New investigation reveals that Iran’s regime relies on exchange houses, private firms, and hawala networks in Dubai to bypass sanctions and rebuild Hezbollah’s financial lifeline.
A detailed new investigation exposes how Iran’s regime has spent the past year funneling hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenue to Hezbollah through exchange houses, private companies, and hawala networks operating from Dubai. These channels have become central to Hezbollah’s financial survival after its traditional routes collapsed under regional upheaval and intensified security controls inside Lebanon.
According to a report published by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, November 27, 2025, sources familiar with the transfers confirmed that Tehran has used Dubai for years to evade sanctions, but its dependence on the emirate has sharply increased. With previous pathways disrupted, both Iran’s regime and Hezbollah now rely more heavily than ever on Dubai as their primary financial artery.
Hezbollah’s financial crisis deepened after last year’s war with Israel, which left the group struggling to rebuild and rearm. The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria—previously the most critical ally of Iran’s regime in sustaining smuggling routes—further dismantled the networks through which funds once flowed.
At the same time, Lebanese authorities introduced strict monitoring of cash entering Beirut’s airport, closing another conduit long used by Tehran. Before the November 27, 2024 ceasefire, the Iranian regime routinely delivered large sums in cash through Beirut.
After the ceasefire took effect exactly one year ago, that method nearly disappeared. Over the past year, many operatives responsible for physically moving money from Iran’s regime to Hezbollah were also killed in Israeli strikes, reducing the manpower available to sustain older systems.
The new financial structure sends oil revenues from Iran into Dubai, where they pass through exchange companies, private firms, and traders linked to Tehran. From there, the money enters Lebanon via hawala networks.
Arab officials told the newspaper that Tehran has additionally begun sending more travelers to Beirut, each carrying smaller amounts of cash or easily concealed high-value items, to compensate for the collapse of the older bulk-cash system. Officials added that Hezbollah supplements Tehran’s support through other global income streams, including narcotics trafficking and the diamond trade.
The U.S. Treasury Department previously confirmed that the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps transferred more than one billion dollars to Hezbollah in the current year alone, much of it channeled through exchange houses.
An Emirati official told the Wall Street Journal that the UAE is committed to preventing the misuse of its territory for illicit financial activity and is cooperating with international partners to curb such operations. American officials told the paper that Washington is also monitoring transfers through Turkey and Iraq, both of which have become additional points of concern.
Following the restrictions imposed after the November 2024 ceasefire, the movement of cash-filled suitcases through Beirut’s airport has nearly ceased, forcing Iran’s regime to rely on fragmented but persistent methods of smuggling money into Lebanon. Lebanese president Joseph Aoun recently assured a visiting U.S. Treasury delegation that Beirut remains committed to enforcing strict anti–money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures.
Arab officials reiterated that despite support from Tehran, Hezbollah maintains a variety of global revenue sources that insulate it from financial isolation. In recent months, the U.S. Treasury has escalated sanctions designed to weaken Hezbollah’s ability to rearm, targeting several members of its financial network.
They include Osama Jaber, Mohammad Jafar Mohammad Qasir, and Samer Kasbar, who were added to the sanctions list on Thursday, November 6, 2025. The Treasury stated that these individuals exploited Lebanon’s cash-based economy by using exchange houses to move funds and relied on the sale of Iranian oil and goods to transfer money through both licensed and unlicensed financial intermediaries.
The department warned that exchange houses failing to uphold proper customer oversight enable Hezbollah’s money-laundering operations and contribute to a financial ecosystem that remains vulnerable as long as Iran’s regime continues to build and sustain covert channels of support for its proxy forces.
