Hezbollah Planned To Kill Israeli, US Diplomats In Colombia
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – New details have emerged about an alleged Iran-backed plot by Islamic militant group Hezbollah to kill Israeli and American citizens, including diplomats, in Colombia.
The revelations followed Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano’s confirmation that “two Hezbollah members” were detained in Colombia for their alleged involvement in the plot.
Those arrests reportedly came as Israel secretly rushed a former intelligence official away from Bogotá when it emerged that he was under surveillance by the Hezbollah operatives.
Colombian newspaper El Tiempo said the unnamed official, who recently opened a surveillance technology company in the Colombian capital, was among several “high-profile foreigners” being followed by Hezbollah.
He had earlier served a post-intelligence stint as part of Israel’s diplomatic mission in Bogotá, Colombian and Middle East sources said.
Citing an alleged government report with the information provided by Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, El Tiempo also reported that U.S. diplomatic personnel in Bogotá had been targeted for assassination.
HEZBOLLAH OPERATIVES
The newspaper said an Iranian national recruited the two Hezbollah operatives who were his fellow inmates in a Dubai prison sometime between 2017 and 2021.
Israel’s ‘Israel Hayom’ daily and website reported that the Iranian “recruiter” was a member of the feared Quds Force.
It is one of five branches of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps specialized in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations.
Iran backs Lebanon-based Hezbollah as it seeks the destruction of Israel.
As the extent of the apparent plot became, clear Defense Minister Molano first called Iran “an enemy of Colombia.”
However, in a separate interview, he said his comment during a visit to Israel was “hasty,” as “Colombia does not use the word enemy to refer to any nation.”
CLOSE TIES
Experts aren’t surprised about the presence of Hezbollah and its Iranian backers in Colombia.
Hezbollah has close ties to Colombia’s government-fighting rebels known as FARC or ‘Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces’.
In August 2009, a Lebanese national was detained in Honduras after being charged by U.S. prosecutors with conspiring to supply weapons to the FARC.
The weapons were allegedly stolen from Iraq with the help of a cousin who was a member of Hezbollah, prosecutors said at the time.
The Lebanese man, Jamal Yousef, also known as Talal Hassan Ghantou, was later sentenced to 12 years in prison by a court in Manhattan, New York.
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