The United States has imposed fresh sanctions on 10 individuals accused of operating a financial network that channels funds to Hezbollah, as Washington intensifies pressure on the Lebanese group and its alleged ties to Iran.
The US Treasury Department announced the measures on Thursday, alongside an updated legal designation describing Hezbollah as an Iranian proxy operating under the influence of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), particularly its elite Quds Force.
A State Department official said the revised designation was intended to make clear that Washington considers Hezbollah an Iranian proxy rather than an independent organisation, accusing the group of operating with little regard for Lebanese sovereignty or the Lebanese state.
The latest sanctions target an alleged financial network that uses couriers travelling on commercial flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iran to move large amounts of cash. According to the Treasury Department, the network can transfer up to hundreds of millions of dollars between jurisdictions outside the formal financial system, allowing Hezbollah to obtain foreign currency and evade sanctions.
Washington first designated Hezbollah as a “foreign terrorist organisation” in 1997 and later classified it as a “specially designated global terrorist” group in 2001.
The US said the latest action is based on years of sanctions and intelligence assessments documenting what it described as close operational, financial and logistical links between Hezbollah and the IRGC’s Quds Force.
The move comes as the United States seeks to facilitate direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, which remain technically at war. Hezbollah has rejected the talks.
Hezbollah became directly involved in the wider Middle East conflict in March after launching rocket attacks against Israel in support of Iran, its principal backer. Israel subsequently carried out extensive airstrikes and a ground offensive in Lebanon, with Lebanese authorities reporting more than 4,300 deaths from the Israeli military campaign.
The State Department described Hezbollah as an “extension” of Iran’s Quds Force and rejected its description as a Lebanese resistance organisation, saying the latest designation reinforces Washington’s assessment of the group’s relationship with Tehran.
