Hezbollah says US sanctions will not deter it

Hezbollah said Friday that new US sanctions and an amended US legal designation would not deter its resistance against Israel, a day after Washington targeted 10 people it alleges are part of a cash-transfer network for the Lebanese armed group.

The US Treasury Department said Thursday it amended Hezbollah's legal designation to say the group operates in “service to the Iranian regime under the command of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps”. It also announced sanctions targeting 10 people who it says are part of a network that transfers cash to Hezbollah.

“All these unjust sanctions and classifications will not deter us from adhering to the path of resistance and the right of Lebanon and the Lebanese to defend their land, sovereignty and resources,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

The group, which is armed and funded by Iran, said it “does not need anyone to vouch for its Lebanese identity and patriotism” and added that its close relationship with Iran was one it cherished.

The Treasury Department said the alleged network uses couriers on commercial airline flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iran to move up to hundreds of millions of dollars between jurisdictions to evade sanctions.

A US State Department official, speaking anonymously, said Washington had for years documented what the official called operational, financial and logistical integration between Hezbollah and the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The official described Hezbollah as “an extension” of the Quds Force and “not a Lebanese resistance movement”.

Washington designated Hezbollah a “foreign terrorist organisation” in 1997 and updated its classification in 2001 to a “specially designated global terrorist” group.

The move comes as the United States facilitates direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, which have technically been at war for decades. Israel responded to Hezbollah rocket fire with an air campaign and ground invasion that Lebanese authorities say have killed more than 4,300 people.

In June, Lebanon and Israel signed a framework agreement that calls for Hezbollah's disarmament, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in “pilot zones”.