World Ahl Al-Bayt Assembly

The World Ahl Al-Bayt Assem­bly (aka Ahlul Bayt World Assem­bly) is an inter­na­tion­al NGO found­ed in 1990. In 2015 Con­gres­sion­al tes­ti­mo­ny, a US expert in secu­ri­ty stud­ies described the ABWA as follows:

.…the Ahlul Bayt World Assem­bly (ABWA) was osten­si­bly set up to pro­mote Iran’s rev­o­lu­tion­ary ide­ol­o­gy over­seas and to serve as a link between the Iran­ian cler­i­cal estab­lish­ment and for­eign Shia cler­ics. How­ev­er, ABWA has also served as an effec­tive cov­er for assist­ing with intel­li­gence­gath­er­ing; spot­ting and recruit­ing for­eign stu­dents; and mov­ing mon­ey and materiel des­tined for Qods Force (and MOIS) oper­a­tions. The head of ABWA, Moham­mad Has­san Akhtari, is a two-time ambas­sador to Syr­ia with decades of expe­ri­ence in the Lev­ant dat­ing back to the for­ma­tion of Hezbollah.