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As the world watched the race for US presidential elections, Lebanese were concerned about the US Treasury Department’s decision to impose sanctions on former Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil and blacklist him, under the Magnitsky Act.
These sanctions came at a time when Lebanon is suspending most of its rights to the results of the US elections, either in terms of agreement on the portfolio distribution and form of government of Saad Hariri, or with respect to the completion of technical negotiations with Israel in the file for the demarcation of the maritime borders.
Sanctions text
In the context of the announcement of the sanctions, the Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo, indicated that Bassil, through his corrupt activities, contributed to the prevailing system of corruption and political favoritism that plagued Lebanon and that aided and facilitated the destabilizing activities of Hezbollah.
The original text of the sanctions included many accusations of corruption by Bassil’s senior positions in the Lebanese government, such as the Ministry of Communications, Energy and Water, and later the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates.
According to the same text, in 2017 Bassil strengthened his political base by appointing friends to important positions and giving others other forms of influence in the Lebanese political arena.
In 2014, during his tenure in the Ministry of Energy – also according to the text of the sanctions – Bassil issued decisions in which he agreed to implement projects that transfer funds from the Lebanese government to people close to him, through a group of companies that they formed a front for this process.
Bassil strengthened his political base in 2017 by appointing friends to important positions (Reuters)Magnitsky legally
In this regard, international law expert Paul Morcos explains the concept of the Magnitsky Law, which was ratified by former President Barack Obama in 2012.
Morcos points out, in a statement to Al Jazeera Net, that, in addition to the moral dimension of Magnitsky’s sanctions, the measures that are taken in him legally and financially are based on banks and financial institutions, that is, closing the accounts of the listed in the regulations of the Office of Foreign Assets and Asset Control of the United States Treasury.
This procedure requires, according to Morcos, that any Lebanese bank or other financial institution push the one on the sanctions lists to withdraw what it has in deposits and assets, and stop dealing with it immediately.
According to the expert, the Magnitsex sanctions can lead banks to be cautious when dealing even with people close to whom they have included these types of sanctions, such as members of their family, for example.
And because Bassil was included in the regulations of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), any travel visa for him to the United States is permanently canceled, and it also limits the freedom of travel for those on this list to countries that they have exchange or delivery agreements or agreements with the United States.
The politicians considered that these sanctions occurred in the context of putting pressure on the President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, in the demarcation of the borders with Israel (Anadolu Agency).Pressure on Aoun
Politically, Walid Al-Ashqar, a member of the political bureau of the Free Patriotic Movement, points out that the sanctions did not surprise Bassil, and that they occurred in the context of the pressure on President Michel Aoun in the file demarcation of the borders with Israel .
In a statement to Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Ashqar believes that Aoun is paying the price for the United States’ presentation of the Israeli interest over the Lebanese interest, and that the sanctions carry a direct message of pressure on Aoun.
Al-Ashqar said that Lebanon, in the last session of technical negotiations with the Israeli side, was demanding its right to 2,300 square kilometers of the border demarcation process instead of the 860 square kilometers that Israel wants.
Al-Ashqar is surprised by the imposition of sanctions on Basil as if he were the sole supporter of Hezbollah, while agreeing with him on the strategic files and disagreed with him and his ally, the Amal Movement, on many files external.
Ashkar refuses to address the sanctions from a sectarian point of view, as they affect a Christian leader in Lebanon, and emphasizes that Basil’s popular base in the Christian milieu is becoming increasingly firm in their positions after the sanctions.
However, former member of the General Secretariat of the March 14 Forces, Nawfal Daou, believes that these sanctions will double Lebanon’s isolation from the Arab and international community, especially since Bassil is an essential part of a political system that it continues to ignore. international messages to Lebanon.
In his statement to Al-Jazeera Net, he said that the sanctions place on the Lebanese people the responsibility to resume their confrontation with the system that governs and sponsors the existing structure, that is, with Hezbollah, because the explosive corruption in Lebanon is a result cumulative “of two successive occupations since the 1990s, with Lebanon moving from Syrian occupation to occupation.” Iran, through Hezbollah and its allies. “
Al-Ashkar was surprised by the imposition of sanctions on Basil, as if he were the only supporter of Hezbollah (Reuters)Sanctions and government
Walid Al-Ashqar ruled out that the sanctions would pressure Aoun to make concessions on the government record, and believes Basil is consistent in his positions.
In a related context, writer and political analyst Amin Qamouriyeh believes that the sanctions against Bassil will impede the government formation process, in light of the existing tensions with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri.
Gamourieh – as a result of the price paid by Basil – it is likely that Hezbollah will be in the position of its defender, and that Basil will stick more closely with him, in exchange for not approving any government consensus that does not satisfy the latter.
And one of the most prominent repercussions of the Bassil sanctions – according to Gamouria – is that they eliminate a large percentage of Bassil’s chances of reaching the presidency in 2022, after he started his battle early, while the United States is a partner. key in the Lebanese presidential elections.
While Gamourieh hopes that the sanctions against Bassil will complicate the negotiation process in the border demarcation file, he believes that his moment was foreseen because the Trump administration wants to approve many decisions during the period of the presidential conflict with Biden, to make his task difficult if it comes. to the White House.
He added that sanctions are difficult to remove later, which was demonstrated by Trump’s rush to impose more sanctions, from Lebanon and Syria to Venezuela, Russia and others, which means that Biden’s arrival as president will be as if Trump will stay and change nothing in Lebanon, according to Gamourieh.
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