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

Hezbollah says the United States “will not deter” its fighting against Israel after Washington announced new sanctions on the group, accusing the terror group of serving its sponsor, Iran.

The US Treasury Department amended Hezbollah’s legal designation yesterday 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 says in a statement.

The terror group, armed and funded by Iran, stresses 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 adds.

The Treasury statement said the group had a network that utilizes “couriers travelling 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.

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

The group was merely “an extension” of the Quds force, the official says, and “not a Lebanese resistance movement.”

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

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.