A poster of Shiite leader Musa al-Sadr, who went missing in Libya in 1978, is seen along a roadside in Beirut on September 12, 2012 Mohamed Azakir/Reuters

Hezbollah Negotiated with Qaddafi, the Price of Sadr was $200 Million

08/30/2016
Beirut, London- A Syrian negotiator between the so-called Hezbollah party in Lebanon and Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the party was preparing a deal with Libya to receive $200 million, weapons and an apology in exchange of closing the file of Cleric Musa Sadr.
The Syrian figure said he had met with Qaddafi in 2004. During the meeting, the source said Qaddafi had asked him to speak with “Hezbollah” in a bid to solve the Sadr case. He said Qaddafi’s fears were mostly related to the security of his family members and their desire to travel to Lebanon to spend their vacations. One of Qaddafi’s sons, Hannibal, had even married Lebanese supermodel Aline Skaff in 2003.
The Syrian figure was able to convey Qaddafi’s proposition to “Hezbollah” due to his close relationship with the party’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and one of his closest aids, Hajj Hussein Khalil.
“I was tasked to engineer the deal, particularly the financial part, which did not constitute any burden to Qaddafi, whatever the sum was,” the Syrian negotiator said.
He added Hezbollah had placed three conditions to ink the deal. At the financial level, the party requested a sum of $200 million for establishing development and social projects under the name of Musa Sadr and which would be run directly by the party.
He said the party had also asked for arms and an apology from the Libyan authorities about the disappearance of Sayyed Musa Sadr.
The Syrian negotiator said the financial part did not constitute any barrier, however, the issue of providing “Hezbollah” with weapons was not an easy task.
He added a second barrier surged when Libya refused to apologize because such a move would be considered as a confession from Tripoli for being responsible for the disappearance of Musa Sadr.
Therefore, the negotiator said, “Libya had to reject the last request and end the deal.”

Asharq Al-Awsat


LINK: