US sanctions Hezbollah-allied Lebanese Christian leader

The US Treasury has slapped sanctions on Lebanon’s former foreign minister and a leading Christian political ally of the militant Hezbollah group, singling him out for what it said was his role in corruption.

Gebran Bassil, a lawmaker who leads the largest bloc in parliament and a son-in-law of President Michel Aoun, has emerged as a major target of Lebanese protesters who thronged streets in an uprising last year over endemic corruption and state mismanagement.

The Treasury designation did not mention Bassil’s alliance or links to Hezbollah, but the sanctions targeting him appeared to be part of the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran and its allies in the region.

The United States has been sanctioning Hezbollah officials for years, and recently began targeting politicians close to the group. In September, the Treasury imposed sanctions on two former Lebanese Cabinet ministers allied with the militant group in a strong message to Hezbollah and its allies who control majority seats in Parliament.

The announcement is a major expansion of the scope of sanctions targeting Hezbollah’s political partners in Lebanon.

“The systemic corruption in Lebanon’s political system exemplified by Bassil has helped to erode the foundation of an effective government that serves the Lebanese people,” says US Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Immediately after the designation, Bassil tweeted that the sanctions do not frighten him. “I have gotten used to injustice and learned from our history: It is our fate in this Orient to carry our cross every day … in order to survive,” he tweets.

The announcement came as the world anxiously awaited the result of US elections and Donald Trump’s pathway to reelection appeared to shrink.

It also comes as former Prime Minister Saad Hariri is struggling to form a new government in Lebanon, which has been hit by the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history.

— AP