Foreign Relations

Hezbollah’s Foreign Relations Unit (established in 1985) is responsible for maintaining and developing relations with the Lebanese-Shiite communities around the world. It’s main purpose is fundraising for the organization, and managing religious and political propaganda on behalf of Hezbollah, thus, the unit is also tied to Hezbollah’s propaganda apparatus and to radio and television broadcasts.

In practice, the operatives of the Foreign Relations Unit also have covert mission aimed at assisting the ESO with intelligence collection, spotting operatives, and providing logistics aid in various areas.

The Unit’s Overt Activity

The unit people are mostly clerics and business people who are known in the Shiite communities and are publicly associated with Hezbollah. The unit is active in Europe, Africa, the U.S, and Asia.

The Foreign Relations Unit has known, overt headquarters in Beirut. Meetings of operatives in the unit are not held in a clandestine manner, since in the eyes of the public, they are not considered operational  operatives.

The Unit’s Declared Functions

Educations: helping establish Islamic educational  institutions, by providing funding, textbooks, and supplies.
Propaganda: distributing Hezbollah films, photographs, and newspapers in the community; organizing demonstrations around the world in support of Hezbollah and of the agenda of Hezbollah and Iran.
Handling  Hezbollah delegations to Shiite communities around the world: organizational delegations, diplomatic delegations, delegations of Shiite clerics.

Fundraising and humanitarian aid: for example, the humanitarian aid provided to refugees in Bosnia in the 1990’s.

Hosting  functionaries in Lebanon: journalists, clerics, delegations, attending meetings.

The Unit’s Covert Activity

As part of its covert activity, the Foreign Relations Unit helps the ESO in several spheres:
Spotting  local facilitators and operational operatives in the various arenas.
Relaying intelligence reports on the various arenas, including reports on Jewish and Israeli targets in these areas.

Logistic assistance in ESO activity areas: Transferring documentation from the various arenas for use by ESO, helping locate operational apartments, and supplying equipment in the field.

Organizational Chart