A new Israeli study indicates that pro-Iranian terrorist activity based in Lebanon is expanding across the globe, including the appointment of individuals to high-profile positions in order to push anti-Israel policy in numerous countries and even conceal Hezbollah activity in Europe and the United States.
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Dr. Michael Barak, a senior researcher and project manager at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, authored the report, which can be found on the ICT website. According to the report, an organization known as the "Arab and Muslim Union for Supporting the Resistance" is used as a pro-Iranian international platform that seeks to advance the goals of the resistance axis against the US, Israel and their allies. The group is headed by Lebanese national Yehia Ghaddar.
The pro-Iranian organization, which is based in Lebanon, maintains close-knit ties with Hezbollah and Shiite militias in Iraq, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and Palestinian terrorist groups such as Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The organization has cultivated a network of global activity with the help of radical organizations and clerics, and even secular figures with the same worldview – which consists of the need to "fight imperialism and Zionism."
The Arab and Muslim Union for Supporting the Resistance presents itself as a framework meant to bolster the resistance axis, among other ways through public relations and raising awareness about "American and Zionist subversion." The organization does not hide its charter, which states support for armed struggle against its enemies, chief among them Israel. The organization also boasts of being at the forefront of Shiite activity across the globe.
The group also doesn't conceal its complete synchronicity with Hezbollah. At a conference in 2019, for example, which was attended by Hezbollah's official in charge of the terrorist organization's Palestine portfolio, participants accused the US and Israel of sponsoring the popular uprisings in Iraq. "The path of peace adopted by the Palestinians in order to restore their rights has failed," the Hezbollah official told the conference at the time.
A month ago, during an online conference marking the one-year anniversary of the assassinations of former Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Committee in Iraq, participants called for revenge and said the assassinations were a war crime justifying prosecution of the US at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
The conference also included calls that coincide with Iranian policy, such as strengthening cooperation with "popular protest movements" in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan – in the aim of helping them force their governments to withdraw from the Abraham Accords with Israel.
Meanwhile, the assassination of deputy al-Qaida commander Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah in Tehran on August 7 proved to the world that from the ayatollah regime's perspective, as long as it serves its interests it doesn't matter whether the terrorist is a Shiite or Sunni. And such is the case with the Arab and Muslim Union for Supporting the Resistance, which uses social media to conduct relations with the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. In even closer proximity to Israel, the organization also has a representative in Ramallah, Amal Wadhan.
The Arab and Muslim Union for Supporting the Resistance has also branched out beyond the Middle East, for instance maintaining ties with the regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. In Europe, alarmingly, the organization is operating unencumbered, despite the fact that several European countries have designated Hezbollah a terrorist group.
In England, Martha Mundy, Prof. Emeritus of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and a prominent pro-Palestinian activist, helped coordinate the organization's international conference. In Germany, the organization's coordinator, Ibrahim Ibrahim, operates freely even though Hezbollah is outlawed in the country. In France, the organization's coordinator was a former advisor to UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force along the Israel-Lebanon border.
The group also operates unhindered in North America. In the US, the group's is represented by Paul Larudee, an Iranian-born political activist who is a major figure in the pro-Palestinian movement. Larudee has met in the past with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. The Arab and Muslim Union for Supporting the Resistance also has representatives in Africa and Australia. Thus, under the entire world's radar, Iran has created a network supporting terrorism.
'Shut down the organization's branches, now'
"Those countries where Hezbollah has been declared a terrorist organization must shut down the Arab and Muslim Union for Supporting the Resistance," says Dr. Michael Barak. "It's not just propaganda and dissent that gets passed through this social network, but also funding for [Shiite] militias and Hezbollah. The very presence of Arab and Muslim Union for Supporting the Resistance activists, who are pro-Hezbollah, illustrates the need to prosecute them."
Barak continues: "Countries such as Egypt and Morocco, which have peace agreements with Israel, have an interest in shutting down these branches, which are trying to mold public opinion and annul the Abraham Accords. This poses a threat to the stability of the regimes."
Regarding the Palestinian Authority, Barak says "It's very troubling, as the question that arises is why the PA allows such activity in its territory… Israel, the US and the enlightened world need to create a mechanism for coordinating the fight against the resistance axis' unseen activity."
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