The US Treasury Department has issued new Hezbollah-related sanctions, designating Lebanese businessman and the Iran-backed group's financial facilitator, Ahmad Jalal Reda Abdallah, and his companies, Reuters reported.
The sanctions, announced on Thursday, targeted Abdallah, five of his associates and eight of his companies in Lebanon and Iraq. They were all added to the sanctions list of the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the department said.
Abdallah is a Hezbollah official and an active member of its global financial network, according to the Treasury. He has supported Hezbollah for decades, carrying out commercial activities in various countries where the profits are transferred to the Iran-backed group, the department said.
The United States said Abdallah used his senior employees and relatives to establish new businesses throughout the Middle East on behalf of Hezbollah.
In recent months, the United States has placed sanctions on several Lebanese officials linked to Hezbollah.
In January, the US imposed sanctions on three Lebanese nationals and 10 companies it said were part of an international Hezbollah network.
The sanctions have also targeted two former Lebanese Cabinet ministers allied with the terrorist organization: Ex-finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil and the former public works and transportation minister, Youssef Fenianos.
In addition, Washington sanctioned Gebran Bassil, the leader of Lebanon’s biggest Christian political bloc and son-in-law of President Michel Aoun, accusing him of corruption and ties to Hezbollah.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)