A bomb exploded in Beirut on Sunday, shortly after iftar outside the headquarters of the Lebanese Blom Bank, one of Lebanon’s largest banks, causing heavy material damage and injuries. Although nobody claimed responsibility, many pointed fingers at Hizbollah. The militant group has been under pressure since the US passed the Hizbollah International Financing Prevention Act in December last year, imposing stringent restrictions on the group, which the Lebanese government has decided to implement.
Commenting on the incident, the columnist Wissam Saada wrote in the Lebanese Al Mustaqbal newspaper: “Hizbollah is directing its anger against the governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon and the Lebanese banking sector, following the end of a period of ‘mutual realism’ during which the party managed to combine being described as an “outlaw” by the Western countries bloc, all the while staying connected, albeit in an oblique manner, to the global financial system controlled by financial institutions of its global enemies, chief among them the United States of America.”
Hizbollah is trying to incite public opinion against the Lebanese banking and financial sector in a bid to recreate a protective net around it and ultimately remain connected to the global financial system, the writer suggested.
But Hizbollah’s issue isn’t only with the Central Bank of Lebanon. Its predicament cannot be helped, for the group needs to help itself if it wants to get internal and regional support to remove its name from the list of terrorist organisations.
“The global financial sanctions on the militant group aren’t easy, even for Hizbollah’s opponents in Lebanon, for the restrictions impose financial, economic, political and security burdens on everyone. However, the Lebanese financial system can no longer afford to expose itself and jeopardise its standing with the global financial system to delay the clash between Hizbollah and the world,” he noted.
The columnist Rajeh Al Khoury wrote in the Lebanese daily Annahar that the main victim of the explosion is the already-teetering Lebanese economy. Despite decades of turmoil, the country’s banking system has managed to remain resilient. Attacks of this type threaten to bring down the last bastion of the country’s economic resistance.
It is clear that purging the Lebanese banking system of Hizbollah and its schemes is a crucial condition for Lebanon’s survival on the global banking and financial map. This explains the group’s recent outrage against the governor of the central bank.
But despite the internal rift that the US sanctions have caused between Hizbollah and the banking sector, openly attacking the sector would only serve Israel, which has a vested interest in undermining the Lebanese banking system, known for its rule of secrecy, wrote Nayla Tueini, a member of the Lebanese parliament and director of Annahar.
Translated by Racha Makarem
rmakarem@thenational.ae