ISRAEL, IRAN and the BALKANS Part 6

ISRAEL’S SECURITY CONCERNS IN THE BALKANS. ROMANIA

Adapted by Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring from the original article written by Chris Deliso

Executive Summary:

• Strong IRANIAN economic presence in ROMANIA
• LEBANON the leading ARAB state investor in ROMANIA, with total investments of over 2 billion EUROS
• ROMANIAN - LEBANESE partnership extends as far as military training for LEBANESE troops, and weaponry donations for their army
• Slight disagreement between ROMANIA and BULGARIA, after Burgas incident

ROMANIA: AN ESTABLISHED PRESENCE

An interesting and potentially important theater of activity for IRAN and Hezbollah is ROMANIA where, like SERBIA, economic cooperation with IRAN and other Islamic states originally owed to the politics of former communist times. A survey of ROMANIAN security services discusses the domestic intelligence service, the SRI, and its foreign intelligence counterpart, the SIE, a developed agency with offensive capabilities and strong US ties.

Nevertheless, the country is large, underdeveloped in some regions and has a very significant and well-documented IRANIAN economic presence, making it a potential area for IRANIAN-sanctioned operations. It is therefore reasonable to expect ISRAEL to also be active in monitoring the country with its local partners.

While they were long aware of the general problem, the Burgas bombing put the ROMANIAN services on a state of heightened alert. In August 2012, following a request from the SRI, ROMANIAN public prosecutors asked the Bucharest Court of Appeals to declare eight Middle Eastern resident persona non grata for 15 years. According to Ziare, “they were accused of having strong connections with Hezbollah and Hamas, of having intended to organize a group on ROMANIAN territory to support illegal immigration from the MIDDLE EAST to be used by Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists. Two of the eight had diplomatic status.”

STRONG IRANIAN ECONOMIC PRESENCE IN ROMANIA

The ROMANIAN media had already taken an interest in terrorism back in April 2011. Citing Wikileaks cables, Jurnalul reported that some 90 persons and 40 firms in ROMANIA were actively financing terrorist organizations in late 2004. Another cable from July 2005 revealed concerns over a suspected LEBANESE Hezbollah member involved in drug dealing. In 2005, his request for permanent residency in ROMANIA was declined.

Then, in July 2011, Romania Libera reported on a DEA undercover investigation, which led to the extradition to the US of IRANIAN citizen Siavosh Henareh and TURKISH citizen Cetin Aksu. US authorities had accused the two of intending to procure arms for Hezbollah, through using economic cover- the method noted by Israeli experts elsewhere. Henareh, a ROMANIAN resident, had been a partner with ROMANIAN businessmen in a baking company and owned a holding company.

How extensive is the IRANIAN economic presence in ROMANIA? It revealed that IRANIANS have capital in over 2,600 ROMANIAN companies across a variety of sectors, and also provided a variety of relevant statistics and information on recent governmental visits and bilateral parliamentary friendship groups. This extensive degree of economic and diplomatic cover would allow IRAN the opportunity that ISRAELI experts have found in other similar states where IRAN or Hezbollah has operated against ISRAELI and Jewish interests.

LEBANON THE LEADING ARAB STATE INVESTOR IN ROMANIA, WITH TOTAL INVESTMENTS OF OVER 2 BILLION EUROS

IRAN is, however, far from the largest investor in ROMANIA. The Arab Muslim world, however, is well represented and it seems that this partly has to do with a reaction against IRAN. Official statements from President Basescu made at the February 2012 ROMANIA-LEBANON Business Forum noted that LEBANON was the leading ARAB state investor in ROMANIA, with total investments of over 2 billion euros.  More recent data on bilateral accords was made available in a December 2012 report (.PDF) released by the ROMANIAN Ministry of Economy, Department of Foreign Trade and International Relations.

ROMANIAN-LEBANESE PARTNERSHIP EXTENDS AS FAR AS MILITARY TRAINING FOR LEBANESE TROOPS, AND WEAPONRY DONATIONS FOR THEIR ARMY

At the business forum, it also emerged that the ROMANIAN-LEBANESE partnership extends as far as military training for LEBANESE troops, and weaponry donations for their army. The leaders also discussed the situations in SYRIA and EGYPT, plus the IRANIAN nuclear program. Such discussions and initiatives to strengthen LEBANESE military capacities against possible threats from SYRIA or Hezbollah conceivably indicate ISRAELI or AMERICAN influence at work in ROMANIA.

SLIGHT DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN ROMANIA AND BULGARIA, AFTER BURGAS INCIDENT

One interesting result of the Burgas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Burgas_bus_bombing) investigation has been a low-key disagreement between ROMANIAN and BULGARIAN services. This should not affect cooperation, but it has taken on unusually public dimensions. This was fuelled by initial speculation that the Hezbollah plotters used ROMANIA either as a logistics base for planning the attack or as an escape route after it. This has led the ROMANIAN security establishment to conduct an internal investigation.

On 6 February 2013, then-BULGARIAN Interior Minister Tsvetanov declared that two of the surviving suspects fled through ROMANIA, and from there flew to LEBANON. According to him, they had also entered BULGARIA from ROMANIA, on foot. If true, this would somewhat embarrass the ROMANIAN security services- or, it could just be a case of BULGARIA passing the buck.

Either way, the announcement did have an effect. In a press release noted by Mediafax on 19 February, the SRI specified that ‘up to now’ no evidence exists to support the claim that the plot ‘had been prepared’ or ‘supported’ from ROMANIA. The SRI press release added that “during the verification and common evaluation one person suspected of being involved in the terrorist action in BULGARIA was identified. 

Up to now, there are no elements or clues that the identified persons would have realized activities of preparing or supporting’ the attack in Burgas.” The SRI did also mention that the investigation is ongoing.

That somewhat vague SRI communiqué seems to be the official ROMANIAN response to the declarations of the BULGARIAN minister, an apparent matter of prestige for the SRI.”

The SRI has announced a series of ‘specific measures’ to be taken, which include collaboration with the BULGARIAN authorities and other international partners. But the security agency also points out that ROMANIA cannot prevent such actions and cannot intervene if the people transiting ROMANIA are not on any international list of terrorism suspects- a clear allusion to the Burgas case.”

Regarding ROMANIA it can be assumed that due to the deeply embedded IRANIAN economic presence, and the ‘soft target’ nature of the country, that ISRAEL will take a greater interest in the countries on goings. While ISRAEL’S attention may not be the same level as is the case with BOSNIA or even ALBANIA, it still tends to be significant. At the same time, the ISRAELIS will also feel more confident in the abilities of their local partners here than in those BALKAN states with Muslim majorities or less robust Intel. services.