French President Emmanuel Macron planted a cedar tree in a forest north of Beirut, marking Lebanon's centenary on Tuesday, ahead of talks with officials on ways to help extract the country from an unprecedented economic and financial crisis and the aftermath of a massive blast that left thousands dead or wounded.
Macron returned to Lebanon on Monday, his second visit since the devastating explosion last month ripped through Beirut — the most destructive single incident in Lebanon’s history. This time his visit, packed with events and political talks aimed at charting a way out of the crisis, also comes as Lebanon celebrates its 100th anniversary.
The day before, Lebanon’s Ambassador to Germany Mustapha Adib was appointed by the president to form a new government after winning the backing of major political parties and leaders in Lebanon. But the 48-year-old diplomat, little known to the public before he emerged abruptly as a consensus candidate, faces a mammoth task and has been rejected by activists and a public demanding that long-ruling politicians stand down.
French President Emmanuel Macron plants a cedar with members of the NGO Jouzour Loubnan in Jaj, near Beirut, Tuesday Sept. 1, 2020. French President Emmanuel Macron returned to Lebanon on Monday, a country in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, for a two-day visit and a schedule packed with events and political talks aimed at charting a way out for the country. (Gonzalo FuentesPool via AP)
France and the international community have said they will not provide financial assistance to Lebanon unless it implements reforms to fight widespread corruption and mismanagement that have brought the tiny nation to the brink of bankruptcy. Adib, a dual Lebanese-French citizen, promised to carry out the mission as he prepared to form a new Cabinet, saying he will work on reaching a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund.
In another step by the outgoing government to show that Lebanon is moving ahead with reforms, outgoing Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni signed Tuesday three contracts related to a forensic audit of Lebanon’s Central Bank accounts to determine how massive amounts of money were spent in the nation plagued by corruption.
After his arrival on Monday night, Macron went straight to meet the country’s top diva, Fairouz, at her home near Beirut. He later met with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
Aircrafts release smoke with the colors of the Lebanese flag as French President Emmanuel Macron panted a cedar in Jaj, near Beirut, Tuesday Sept. 1, 2020. French President Emmanuel Macron returned to Lebanon on Monday, a country in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, for a two-day visit and a schedule packed with events and political talks aimed at charting a way out for the country. Ar right is French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian. (Gonzalo FuentesPool via AP)
On Tuesday morning, the French president went to a forest in northeast Lebanon where he planted a cedar tree to mark 100 years since the State of Greater Lebanon — the precursor of the modern state of Lebanon — was established. Lebanon was a former French protectorate until it gained independence in 1943.
French warplanes flew in formation, drawing the colors of a Lebanese flag over the Jaj forest in the Byblos region in Lebanon.
From the forest, Macron went to the port of Beirut where nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrates stored there for six years exploded on Aug. 4, killing 190 people, injuring more than 6,000 and damaging entire neighborhoods of the city.
French President Emmanuel Macron hugs blast victim Tamara Tayah after planting a cedar with members of the NGO Jouzour Loubnan in Jaj, near Beirut, Tuesday Sept. 1, 2020. French President Emmanuel Macron returned to Lebanon on Monday, a country in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, for a two-day visit and a schedule packed with events and political talks aimed at charting a way out for the country. Ar right is French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian. (Gonzalo FuentesPool via AP)
Macron came to Lebanon two days after the blast, getting a hero's welcome in one of the damaged neighborhoods amid absence by local leaders.
During last month's visit, Macron warned Lebanon’s political class that he wouldn’t give “blank checks to a system that no longer has the trust of its people.” He called on them to create a “new political order.”
Lebanon that has one of the highest debt ratios in the world standing at 170% of the GDP defaulted on paying back its debt for the first time in March. Seventeen rounds of talks between the IMF and the former government, that resigned six days after the blast, did not lead to a breakthrough.
French President Emmanuel Macron is to plant a cedar in Jaj, near Beirut, Tuesday Sept. 1, 2020. French President Emmanuel Macron returned to Lebanon on Monday, a country in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, for a two-day visit and a schedule packed with events and political talks aimed at charting a way out for the country. (Gonzalo FuentesPool via AP)
BEIT MERI, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanon’s interior minister alleged Wednesday that the mysterious abduction and killing of a Hezbollah-linked Lebanese currency exchanger in a villa on the edge of a quiet mountain resort town earlier this month was likely the work of Israeli intelligence operatives.
The killing of Mohammad Srour, 57, who was sanctioned by the U.S., was like something out of an international spy thriller. Pistols equipped with silencers and gloves were found in a bucket of water at the scene, along with chemicals apparently intended to remove fingerprints and other evidence, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said in an interview with The Associated Press. Thousand of dollars in cash were left scattered around Srour’s body, as if to dispel any speculation that robbery was the motive.
“Lebanese security agencies have suspicion or accusations that Mossad was behind this operation,” Mawlawi said, referring to the Israeli spy agency. “The way the crime was carried out led to this suspicion.”
He provided no specific evidence for his allegations. Mawlawi said the investigation is still ongoing and once it's over, the results will be made public and referred to judicial authorities.
The Israeli prime minister’s office, which oversees Mossad, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suspicion by Lebanon’s security agencies that the crime could be the work of Israeli agents comes at a time when Lebanon’s southern border region has been rocked by ongoing clashes between militants of the Hamas-allied Hezbollah group and Israeli troops.
The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Srour in 2019 over his alleged money transfers from Iran through Hezbollah to the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Mohammad Srour’s activity in money exchange is known, as are the transfers of money from which side to which side,” Mawlawi said.
Srour’s killing earlier this month, came as U.S. and Israeli officials have been trying to crack down on transfers of funds to Hamas. The push has intensified following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that triggered the devastating war in Gaza and its ripple effects around the region.
Last month, a senior U.S. Treasury official visiting Beirut pressed Lebanese authorities to prevent funds from being funneled to Hamas through the tiny country. Jesse Baker, deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for Asia and the Middle East in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, met with top Lebanese political and financial officials.
Israel's military said it has killed a number of money exchangers in Gaza for allegedly funding Hamas.
Srour’s killing was clearly planned in advance. Three Lebanese judicial officials familiar with the investigation told the AP that a man posing as a customer had contacted Srour from abroad and asked him to deliver a cash transfer to a woman in the mountain resort of Beit Meri.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said Srour first went with his nephew and left after handing the woman the money. He was contacted by the same person with another request a day after his first visit, the officials said. This time he went alone, after which his family lost contact with him.
Mawlawi said the cellphone the woman used to get in touch with Srour was only activated to contact him.
He said the perpetrators had first tried to rent an apartment in Beirut’s southeastern suburb of Hazmieh, a detail that has not been previously reported, but they later canceled, apparently because “they did not find (the apartment) suitable to carry out the operation."
Mawlawi said the killers then shifted to the quiet town of Beit Meri, famous for its posh homes with red-brick roofs, sprawling forest and Roman-era archaeological site, where they rented a three-story villa on the edge of the town using fake Lebanese identity cards. The General Security Directorate is looking into the identities of people who entered and left the country around the period of the killing, he said.
Srour went missing on April 3 in Beit Meri, and his body was found a week later in the villa. Mawlawi said investigators found “a large number of bullet” wounds in different parts of his body, including his arms and legs. He was reportedly handcuffed.
The villa is located on a quiet side street lush with trees.
“We did not hear anything,” said Christian Francis, who lives across the street from the villa where Srour was killed. He added that most people in the highly secured area have dogs, while municipal police have a checkpoint nearby and the Lebanese army has a post few hundred meters (yards) away.
Beit Meri’s mayor, Roy Abou Chedid, told the AP that the apartment was rented in late February to an unknown person for one year for $48,000. He added that the family that owns the villa did not register the rental contract at the municipality but had paid its municipal taxes on time in November.
“The operation was carried out in a way that is more than professional,” Abou Chedid said, adding that the neighbors did not suspect anything and it took security agencies some time to locate which house Srour’s body was in.
