Turkey — a NATO Member State — Openly Hosts a Senior Hezbollah Official

While Turkey, as a NATO member state, serves as a base for transferring money for Hezbollah (as well as Hamas), senior Hezbollah operatives also take part in official and open conferences on its soil. On 7 December it was reported that Sayyid Ammar al-Moussawi, head of Hezbollah’s Arab and international relations department, participated as the head of a delegation of the organization in a conference held in Istanbul on the subject of “Palestine.” Ammar al-Moussawi (عمار الموسوي) was born in 1962. His brother, Jamil al-Moussawi, was killed in 1988 in a battle against the IDF. Al-Moussawi previously served as a member of parliament on behalf of the organization’s bloc as the representative of the Beqaa.

Hezbollah’s Arab and international relations department maintains contact with diplomats and foreign guests and serves as a central conduit in Hezbollah’s attempts to preserve channels of influence and ties with Arab states and beyond. The department operates under Hezbollah’s political–diplomatic council, headed by Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed, a member of Hezbollah’s Shura Council. His deputy is Mahmoud Qamati. The council was founded in 1995. Its functions are to provide political and diplomatic advice to the Shura Council and to maintain, through dedicated departments such as al-Moussawi’s, contact with influencers and opinion leaders from across the Lebanese political spectrum, civilian power centers in Lebanon, and foreign states. Among other things, the council and its departments are engaged in planning political programs, drafting election platforms, planning campaigns, and establishing political alliances and maintaining them. This is an advisory body only, which does not make decisions.