The United States and Gulf partners imposed additional sanctions on Lebanon's Hezbollah leadership Wednesday, targeting its top two officials, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Naim Qassem.

The U.S. Treasury Department said four other individuals also had been sanctioned, as was the group Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. It was the third round of sanctions announced by Washington since the United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal last week.

Wednesday's sanctions targeted members of the primary decision-making body of Hezbollah, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

"By targeting Hezbollah's Shura Council, our nations collectively rejected the false distinction between a so-called 'Political Wing' and Hezbollah's global terrorist plotting," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

The measures were imposed jointly by Washington and its partners in the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center, or TFTC, which include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, it said.

A number of those targeted by the TFTC had been previously blacklisted by the United States.

On Tuesday, the United States imposed sanctions on Iran's central bank governor and an Iraq-based bank for "moving millions of dollars" for Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

Last week, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions against six individuals and three companies it said were funneling millions of dollars to the Revolutionary Guard's external arm, the Quds Force. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Gulf partners imposed additional sanctions on Lebanon’s Hezbollah leadership on Wednesday, targeting its top two officials, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Naim Qassem.

The U.S. Treasury Department said four other individuals were also sanctioned, as was the group ISIS in the Greater Sahara, which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

It was the third round of sanctions announced by Washington since the United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal last week.

Wednesday’s sanctions targeted members of the primary decision-making body of Hezbollah, Treasury said in a statement.

“By targeting Hezbollah’s Shura Council, our nations collectively rejected the false distinction between a so-called ‘Political Wing’ and Hezbollah’s global terrorist plotting,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

The move expands U.S. sanctions against Nasrallah, who was sanctioned by Washington in 1995 for threatening to disrupt the Middle East peace process and again in 2012 over Syria. It is, however, the first time that the U.S. Treasury has acted against Qassem, who is being listed for his ties to Hezbollah.

The measures were imposed jointly by Washington and its partners in the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center (TFTC), which includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, it said.

The Gulf states targeted four of the movement’s committees and ordered individuals’ assets and bank accounts frozen.

A number of those targeted by the TFTC had been previously blacklisted by the United States.

Earlier on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Ali Thani, discussed Qatar’s efforts to counter terrorism financing, the State Department said.

Nasrallah last year dismissed the prospect of tougher U.S. sanctions against his group.

“The American administration, with all available and possible means, will not be able to damage the strength of the resistance,” Nasrallah said on Aug.13 in a televised address to mark the anniversary of the end of Hezbollah’s 2006 war with Israel.

Shi’ite Hezbollah was formed to combat Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation of Lebanon. It and its political allies made significant gains in Lebanon’s parliamentary election earlier this month, boosting an Iranian-backed movement fiercely opposed to Israel and underlining Tehran’s growing regional clout.

The Trump administration has sought in recent days to choke off funding for Iran’s overseas operations, including its backing for Hezbollah, in what Washington says are its malign activities in the Middle East.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Iran’s central bank governor and an Iraq-based bank for funneling millions of dollars on behalf of Iran’s elite revolutionary guards.

Last week, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions against six individuals and three companies it said were funneling millions of dollars to the Revolutionary Guard’s external arm, Quds Force. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Gulf partners imposed additional sanctions on Lebanon’s Hezbollah leadership on Wednesday, targeting its top two officials, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Naim Qassem.

The U.S. Treasury Department said four other individuals were also sanctioned, as was the group ISIS in the Greater Sahara. It was the third round of sanctions announced by Washington since the United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal last week.

Wednesday’s sanctions targeted members of the primary decision-making body of Hezbollah, Treasury said in a statement.

“By targeting Hezbollah’s Shura Council, our nations collectively rejected the false distinction between a so-called ‘Political Wing’ and Hezbollah’s global terrorist plotting,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

The measures were imposed jointly by Washington and its partners in the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center, or TFTC,, which includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, it said.

A number of those targeted by the TFTC had been previously blacklisted by the United States.

On Tuesday, the United States imposed sanctions on Iran’s central bank governor and an Iraq-based bank for “moving millions of dollars” for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard.

