Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on monday accused Turkey of cooperating with Iranian attempts to smuggle money to Hezbollah in a meeting with a bipartisan group of US senators.
During the meeting at the Foreign Ministry, in which seven senators and Deputy Middle East Special Envoy Morgan Ortagus were present, Sa’ar told the group that Iran has stepped up its efforts to finance Hezbollah, and that Turkey has been an active participant in the process.
“There is an intensified Iranian effort to smuggle money into Lebanon for Hezbollah to restore its power and status,” Sa’ar said, according to his office. “This effort is being carried out, among other channels, via Turkey and with its cooperation.”
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been vocal in denouncing Israel since the beginning of its war on Gaza last year and has consistently expressed support for Hamas, which like the Turkish leader’s AKP party has close ties to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement. His rhetoric has been more lukewarm, however, on the gains Israel has made against Hezbollah in the past year, including the killing of the Shiite terror group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in September 2024.
At the time, analysts said Turkey could seize the opportunity to strengthen its regional influence in the face of Iran.
Turkey and Iran have usually had complicated ties, standing at odds over a host of issues, primarily the Syrian civil war, though Turkish banks have also been accused by the United States of providing financing to Hezbollah.
The IDF has recently alleged that Tehran is using civilian aircraft to smuggle cash to Beirut to arm Hezbollah.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, speaks during his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi sits at right, unseen, in Tehran, Iran, July 19, 2022. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
Iran’s nuclear program also came up during Monday’s meeting. According to Sa’ar’s office, the foreign minister said there are “worrying developments” from Iran’s nuclear program, which he attributed to Tehran’s efforts to compensate for the series of blows that the so-called Axis of Resistance it leads suffered over the past year.
Iran’s nuclear program also featured in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting Sunday with visiting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The US intelligence community recently presented assessments that Israel is considering strikes on the nuclear program, and that the attacks could come this year, according to the Washington Post.
Iran, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, insists its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes. However, the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA has said that Iran is currently enriching uranium to levels that have no civilian use, and the country has obstructed international inspectors seeking to visit its facilities.
In addition, The New York Times reported earlier this month that American intelligence indicated a covert team of Iranian scientists was exploring ways to quickly develop a nuclear weapon if the country’s leadership decided to pursue one.
Illustrative: US troops patrol near an oil well in al-Qahtaniyah in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province, close to the border with Turkey, on June 14, 2023. (Delil Souleiman/AFP)
Another topic raised during Sa’ar’s meeting with the US delegation was the potential withdrawal of American troops from Syria. According to his office, he said that the time is not right, given the ongoing fight against ISIS, and the “new situation” in Syria since the Assad regime fell, including threats to Kurdish autonomy.
The group that met with Sa’ar, which was headed by Senators Lindsey Graham and Dan Sullivan, also included Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Richard Blumenthal, Joni Ernst, Adam Schiff and Andy Kim.
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