Hezbollah says new US sanctions ‘will not deter’ fight against Israel

Hezbollah said on Friday that the United States “will not deter” its resistance against Israel after Washington announced new sanctions on the terrorist group, accusing it of serving Iran.

The US Treasury Department amended Hezbollah’s legal designation on Thursday to note that it operated in “service to the Iranian regime under the command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”

It also announced new sanctions targeting 10 people who are allegedly part of a network that transfers cash to Hezbollah.

“All these unjust sanctions and classifications will not deter us from adhering to the path of resistance and the right of Lebanon and the Lebanese to defend their land, sovereignty and resources,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

The terror organization, armed and funded by Iran, stressed that it “does not need anyone to vouch for its Lebanese identity and patriotism.”

“Our close and fraternal relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran is a relationship we cherish and are proud of,” it added.

The Treasury statement said Hezbollah had a network that utilizes “couriers traveling on commercial airline flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the UAE, and Iran to move up to hundreds of millions of dollars between jurisdictions” to evade sanctions.

Washington designated Hezbollah a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, and in 2001 updated its classification to a specially designated global terrorist group.

A US State Department official who requested anonymity said the US for years had “documented the operational, financial, and logistical integration” between Hezbollah and the Quds force, the IRGC’s foreign operations arm.

Hezbollah was merely “an extension” of the Quds force, the official said, and “not a Lebanese resistance movement.”

Hezbollah said the latest move aimed “to target the resistance, its community, its environment, and its supporters, and to besiege and pressure them” to protect Israel.

The American decision comes as the US facilitates direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon — which have technically been at war for decades — to end hostilities that erupted when Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the broader Middle East conflict by launching rockets at Israel in support of Iran. Israel responded to the Hezbollah attacks with a heavy air campaign and ground invasion.

In June, Lebanon and Israel signed a framework agreement that calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in “pilot zones.”

Sporadic fighting has continued, however, and on Friday the Israel Defense Forces said it struck a building in southern Lebanon after several suspects crossed the ceasefire line and entered it.

Soldiers of the Kfir Brigade spotted the suspects crossing into the military’s buffer zone in the area of the village of Baraashit.

The army said the suspects who entered the building “posed a threat to IDF troops,” and that a short while later, the Israeli Air Force struck the site.