Report: Obama 'Hindered' Hizbullah Probe to Preserve Iranian Deal

Former US President Barack Obama's administration has been accused of “blocking investigations” into an operation to stop “Hizbullah smuggling drugs” into the United States so that the nuclear deal with Iran could go forward, the US Politico said in a report on Tuesday.

Obama's administration has reportedly “blocked investigations to stop Hizbullah and its Iranian backers from smuggling drugs,” fearing that pursuing the suspects would undermine chances of reaching an agreement with Tehran over its nuclear program, according to Politico.

In a lengthy three-section report, the magazine reviewed documents and interviews with current and former US officials who said that Hizbullah has transformed from a political and military organization operating in the Middle East into an “international organization that earns up to $1 billion a year from trafficking in arms, drugs and money laundering.”

The report said that US officials in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Treasury obstructed the Drug Enforcement Administration complex operation in 2008 called “Project Cassandra” to tackle Hizbullah.

Politico added that Obama's administration has worked towards a deal to stop Iran's nuclear program in return for the lifting of economic sanctions which made the DEA's work more difficult.

It claimed it threw a number of obstacles, effectively paving the way for Hizbullah's “illegal activities.”

Officials at the Justice and Treasury departments have reportedly obstructed or delayed requests of Project Cassandra leaders as they sought approval for significant investigations, it concluded.