Ghazi Nasr Al-Din is a Lebanese Venezuelan who served as ''

charge d'affaires Charge or charged may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary Music * ''Charge'' (David Ford album) * ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album) * ''Charge!!'', an album by The Aqua ...

'' of the Venezuelan Embassy in Damascus, Syria and is accused of assisting

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...

Early life

Ghazi Nasr Al-Din was born on 13 December 1962 or 1 October 1971 in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

Career

In 2000, shortly after

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...

came to power, Nasr Al-Din immigrated into Venezuela. Nasr Al-Din eventually established a relationship with aspiring Venezuelan politician

Tareck El Aissami Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah (; ar, طارق زيدان العيسمي مداح; born 12 November 1974) is a Venezuelan politician serving as Minister of Industries and National Production since 14 June 2018, and as Minister of Petroleum sin ...

. He was then made the Charge d' Affaires of the Venezuelan Embassy in Damascus, Syria. In 2008, he was appointed as Director of Political Aspects at the Venezuelan Embassy in Lebanon.

Controversy

Hezbollah allegations

While serving as a Venezuelan diplomat in Venezuela and making connections through a local Islamic group in Venezuela, Nasr Al-Din allegedly established ties to various entities in the Middle East, including the terrorist organization

. The Government of the United States has accused Nasr Al-Din of having "counseled Hizballah donors on fundraising efforts and has provided donors with specific information on bank accounts where the donors' deposits would go directly to Hizballah" and had "met with senior Hizballah officials in Lebanon to discuss operational issues, as well as facilitated the travel of Hizballah members to and from Venezuela". Allegations also involved an event in January 2006, where "Nasr al Din facilitated the travel of two Hizballah representatives to the Lebanese Parliament to Caracas to solicit donations for Hizballah and to announce the opening of a Hizballah-sponsored community center and office in Venezuela", later assisting the travel of more Hezbollah members to Iran. Nasr Al-Din had also met with Walid Makled, a Venezuelan drug trafficker, doing "business" with him. Following the 2006 appointment of

Nicolás Maduro Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and president of Venezuela since 2013, with his presidency under dispute since 2019. Beginning his working life as a bus driver, Maduro rose to become a trade unio ...

, Venezuela's future president, to be Venezuela's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasr Al-Din's diplomatic workload increased as he delivered multiple Venezuelan visas to Lebanese citizens in 2007. In 2008, the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

placed Nasr Al-Din on its terrorism blacklist citing his assistance of Hezbollah. A 22 August 2010 meeting in Caracas was also planned by Nasr Al-Din, which involved Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez,

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...

Supreme Leader

Khaled Meshal Khaled Mashal ( ar, خالد مشعل, Khālid Mashʿal, Levantine Arabic: , born 28 May 1956) is a former leader of the Palestinian organization Hamas. After the founding of Hamas in 1987, Mashal became the leader of the Kuwaiti branch of th ...

, a Hezbollah leader and Secretary-General of the

Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine ( ar, حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين, ''Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn''), known in the West simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist par ...

Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah. In 2015, the FBI listed him as a person of interest due to his connections to Hezbollah.

Family involvement

Nasr Al-Din brothers, Abdallah and Oday, both reside in

Isla Margarita Margarita Island (, ) is the largest island in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, situated off the northeastern coast of the country, in the Caribbean Sea. The capital city of Nueva Esparta, La Asunción, is located on the island. History ...

, Venezuela. Abdallah Nasr Al-Din allegedly launders money for Hezbollah on the island while Oday recruits chavistas to join

Bolivarian Circles The Bolivarian Circles ( es, Círculos bolivarianos) are political and social organizations of workers' councils in Venezuela, originally created by President Hugo Chávez on 21 December 2001.http://www.bauleros.org/TEMAS/PAISES/ARGENTINA/2001-12 ...

and travel to Iran for training.

References