Damascus positions itself as energy mafia for Lebanon

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Title : Damascus positions itself as energy mafia for Lebanon
Link : Damascus positions itself as energy mafia for Lebanon

Every good mafia don knows that the way to achieve more profit and power is to position oneself between things that people want and semi-legal services that a mafia can provide while corrupting institutions and law enforcers to allow the service to continue.

This may involve gambling or corrupting unions or moving drugs in a traditional mafia setting, but in a state setting, it can also mean putting a totalitarian regime state seeking legitimacy and profits astride the energy needs of another neighboring state. It seems the Assad family in Syria, which has plenty of mafia-like characteristics and mafia-like friends in Iran and Hezbollah, is now doing this to Lebanon’s energy sector.

A senior Lebanese delegation went to Syria last week with the intention of trying to get Syria to be a conduit for electricity and natural gas. This would help ease Lebanon’s fuel crises and the financial disaster that Lebanon is now living with. According to the reports, sending the delegation was an attempt to repair relations between Lebanon and Syria. This is mostly a false narrative because Hezbollah, which effectively controls Lebanon, is an ally of the Syrian regime and of Iran and Iran is an ally of the Syrian regime. Hezbollah sent many fighters to support Bashar al-Assad’s regime during the war and Hezbollah conducts Lebanese foreign policy on some issues, and insofar as it does, Lebanon and Syria are allies.

It is true that Syria occupied Lebanon for decades, withdrawing only after Hezbollah assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005. For a short period, it seemed that those opposed to Hezbollah and Syria might come to power under an alliance led by Saad Hariri, son of Rafic. To prevent this, Hezbollah launched a war against Israel in 2006 and then engineered a dispute with Hariri and his allies in 2008 over Hezbollah’s demand to have its own communications network to support its state-within-a-state.

Fast forward to 2021. Lebanon is in a financial crisis. Most of the country is now on the verge of poverty. The country is billions in debt. Dangerous ammonium nitrate, stockpiled at the port, likely by Hezbollah, blew up last year and destroyed part of Beirut, killing over 200 people. Hezbollah holds the government hostage, has an ally in the president and has prevented a new Prime Minister from being appointed, much as it prevented a president from being appointed for years. This is the Hezbollah model: Hollow out Lebanon, turn it into a province within "Hezbollahstan," and then use it as a conduit for cash and corruption and weapons. READ MORE