A senior Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Qods Force commander reportedly assassinated by Israel had commercial interests in a mysterious company outside Lebanon’s capital.
Major General Hassan Shateri — who Iran said was “martyred by the agents” of Israel while en-route from Beirut to Damascus in February 2013 — is listed as one of the three owners of Cleany & Co. SARL in Lebanon’s online corporate register.
The firm — co-founded by Shateri in November 2011 — is registered to provide cleaning, maintenance, and repair services for houses and offices. Cleany & Co. SARL, which has no public footprint, was registered to an address in Sad el-Bauchrieh, an eastern suburb of Beirut where Hezbollah has no political or security presence.
Cleany & Co. SARL’s stated line of business and location appears anomalous to Shateri’s mission in Lebanon, where he “led the Iranian-financed reconstruction projects in the south” of the Mediterranean country, according to Press TV.
Shateri’s portfolio of other companies in Lebanon included New Roads S.A.R.L. and National Crushers Company, both based in southern Lebanon and involved in the efforts of Shateri’s Iranian Committee for the Reconstruction of Lebanon to rebuild roadways in the region.
Lebanese corporate records reveal that Cleany & Co. SARL is connected to Hezbollah’s commercial activities. One of the co-owners of the company, Mohammad Haydar Qanso, also holds shares in Arch Consulting, a south Beirut-based engineering and architecture firm.
Arch Consulting was part of Hezbollah’s Jihad al-Bina construction institution until it spun off as an independent company after 2005. The company’s general manager and majority shareholder, Walid Jaber, had served as the head of Jihad al-Bina’s Beirut reconstruction efforts following the 2006 July War.
Jaber eulogized Shateri in his official biography, saying the Iranian general exemplified high standards of engineering as well as piousness. Shateri’s biography provides insights into his work in Lebanon, although it offers no clues what role Cleany & Co. SARL would have played in his activities.
Shateri was buried with full honors in Tehran at a funeral attended IRGC Qods Force chief Qassem Soleimani and other top dignitaries. At the ceremony, cleric Alireza Panahian said that Shateri was “no less than” Imad Mughniyeh, the Hezbollah military commander assassinated in Damascus in 2008.
Source » levantnetworks