Lebanon, Syria
Lebanese intelligence chiefs told to stem fuel drain on Syrian border

The Intelligence Gazette
EU counter-espionage, Lebanese intelligence and drug trafficking, new KNB vice director

Appointments, reforms and key issues: every Monday, Intelligence Online serves up snippets of news, big and small, from the global intelligence community. This week we hone in on Beirut, Beijing, Nur-Sultan and Brussels.

European Union Commission ramps up counter-intelligence

Lebanon Military intelligence to tackle drug trafficking

Kazakhstan Kazakh spymaster enlists financial investigator

China Xi Jinping confident Li Shulei named vice director of CCP's propaganda unit

Lebanon
France uneasy with Hezbollah's energy-fuelled ambitions

In the run-up to its operation to truck in Iranian fuel to help ease Lebanon's energy crisis, Hezbollah took stock of which organisations and businesses to supply. It even contacted entities that it does not control, some of which are close to French interests.

Iraq, Lebanon
Iraq-Lebanon oil deal stuck between a rock and a hard place

Baghdad wants payment in kind for its fuel in the form of Lebanese medical expertise or food products - which crisis-ridden Beirut is not well placed to provide.

France, Lebanon
Paris keeps mum on list of sanctioned individuals

Three individuals either close to or members of the Free Patriotic Movement led by Gebran Bassil are allegedly on the French foreign ministry's secret list of Lebanese citizens banned from entering French soil, measures France would like to extend further.

Israel
Alma centre offers platform for ex-intelligence agents to express their views

The research centre that relays Israel's anti-Iran rhetoric has picked up on a French political magazine's piece on Hezbollah in France, revealing a network of former intelligence officers who contribute to its reports.

France, Qatar
Belgian-Lebanese agent Georges Chebib struggles to convince in Paris

Businessman Georges Chebib has recently been doing the rounds of French companies to tout his services as an agent in Qatar. But after a number of setbacks with other agents in the emirate, French executives are wary.

Iraq, Lebanon
Qaiwan, the Iraqi oil firm behind Lebanon swap solution

So that it can fulfil its commitment to supply Beirut with oil to help ease the country's energy crisis, Irak has called in trader Qaiwan to set up a swap system as Kudistan crude is too high in sulphur to be used in Lebanon's power plants.

Iraq, Lebanon
Abbas Ibrahim key to Beirut-Baghdad oil deal

Lebanese spymaster Abbas Ibrahim has played a vital role in ongoing plans to export Iraqi oil to Beirut, discussing the arrangement with officials in Damascus, Cairo and even Washington.

Lebanon
Rahmehs still at heart of Beirut's energy business

Despite their involvement in the delivery of adulterated oil to Lebanon, brothers Raymond and Teddy Rahmeh still occupy a key role in the supply chain.

Syria
Maher refuses to submit to Moscow

The differences between Maher al-Assad and Russia continue (IOL 855), [...]