Hezbollah Chief Designated for U.S. Sanctions for Syria
The U.S. imposed financial sanctions against the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, for providing support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Two other Hezbollah figures, Mustafa Badr Al-Din and Talal Hamiyah, also were designated for sanctions for leading the Lebanon-based group’s “terrorist activities in the Middle East and around the world,” according to a statement today by the Treasury Department.
The Shiite Muslim group, which draws much of its financial and military support from Iran through Syria, is a major militia force and political party in Lebanon. It is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel.
“By aiding Assad’s violent campaign against the Syrian people and working to support a regime that will inevitably fall, Hezbollah’s ongoing activity undermines regional stability and poses a direct threat to Lebanon’s security,” Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen said in the statement. “Hezbollah’s actions, overseen by Hassan Nasrallah and executed by Mustafa Badr Al-Din and Talal Hamiyah, clearly reveal its true nature as a terrorist and criminal organization.”
Al-Din is a senior Hezbollah official who is believed to have replaced his cousin, Imad Mughniyeh, as Hezbollah’s top militant commander after Mughniyah’s 2008 car-bomb assassination, according to the Treasury statement. In June 2011, the prosecutor of an international tribunal charged four Hezbollah members, including Al-Din, in the 2005 attack that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 21 others.