The U.S. and Gulf Arab Countries Sanctioned Hezbollah Leaders

The U.S. and Gulf Arab countries sanctioned Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, and Sheikh Naim Qassem, the Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah, on Wednesday, May 15. According to Reuters, in addition to Hassan Nasrallah and Sheikh Naim Qassem, four other individuals have also been sanctioned. The group 'ISIS in the Greater Sahara' has also been sanctioned. Reuters reports that this is the third round of sanctions that the U.S. has announced since its withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran, known as the JCPOA. The U.S. Treasury Department states that Wednesday's sanctions target the leadership council of Hezbollah. Hussein Khalil, Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyid, and Mohammad Yazbek, members of Hezbollah's leadership, have been sanctioned. The report indicates that the U.S., along with Gulf Arab countries that are members of the 'Terrorist Financing Targeting Center'—namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates—have sanctioned Hezbollah leaders. Some of those sanctioned on Wednesday by the 'Terrorist Financing Targeting Center' had previously been sanctioned by the U.S. The center was established on May 21, 2017, during U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia and has seven members. The U.S. also sanctioned Valiollah Seif, the Governor of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, for allegedly providing millions of dollars in financial resources to Hezbollah. In addition to Valiollah Seif, Ali Tarzali, the Deputy Director of the International Department of the Central Bank of Iran, the Islamic Bank 'Al-Bilad' based in Iraq, Karim Aras Habib, the CEO of this bank, and Mohammad Qasir, the financial liaison between the Quds Force of the IRGC and Hezbollah, have also been added to the U.S. sanctions list. This comes as the U.S. last week added six individuals and three legal entities from Iran to the sanctions list for 'allegedly transferring millions of dollars to the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.' The U.S. has designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization since 1995. U.S. officials and Washington's allies, including Saudi Arabia and Israel, have consistently warned about Hezbollah's growing power around the world. A U.S. State Department official previously stated: 'The Iranian government created Hezbollah and financially supports it to fuel instability throughout the region and across the world. All of this is at the expense of the Iranian people... The people of Iran and the people of Lebanon deserve better than this.' Hezbollah militants are among the most important forces supporting Bashar al-Assad's government in the Syrian civil war. The Syrian war has turned the country into a pile of ruins over the past seven years; hundreds of thousands have been killed, and millions have been displaced from their homes.