Aoun asks to contact the US embassy about the sanctions against two former ministers

The Lebanese presidency said today (Wednesday) that President Michel Aoun has asked the foreign minister of the interim government to contact the US embassy to impose sanctions on two former ministers for their support of “Hezbollah.”
Reuters claimed that Aoun requested to contact the Lebanese embassy in Washington “to see the circumstances that dictated the decision of the US Treasury to impose sanctions on the two former ministers, Ali Hassan Khalil and Yusef Fenianos, to further advance the matter.”
On Wednesday, Hezbollah called the US decision to impose sanctions on two former Lebanese ministers for their support of it “unfair”, considering that the sanctions policy adopted by Washington “will not be able to achieve its objectives in Lebanon,” according to the Agency. of French Press.
Yesterday (Tuesday) Washington imposed sanctions on the former Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil, a deputy of the “Amal” movement led by the President of Parliament Nabih Berri, and the former Minister of Works and Transport Yusef Fenianos, affiliated with the “Marada Movement”, for their participation in “corruption and its support”. To (“Hezbollah”) “.
“Hezbollah”, which Washington classifies as a “terrorist” organization and has been sanctioned for years, said in a statement that “everything issued by this administration is condemned and rejected”, describing: the decision is “unfair.”
According to the US Treasury, Khalil, who took over the Finance Ministry between 2014 and 2020, helped transfer funds from the ministries to institutions linked to Hezbollah, to circumvent the sanctions imposed by the United States on the party. He also used his influence to obtain exceptions for a person associated with Hezbollah for failing to pay taxes on imported electronics.
And the Treasury Department accused Khalil of not signing checks with government suppliers, demanding that he obtain a percentage of those contracts.
As for Fenianos, the former minister of the “Marada Movement”, the Christian party allied to “Hezbollah” and close to Syria, the US Treasury accused him of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from “Hezbollah” in exchange for political services.
It also, according to the decision, helped Hezbollah acquire confidential files related to the International Tribunal for Lebanon, which last month indicted a Hezbollah accuser for the murder of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
The “Amal” movement said in a statement that attacking Khalil is “attacking Lebanon, its sovereignty, the line and the political organization to which it belongs.” And he continued with what he described as the “firm” of the US Treasury, which “came at a time when the Lebanese, with most of their political and parliamentary forces, were close to achieving an inclusive government, in which it would work to get Lebanon out of its crisis. “
The head of the “Marada Movement”, Suleiman Franjieh, in turn, said in a statement that the US decision regarding Fenianos is “a decision that counts their position, convictions and position”, calling it “political, which increases our adherence to our focus and our line. “