The U.S. Sanctions a Lebanese Network for Oil and Gas Smuggling to Fund Hezbollah

The United States has sanctioned three individuals, five companies, and two ships involved in the smuggling of oil and liquefied gas to generate revenue for Hezbollah. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury Department announced on Wednesday, September 12, that this network, consisting of Lebanese traders and companies managed by a senior financial official of Hezbollah, facilitated the transfer of dozens of liquefied gas shipments to the Syrian government and funneled the profits to Hezbollah. According to the statement, the oil and gas smuggling operations generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Hezbollah, which was used for terrorist activities. Bradley Smith, the head of the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the U.S. Treasury, stated in the announcement: "Hezbollah continues to launch rockets at Israel and exacerbate instability in the region, prioritizing funding for violent activities over addressing the needs of the people it claims to care about, including the tens of thousands displaced in southern Lebanon." On August 16, the U.S. Treasury also sanctioned several commercial networks of the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon for their involvement in sending Iranian goods to Yemen and the United Arab Emirates. These sanctioned companies, individuals, and ships were transferring goods such as oil and liquefied gas from the official financial network of the Houthis to these two countries. At that time, the U.S. Treasury stated that a group controlled by Hezbollah was using two oil tankers to transfer liquefied gas worth tens of millions of dollars from Iran to China. Under the sanctions, the assets of those sanctioned are blocked in the U.S., and American citizens and companies are prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Additionally, financial institutions that conduct transactions with the sanctioned individuals face the risk of sanctions. The British government has banned the entry of two supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah into the country.