Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07BEIRUT1510
2007-09-28 13:53:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Beirut
Cable title:  

LEBANON: IRANIAN GOLD FOR SALE?

Tags:  EMIN ENIV ETRD PGOV PREL PTER IR LE 
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VZCZCXRO1142
PP RUEHAG RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHLB #1510 2711353
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 281353Z SEP 07
FM AMEMBASSY BEIRUT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9557
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 1642
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L BEIRUT 001510 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NSC FOR ABRAMS/SINGH/GAVITO/DEMOPULOS, STATE FOR NEA/ELA,

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/24/2017
TAGS: EMIN ENIV ETRD PGOV PREL PTER IR LE
SUBJECT: LEBANON: IRANIAN GOLD FOR SALE?

Classified By: DCM William Grant for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L BEIRUT 001510

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NSC FOR ABRAMS/SINGH/GAVITO/DEMOPULOS, STATE FOR NEA/ELA,

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/24/2017
TAGS: EMIN ENIV ETRD PGOV PREL PTER IR LE
SUBJECT: LEBANON: IRANIAN GOLD FOR SALE?

Classified By: DCM William Grant for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Iraqi businessman Dr. Sabah Hashem Allawi, brother of
former Iraqi Prime Minister and current Iraqi MP Iyad Allawi,
told DCM and Econoff on 9/11 that he had been asked to broker
a sale of gold that he later learned was registered to Iran.
Emboffs met Allawi at a lunch in Beirut arranged by prominent
local Lebanese businessman Abdel Wadoud Nsouli. Allawi is
the chairman of the board of the Trans Iraq Bank, and moves
frequently between Baghdad and Beirut. He said that in the
recent past he was contacted by someone (NFI) and asked to
broker the sale of 50 tonnes of gold bars, and was provided
with the serial numbers and markings on the bars. He was
told that the gold belonged to Hizballah, who wished to sell
it all at once, with a 10 percent discount.


2. (C) Allawi said he contacted USB, a major Swiss commercial
bank. USB researched the markings on the bars, and learned
that they had originated in South Africa, and were produced
and sold to Iran. Feeling confident about the gold's origin,
USB offered to make the purchase and was in the process of
sending a representative to Lebanon to complete the
transaction, Allawi said. At that point the sellers reneged
on the deal. Allawi said that they are apparently bleeding
off the gold through smaller sales, but he offered nothing to
substantiate that.
FELTMAN