The Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon has received hundreds of millions of dollars from Iran over the past year via money laundering operations in Dubai, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, after Tehran moved away from the smuggling routes it had previously used due to complications created by the fall of the Assad regime in Syria last December.

The report, which cited officials familiar with the matter, revealed that Iran has been funding Hezbollah’s efforts to rebuild its forces after much of the terror group and its leadership was wiped out in a year-long war with Israel, which ended in a truce last November.

To aid these efforts, the WSJ reported, Iran has been funneling money earned through oil sales to Hezbollah from within the United Arab Emirates, which has diplomatic relations with Israel.

The money from oil sales is moved through Iran-linked exchange shops and private companies, as well as to businessmen and couriers, the WSJ said. It is then transferred to Lebanon through the informal and centuries-old transfer system known as Hawala, in which individuals, rather than banks, act as brokers for money transfers. The system is widely used in Muslim countries, but is not limited to them.

Approached for comment by the WSJ, an unnamed Emirati official........

© The Times of Israel