Last week, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions against six individuals and three companies it said were funneling millions of dollars to the Revolutionary Guard’s external arm, Quds Force. </s> The United States and six Gulf Arab states announced sanctions Wednesday on the leadership of Hezbollah, as Washington seeks to step up economic pressure on Iran and its allies in the region.

The US and Saudi-led Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center said the sanctions were aimed at Hezbollah's Shura Council, the powerful Lebanese militia's decision-making council, led by the Shiite group's secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah.

Nasrallah, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Naim Qasim, and three other Shura Council members were listed under the joint sanctions, which aim at freezing vulnerable assets of those named and blocking their access to global financial networks.

At the same time, the six Gulf members of the TFTC -- Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates -- declared sanctions on another nine individuals and firms part of or linked to Hezbollah that were already blacklisted by the US Treasury.

It was the second time the year-old TFTC came together to announce sanctions on groups they call threats to regional peace.

Last October, the group announced joint sanctions on top Islamic State and Al-Qaeda figures in Yemen.

"The TFTC again demonstrated its great value to international security by disrupting Iran and Hezbollah's destabilizing influence in the region," said US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in a statement.

"By targeting Hezbollah's Shura Council, our nations collectively rejected the false distinction between a so-called 'Political Wing' and Hezbollah's global terrorist plotting."

The move came 10 days after Hezbollah gave a strong showing in Lebanon's elections, garnering enough seats in parliament to block any attempt by its political foes to make it disarm its militia, which rivals the Lebanese army in size and firepower.

The announcement followed two US moves in the past week to put pressure on Iran's financial networks, including sanctions announced Tuesday that aimed at an alleged financial pipeline that moved "hundreds of millions of dollars" from Iran's central bank through an Iraqi bank to Hezbollah.

Coming after the Trump administration withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal on May 8, the Treasury said Wednesdays actions are part of a efforts to go after "the totality of Iran's malign activities and regionally destabilizing behavior, including that of Hezbollah." </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — Qatar and its adversaries in the Persian Gulf crisis have finally agreed to do something together: join the U.S. in placing terror sanctions on the Iranian ally Hezbollah.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf nations are slapping sanctions on Hezbollah's senior leadership. The sanctions are being coordinated by a U.S.-Gulf partnership called the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center.

The group was formed last May. Shortly thereafter, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain cut off ties to Qatar and moved to isolate it economically. The spat has remained in a stalemate despite intermittent attempts by the U.S. to mediate or to hasten a resolution.

Most of the Hezbollah officials were already under heavy U.S. sanctions, so the actions will have limited practical implication in the United States. The Trump administration has been targeting Lebanese Hezbollah to increase pressure on its patron, Iran, following President Donald Trump's withdrawal last week from the Iran nuclear deal.

The sanctions come the same day that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke by phone with Qatar's foreign minister and urged a quick end to the Gulf dispute. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo emphasized the Trump administration's commitment to working with all the Gulf nations to ensure sanctions are "fully enforced" and prevent the nations' financial systems from being exploited by terrorists. </s> WASHINGTON — Qatar and its adversaries in the Persian Gulf crisis have finally agreed to do something together: join the U.S. in placing terror sanctions on the Iranian ally Hezbollah.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf nations are slapping sanctions on Hezbollah’s senior leadership. The sanctions are being co-ordinated by a U.S.-Gulf partnership called the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center.

The group was formed last May. Shortly thereafter, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain cut off ties to Qatar and moved to isolate it economically. The spat has remained in a stalemate despite intermittent attempts by the U.S. to mediate or to hasten a resolution.

Most of the Hezbollah officials were already under heavy U.S. sanctions, so the actions will have limited practical implication in the United States. The Trump administration has been targeting Lebanese Hezbollah to increase pressure on its patron, Iran, following President Donald Trump’s withdrawal last week from the Iran nuclear deal.

The sanctions come the same day that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke by phone with Qatar’s foreign minister and urged a quick end to the Gulf dispute. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo emphasized the Trump administration’s commitment to working with all the Gulf nations to ensure sanctions are “fully enforced” and prevent the nations’ financial systems from being exploited by terrorists. </s> WASHINGTON — Qatar and its adversaries in the Persian Gulf crisis have finally agreed to do something together: join the U.S. in placing terror sanctions on the Iranian ally Hezbollah.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf nations are slapping sanctions on Hezbollah's senior leadership. The sanctions are being coordinated by a U.S.-Gulf partnership called the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center.

