US targets Lebanese resistance movement with new sanctions

Rasa - The administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed a new round of sanctions on Lebanese Resistance Movement Hezbollah, targeting local and global businesses that cooperate with the group’s financial arm.

News ID: 436249

Date: 02 February 2018 - 23:58

RNA - The White House said in a statement on Friday that the sanctions, including trade bans and asset freezes, targeted six individuals and seven businesses in Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana.

"The administration is determined to expose and disrupt Hezbollah's networks, including those across the Middle East and West Africa, used to fund their illicit operations," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. "We will be relentless in identifying, exposing, and dismantling Hezbollah's financial support networks globally."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, senior Trump administration officials said the sanctions were part of an aggressive move against Hezbollah to try to limit what they called the influence of Iran.

The officials noted that the latest measure is to be the first in a "wave" of sanctions targeting the Lebanese resistance movement in the months ahead after a policy review by the US president.

In 2015, the White House approved a bill that imposed sanctions against banks that do business with Hezbollah and those individuals that support the movement’s activities.

Washington claims that the resistance movement condones terrorism despite the fact that Hezbollah has been involved in a fierce fight against Daesh terrorists in Syria.

Hezbollah was founded in the 1980s following the Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon. The movement waged a long resistance campaign against Zionist forces and pushed them out of southern Lebanon in May 2000. Since then, the group has grown into a powerful military force. Israel also suffered a humiliating defeat from Hezbollah in the 2006 war.

Hezbollah has also supported the Syrian army in its fight against foreign-sponsored terrorists, who have been wreaking havoc in the Arab country since March 2011.

Since its inception in 1985, the Islamic resistance movement has been a thorn in the side of Israel and its foreign backers, including the United States.

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