Report: Iranian Threats Preceded BLOM Bank Blast
The explosion that rocked Beirut Sunday evening and that targeted the HQ of BLOM Bank, was preceded by a series of “threat” messages the most recent was a report published by the Iranian Fars News Agency, al-Mustaqbal daily reported on Monday.
The message enclosed warnings attributed to a figure associate of Hizbullah against the banking sector in Lebanon, it said.
The Iranian News Agency's report was published only two hours prior the explosion and it included a clear threat that Hizbullah is ready to put into implementation a plan similar to the “May 7” incidents in 2008, that brought the country to the brink of a new civil war.
In 2008, Gunmen belonging to Hizbullah and its allies swept through Beirut’s neighborhoods after the government of then PM Fouad Saniora tried to dismantle the group's telecommunications network.
The fighting left scores dead and wounded.
Mustaqbal added “it is clear that there is a close link between the message intended from the bank blast and the mounting tension between Hizbullah and the banking sector after the U.S. sanctions against the party.”
But sources of Lebanon's Central Bank told the newspaper that “the message will not work because the banking sector has no option but to implement the U.S. and International laws.”
Saad Azhari, the head of BLOM bank, said no one should jump to conclusion as to who was behind the attack.
“We are interested in being a serious bank that serves the interests of all (Lebanese). We don't take measures to harm any one particular group," he told reporters at the scene of Sunday's blast in the Verdun area.
The blast preceded several fervent statements against Lebanon's banking sector, particularly when the Fars News Agency assured that the “confrontation has become inevitable between Hizbullah and the banks,” it said.
The report expressed dismay at the stance of the Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh when he said that Lebanon cannot but abide by the U.S. laws.
The report voiced threats against Salameh and said that “abiding by the US laws is gravely endangering the banking sector.”
A U.S. law was voted in December by the Congress and it imposes sanctions on banks that deal with Hizbullah.
In May, Lebanon's central bank instructed the country's banks and financial institutions to comply with the U.S. law.
Washington has labeled Hizbullah a global terrorist group since 1995, accusing it of a long list of attacks including the bombing of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983.
Source: Naharnet
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