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Former Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said Sunday that the United States had offered to cut its ties with Hezbollah to avoid imposing economic sanctions on it before taking this step, accusing him of corruption, considering those sanctions a “crime.”
Bassil clarified in a televised speech that recently the US ambassador informed him that 4 demands must be met immediately, otherwise US sanctions will be imposed, and that the whole conversation did not mention the word “corruption”, stressing that the first demand is ” immediately dismantle the relationship with Hezbollah. ” Reveal the other demands.
The Americans granted him – according to him – several grace periods and later abandoned his pending demands, and limited his demand to break the relationship with Hezbollah “, to what Washington imposes sanctions and considers him a” terrorist “.
Following their rejection of the US request, the sanctions were approved, which turned out to be “related to corruption and barely mentioned Hezbollah, while only I was told about it,” according to Bassil, who denied the corruption accusations against him.
Bassil considers the sanctions of the United States against him a crime, and assures that he will assign a law firm to ask the American judiciary to “annul the decision and give him moral and material compensation” (European – Archive)
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Bassil described the penalties against him as a “crime”, and said that he would assign a law firm to request before the US judiciary the “nullity of the decision” and “moral and material compensation.”
Bassil stressed that “we cannot stab Hezbollah” and said: “We do not leave (Hezbollah) under external pressure, if we want to leave it for internal reasons,” noting at the same time that there are several differences with the party, including “peace in the region and the existence of Israel. ” .
On Friday, the US Treasury announced financial sanctions against Bassil, President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law, accusing him of corruption, embezzlement and having ties to Hezbollah, which Washington classifies as a terrorist group under the Magnitsky Act to combat impunity for individuals. and companies around the world. Violate human rights or commit acts of corruption.
The US Department of the Treasury stated that Bassil is “responsible or complicit in, or was directly or indirectly involved in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets and the confiscation of private assets for personal gain.” A US official accused him of using his influence to delay the formation of a government in Lebanon and said his political association with Hezbollah allowed the latter to expand its influence.
The US State Department also banned Bassil’s travel to the United States, and US officials have not ruled out the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Bassil or other Lebanese.
Bassil, 50, who aspires to become president, heads the Free Patriotic Movement, founded by Aoun, and previously held the ministries of Communications, Energy and Water and Foreign Relations. A close ally of Hezbollah under a memorandum of understanding dating from 2006, Bassil was the target of demonstrations last year against a political elite whom protesters accused of looting the country.
On Saturday, Aoun requested the evidence that led Washington to impose sanctions on Bassil.
For the first time, US sanctions have hit a high-ranking political official who is a Christian ally of Hezbollah.
And last September, Washington imposed sanctions on the former minister of the Christian Marada movement allied with Hezbollah, Yusef Fenianos, and the former Minister of Finance, Ali Hassan Khalil, of the Shiite Amal Movement headed by the president of parliament Nabih Berri, who is the most prominent ally. of Hezbollah.
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