Hezbollah official says US sanctions on 2 of group’s lawmakers are spiteful

A Hezbollah lawmaker says US sanctions targeting two of the group’s members in the Lebanese parliament are spiteful and won’t force a change in their ideology or views.

Ali Mokdad spoke Thursday after the weekly meeting of Iran-backed Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc.

The US Treasury Department said it is targeting two Hezbollah lawmakers and a security official suspected of using their positions to further the aims of the terror group and Tehran’s “malign activities.”

Although the US has been cranking up the pressure on the Iran-backed group, it is the first time it has targeted sitting members of parliament.

Hezbollah has been gaining seats in Lebanon’s parliament since 1992. The group and its allies won a majority in 2018 elections while Hezbollah secured three Cabinet seats, the largest number it has ever controlled.

Mokdad says targeting the head of Hezbollah parliamentary bloc Mohamad Raad and lawmaker Amin Sherri with sanctions is a “continued assault on Lebanon, its people and their choices.”

— Agencies

Ali Mokdad, a Lebanese MP for the Hezbollah terror group’s political party party, speaks to reporters following a meeting for the party’s bloc in the capital Beirut’s southern suburb of Haret Hreik on July 11, 2019. (Joseph Eid/AFP)