File – Hezbollah’s treasury , Bait al Mal
Beirut: The United States has imposed sanctions on five financial entities and 16 officials and individuals linked to Hezbollah’s financial network, in a move aimed at disrupting the group’s funding channels and restricting its access to the formal financial system.
The US Treasury Department said the sanctions target key institutions within Hezbollah’s financial infrastructure, including Al Qard Al Hassan Association and Bayt Al Mal, which it described as central pillars of the group’s financial operations.
According to the Treasury, Al Qard Al Hassan operates under the guise of a non-governmental organization while providing banking-like financial services, using front accounts and intermediaries to collect and transfer funds that support Hezbollah’s military and political activities.
The department described Bayt Al Mal as Hezbollah’s unofficial treasury, responsible for managing the group’s assets, investing its funds and acting as a link between Hezbollah and the conventional banking sector. It added that the institution’s financial operations are overseen directly by the group’s Secretary-General.
The sanctions also target 16 individuals, including Ibrahim Ali Daher, who heads Hezbollah’s Central Finance Unit, which oversees the group’s budget and expenditures, including financing its operations inside and outside Lebanon.
Also sanctioned were senior officials at Al Qard Al Hassan, including Executive Director Adel Mohammed Mansour and Ahmed Mohammed Yazbek, along with several other officials associated with the organisation and Bayt Al Mal.
The Treasury alleged that some of those sanctioned facilitated financial transfers worth hundreds of millions of dollars through Lebanese and US banks, enabling more than US$500 million to move through the financial system over more than a decade despite previous US sanctions.
The department said the measures go beyond freezing US-based assets, aiming instead to disrupt the financial channels Hezbollah has relied upon to circumvent sanctions, including exchange houses, gold trading and informal commercial networks.
This development comes after Hezbollah and its ally Speaker Nabih Berri criticized the Lebanese Israeli framework agreement that is aimed at full withdrawal of israeli forces from Lebanon and to be followed by a peace treaty
Berri, who is the head of the Amal Movement, a key ally of Iran described the agreement as “dictates” in an interviews with the pro- Hezbollah daily Al-Akhbar which quoted him as saying the most dangerous aspect potential for it to incite internal divisions and draw the Lebanese into a confrontation among themselves”.
The agreement “won’t be implemented”, al-Akhbar cited Berri as saying.
Many Lebanese leaders accused Berri of inciting civil war . Berri, who often acts as a key interlocutor for Hezbollah, maintains a close political and strategic alliance with Iran.
Gulf News