The group was formed last May. Shortly thereafter, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain cut off ties to Qatar and moved to isolate it economically. The spat has remained in a stalemate despite intermittent attempts by the U.S. to mediate or to hasten a resolution.

Most of the Hezbollah officials were already under heavy U.S. sanctions, so the actions will have limited practical implication in the United States. The Trump administration has been targeting Lebanese Hezbollah to increase pressure on its patron, Iran, following President Donald Trump's withdrawal last week from the Iran nuclear deal.

The sanctions come the same day that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke by phone with Qatar's foreign minister and urged a quick end to the Gulf dispute. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo emphasized the Trump administration's commitment to working with all the Gulf nations to ensure sanctions are "fully enforced" and prevent the nations' financial systems from being exploited by terrorists. </s> Qatar and its adversaries in the Persian Gulf crisis have finally agreed to do something together: join the U.S. in placing terror sanctions on the Iranian ally Hezbollah.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf nations are slapping sanctions on Hezbollah's senior leadership. The sanctions are being coordinated by a U.S.-Gulf partnership called the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center.

The group was formed last May. Shortly thereafter, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain cut off ties to Qatar and moved to isolate it economically. The spat has remained in a stalemate despite intermittent attempts by the U.S. to mediate or to hasten a resolution.

Most of the Hezbollah officials were already under heavy U.S. sanctions, so the actions will have limited practical implication in the United States. The Trump administration has been targeting Lebanese Hezbollah to increase pressure on its patron, Iran, following President Donald Trump's withdrawal last week from the Iran nuclear deal.

The sanctions come the same day that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke by phone with Qatar's foreign minister and urged a quick end to the Gulf dispute. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo emphasized the Trump administration's commitment to working with all the Gulf nations to ensure sanctions are "fully enforced" and prevent the nations' financial systems from being exploited by terrorists. </s> Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has denounced American sanctions on lawmakers from the Hezbollah resistance movement as an “assault” against not only the parliament but the entire Lebanese nation.

“It is an assault on the parliament and as a result an assault on all of Lebanon,” Berri said in a statement on Wednesday.

The remarks came one day after the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on two Hezbollah members of Lebanon’s parliament and a security official responsible for coordinating between the resistance movement and the country’s security agencies.

It placed MPs Amin Sherri and Muhammad Hasan Ra’d as well as Wafiq Safa, a top Hezbollah security official, on its blacklist, claiming that the trio had "assisted" Iran in its alleged efforts "to undermine Lebanese sovereignty."

Washington also accused the individuals of “undermining Lebanese financial institutions to assist Hezbollah and to evade US sanctions against” the resistance group.

It was the first time that the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control put Lebanese parliamentarians on its sanctions list.

Separately, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the designations were meant to counter Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon.

In response, Lebanese Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil warned that the “unwarranted” US bans “do not serve financial stability.”

“Lebanon and its banks are committed to all the legislation and there is no justification at all for escalating these sanctions,” he added.

Moreover, Lebanese lawmaker Ali Fayyad slammed the US move as “a humiliation for the Lebanese people.”

Hezbollah was formed following the Israeli regime’s invasion of Lebanon and the ensuing occupation of its southern parts in 1980s, and currently constitutes Lebanon’s de facto military power.

Since then, the movement has helped the national army retake the occupied regions from Tel Aviv and thwart two Israeli acts of aggression in 2000 and 2006.

It has also been playing a significant role in the Syrian army’s fight against Takfiri terror groups, including Daesh and Nusra Front, thus preventing the spillover of the war into Lebanon.

Some 50 Hezbollah individuals and entities have been blacklisted by the Treasury since 2017.

In May 2018, the United States and its partners in the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center (TFTC), which includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, imposed sanctions on Hezbollah leadership, targeting its Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem.

This article has been adapted from its original source.
The United States and six Arab states of the Persian Gulf add more sanctions on Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Naim Qassem.