A Hezbollah spokesperson declined to comment on the killing citing the ongoing investigation. The spokesperson refused to say whether Srour was a Hezbollah member but said that he worked in the past for the al-Qard al-Hasan Association, the financial arm of the Iran-backed group.
Israel has a long history of targeted killings in Lebanon, including drone strikes that have killed high-ranking Hezbollah commanders over the past six months. At least 260 Hezbollah members have been killed by Israel in that period.
The U.S. has accused Srour of transferring tens of millions of dollars annually from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, alleging that starting in 2014, Srour “was identified as in charge of all money transfers” from the IRGC to the Qassam Brigades.
Srour’s family members have not given media interviews since his body was found but said in a televised statement that all his financial transactions were transparent and he simply worked in currency exchange. They urged security agencies to swiftly find the perpetrators.
During Srour’s funeral in his hometown of Labweh in northeast Lebanon, a Hezbollah flag was flown over his coffin and scores of men and women chanted “death to America and death to Israel” as they marched toward the cemetery.
Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Josef Federman contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
A municipal police officer stands outside a villa where the Lebanese money changer Mohammad Srour, 57, was found tortured and killed in Monte Verdi neighborhood of Beit Meri, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Lebanon’s interior minister alleged Wednesday that the mysterious abduction and killing of a Hezbollah-linked Lebanese financier in a villa on the edge of a quiet mountain resort town earlier this month was likely the work of Israeli operatives. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at the interior ministry in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Lebanon’s interior minister alleged Wednesday that the mysterious abduction and killing of a Hezbollah-linked Lebanese financier in a villa on the edge of a quiet mountain resort town earlier this month was likely the work of Israeli operatives. (AP Photo/ Hassan Ammar)
In this grab taken from video, mourners carry the coffin of Lebanese money changer Mohammad Srour, 57, who was found tortured and killed inside a villa in Monte Verdi neighborhood of Beit Meri, during his funeral procession in Labweh village, near the border with Syria, northeast Lebanon, Thursday, April 11, 2024. Lebanon’s interior minister alleged Wednesday that the mysterious abduction and killing of a Hezbollah-linked Lebanese financier in a villa on the edge of a quiet mountain resort town earlier this month was likely the work of Israeli operatives. (AP Photo)
Medical gloves sit outside a villa where money changer Mohammad Srour, 57, was found tortured and killed in Monte Verdi neighbourhood of Beit Meri, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Lebanon’s interior minister alleged Wednesday that the mysterious abduction and killing of a Hezbollah-linked Lebanese financier in a villa on the edge of a quiet mountain resort town earlier this month was likely the work of Israeli operatives. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
In this grab taken from video, mourners pray over the coffin of Lebanese money changer Mohammad Srour, 57, who was found tortured and killed inside a villa in Monte Verdi neighborhood of Beit Meri, during his funeral procession in Labweh village, near the border with Syria, northeast Lebanon, Thursday, April 11, 2024. Lebanon’s interior minister alleged Wednesday that the mysterious abduction and killing of a Hezbollah-linked Lebanese financier in a villa on the edge of a quiet mountain resort town earlier this month was likely the work of Israeli operatives. (AP Photo)
Lebanese authorities sealed the main door of a villa where money changer Mohammad Srour, 57, was found tortured and killed in Monte Verdi neighbourhood of Beit Meri, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. The mysterious abduction and murder of a United States-sanctioned Lebanese money changer in a three-story villa on the edge of a quiet mountain resort town overlooking Beirut was most likely the work of Israeli operatives, Lebanon's interior minister said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Municipal police officers patrol outside a villa where the Lebanese money changer Mohammad Srour, 57, was found tortured and killed in Monte Verdi neighbourhood of Beit Meri, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Lebanon’s interior minister alleged Wednesday that the mysterious abduction and killing of a Hezbollah-linked Lebanese financier in a villa on the edge of a quiet mountain resort town earlier this month was likely the work of Israeli operatives. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
