Trump administration targets Hizballah's 'financial tentacles' with new sanctions

On Friday, the US targeted Hizballah's alleged financial network sanctioning six people and seven entities, reported Reuters.

“The administration is determined to expose and disrupt Hizballah’s networks, including those across the Middle East and West Africa, used to fund their illicit operations,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in announcing the penalties under financial regulations targeting the powerful political and military Shia group

The sanctioned individuals include five Lebanese and one Iraqi, most of them linked to Al-Inmaa Engineering and Contracting, the Treasury Department said. The seven entities were firms based in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Lebanon and Ghana.

Although Washington classifies Iranian-backed Hizballah a terrorist organization, the group is part of Lebanon’s unity government.

Senior Trump administration officials said the sanctions were part of an aggressive move against Hizballah to try to limit the influence of Iran, which allegedly gives the group about $700 million a year to help finance its activities.

The officials, briefing reporters at the White House on condition of anonymity, said the Trump administration was working to reverse what it considers a more lackadaisical approach toward Hizballah by Democratic President Barack Obama after the 2015 Iran nuclear deal went into effect.

More such targeted sanctions are expected in the months ahead, they said.

The officials said Hizballah was already under financial strain as it continued to pay for costly operations in Syria and Yemen. The goal was to get European allies to join the United States in increasing pressure on the group, they said.

A top US official said on Tuesday that Lebanon must cut Hizballah from its financial sector amidst Washington’s growing push to disrupt the group’s global financing routes.

During a two-day visit to Lebanon, US Treasury Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Marshall Billingslea “stressed the importance of countering Iranian malign activity in Lebanon,” said a statement from the US embassy in London, reported by Reuters.

Earlier in January the Trump administration set up a team to investigate Hizballah-linked drug trafficking. The Obama administration had previously thwarted Hizballah drug prosecutions so as not to jeopardise the nuclear deal with Iran, according to AP.