France: No Evidence of Hezbollah Explosives Stores

By Staff, Agencies

France's Foreign Ministry Friday said there was no evidence to suggest that the Lebanese Resistance group Hezbollah was storing chemicals to make explosives in France after a senior US official claimed the group had set up caches in Europe since 2012.

Speaking on Thursday, Nathan Sales, the US State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, accused the Resistance group of smuggling and storing chemicals, including ammonium nitrate, from Belgium to France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

"It stores these weapons in places so it can conduct major terrorist attacks whenever its masters in Tehran deem necessary," Sales said in a briefing without elaborating or providing evidence of the activities.

"To our knowledge, there is nothing tangible to confirm such an allegation in France today," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Agnes von der Muhll told reporters in response to Sales' allegations.

"Any illegal activity committed by a foreign organization on our territory would be sanctioned by the French authorities with the greatest firmness," von der Muhll said.