Illustration by Matt Rota for ProPublica and ICIJįounded centuries ago, the honorary consul system was meant as a lifeline for countries unable to afford foreign embassies but has since broadened into a mainstay of international relations, embraced by a majority of the world’s governments. “I will make you a consul in your country,” Faouzi Jaber promised during the secret meeting at the Golden Tulip hotel. An artist’s rendering depicting a Ghana hotel room meeting in 2012 between an international arms broker and his buyers. Jaber’s covert offer in the fall of 2012, recorded by federal investigators, promised protection through a little-known international program that gives countries large and small the ability to enlist private citizens to serve as volunteer diplomats around the world. His associate cut in: “You’ll have a diplomatic pass.” “All of your friends will be consuls because when we travel -” “I will make you a consul in your country,” Jaber said. He would help the buyers secure coveted positions as special diplomats - known as honorary consuls - who can travel easily through airports and transport their bags without law enforcement scrutiny. Jaber, who was representing a top operative for the Iran-backed terrorist organization, offered to sweeten the deal. “Who else knows I’m with Hezbollah?” Faouzi Jaber asked as night fell on the four-star hotel with a life-sized sculpture of a giraffe in the lobby.
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