procrastination and concealment in the
way that it did regarding the bankruptcy of the
Lebanese businessman Salah Ezzeddin who was nicknamed
the “Imad Mughniyeh of finance,” as Hassan Nasrallah
previously promised the Lebanese – specifically the
residents of Hezbollah areas who had been wronged –
that the party is working on preparing a more detailed
account of the issue of Salah Ezzeddin’s bankruptcy
and his ties to members of the party describing the
matter as “the sensitive topic that concerns people’s
money.”
Of course just like the Lebanese we are yet to read
or hear anything about that “sensitive topic that
concerns people’s money” in the words of the Hezbollah
leader. Therefore, whoever wants transparency must
start with himself and his close associates before
demanding transparency from others!
Tariq Alhomayed is the Editor-in-Chief of Asharq
Al-Awsat, the youngest person to be appointed that
position. He holds a BA degree in Media studies from
King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, and has also
completed his Introductory courses towards a Master’s
degree from George Washington University in Washington
D.C. He is based in London.