Hezbollah allies: US sanctions are a political target

Hezbollah’s allies, the Amal Movement and the Marada Movement, denounced the US sanctions against two former ministers in its ranks, describing the decision as a US decree for attacking them politically.

Beirut: The Amal Movement, led by the president of the Lebanese parliament Nabih Berri and the head of the Marada Movement, Suleiman Franjieh, on Wednesday condemned the US sanctions against two former ministers in their ranks, for their support for Hezbollah, which Washington considers an organization “terrorist”.

On Tuesday, Washington imposed sanctions on former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, who is a deputy for the Amal movement and serves as Berri’s political aide, and former Minister of Works and Transportation Yusef Fenianos, affiliated with the Marada movement, for their participation in the “corruption” and its support for Hezbollah.

The Amal Movement said in a statement that targeting Khalil was “targeting Lebanon, its sovereignty, the line and the political organization to which it belongs.” And he carried out 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 a comprehensive government in which they would work. to get Lebanon out of its crises. “

Khalil is considered one of the most prominent officials of the Amal Movement, the most prominent Shiite party alongside Hezbollah, and enjoys a broad popular incubator, ally in elections and coordinates its political positions.

According to the US Treasury, Khalil, who held the Finance Ministry between 2014 and 2020, helped transfer funds from the ministries to Hezbollah-linked institutions 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.

In its statement, the Amal Movement referred to the plan to demarcate the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel, sponsored by Washington, and Berri is managing the file from the Lebanese side.

The statement read: “The traffic agreement delimiting the maritime borders in southern Lebanon was completed with the United States and agreed on 7/7/2020 and has so far rejected the timing of its announcement without any justification.”

However, US Undersecretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker announced Tuesday that talks on the demarcation of maritime borders are making “gradual progress,” in hopes of signing the agreement “in the next weeks”.

The issue of the joint maritime border is a thorny issue in the context of a disputed part of the area known as number 9, and in 2018 the Lebanese government signed contracts with three international companies to explore it without the operations that include the disputed part.

As for Fenianos, a former minister of the Marda Movement, a Christian party ally of Hezbollah and close to Syria, the US Treasury accused him of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Hezbollah in exchange for political services. Under the decision, it also helped Hezbollah acquire confidential files related to the International Tribunal for Lebanon, which last month charged a Hezbollah suspect with the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Franjieh said in a statement that the US decision against Fenianus is “a decision that counts its position, convictions and position.”

He added: “We as apostates have never felt and will never be ashamed of our positions, but we are proud and profess them,” and described the decision as “political, which increases our adherence to our approach and line.”