Sanctions imposed on Hezbollah financiers in Lebanon
Lebanon– This week, the US Treasury Department issued further penalties against Hezbollah financiers, identifying a fundraising network located in Zambia and Lebanon. Adnan Ayad and Adel Diab have been accused of assisting Hezbollah in funding its operations through a network of ten firms and supporting “corrupt patronage” in Lebanon to get over the country’s economic problems.
“Today’s action exposes and targets Hezbollah’s misuse of the international financial system to raise and launder funds for its destabilizing activities as the Lebanese people suffer in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis,” said Brian Nelson, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. Mr. Ayad and Mr. Diab are charged with “materially assisting, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological assistance for, or goods or services to, Hezbollah.” Jihad Ayad and Ali Diab, their kids, were also named.
Hamer and Nail Construction Limited and Hamidco Investment Limited, two of the firms identified in the sanctions, are both situated in Zambia and have purportedly been used to provide financial and technological support to Mr Ayad. Mr Ayad and Mr Diab’s Hezbollah-supporting network includes engineering, construction, fashion, and industrial enterprises situated in Lebanon.
The penalties were imposed just three days after the US blacklisted three Hezbollah financiers, including Mr Diab and a travel agency.
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The steps are “in solidarity with the Lebanese people, whose security and sovereignty are endangered by Hezbollah’s corrupt and destabilizing operations,” according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “.. “At a time when the Lebanese people are facing an unprecedented economic crisis, Hezbollah continues to engage in unlawful activities and acquire riches at the cost of the Lebanese people,” Mr Blinken said on Tuesday. “More concerned with furthering their own interests and that of their backer, Iran, than the best interests of the Lebanese people,” he said