Switzerland, the US administration and the Hezbollah joke

Benaw Izzat | Exclusive to iKurd.net

We don’t have the opportunity to laugh every day with the news, let’s take advantage of this good americano swiss joke.

The U.S. Department of Justice just sanctioned an Iranian oil smuggling ring. The crude was mixed with Indian oil at the Sharjah terminal before being sold on the international market with false certificates.

Within the official press release the US administration mentions:

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated members of an international oil smuggling network that facilitated oil trades and generated revenue for Hizballah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).

We are in a situation where the US has just guaranteed Hezbollah that Total and Qatar will be able to pay them future revenues from the exploitation of Block 9 off Lebanon. The two main signatories of this deal signed last week, Yair Lapid and General President Aoun are no longer in power. But in this case the financing of Hezbollah does not pose a problem for the American administration.

All this is starting to become amusing but the funniest part comes from the Swiss administration and its Federal Council. In a report published on November 3 it states:

“So far, no fundraising or other financial activities in favor of Hezbollah within the Lebanese Shiite diaspora have been observed.”

“A ban on Hezbollah or its activities could furthermore have negative effects on Switzerland’s image and on the work of the security services.”

For these reasons, the Federal Council does not intend to introduce additional measures against Hezbollah as an organization. However, all existing legal means will continue to be used in Switzerland in order to identify, prevent and punish any illegal activity committed by persons linked to Hezbollah.

The situation becomes particularly laughable when we look at the nationality of the players who have just been sanctioned by the DOJ for selling the smuggled oil to Hezbollah.

You are not dreaming, it is indeed the Geneva company AVA Petroleum, headed by the Ukrainian Viktor Artemov who resides in the most expensive district of the canton of Geneva in Cologny. His partner is the Swiss Gregorio Fazzone and they are well designated as the main responsible of the network sanctioned by the OFAC.

Many Ukrainian oligarchs are based in Switzerland and are known to be close to organized crime. The Federal Council probably did not foresee that Viktor Artemov, known from the Panama Papers and the Cyprus Register, could have activities with Hezbollah. He is neither bearded nor Muslim, so not on the Swiss radar, bad luck!

But which administration is naiver, the US one which allows the gas deal or Switzerland?

Mrs. Benaw Izzat – a special reporter and senior writer for iKurd.net.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.