Today (Wednesday), the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Lebanon-based Green Without Borders and its leader over ties to the Hezbollah terrorist organization.
The Treasury stated that "Green Without Borders is a Lebanon-based organization that has provided support to and cover for Hezbollah’s operations in southern Lebanon along the “Blue Line” between Lebanon and Israel over the last decade while publicly operating under the guise of environmental activism."
“The United States rejects Hezbollah’s cynical efforts to cloak its destabilizing terrorist activities with false environmentalism,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “We will continue to support the many Lebanese civil society groups protecting Lebanon’s unique and sensitive natural environment while also relentlessly pursuing Hizballah and their support networks.”
OFAC is designating Green Without Borders and its leader, Zuhair Subhi Nahla, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, which targets terrorists, terrorist organizations, leaders and officials of terrorist groups, and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism.
The announcement noted that Green Without Borders, which was established in 2013, ostensibly with the goal of protecting the Lebanese environment, in reality, serves as a front for Hezbollah. At least a dozen Green Without Borders outposts were manned by Hezbollah operatives and served as cover for underground facilities and tunnels used by Hezbollah for weapons storage.
The IDF published documentation of this activity in June 2022.
The Treasury stated that "as a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the persons named above, and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly 50 percent or more by them, individually, or with other blocked persons, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons, must be blocked and reported to OFAC. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC or otherwise exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within the United States (including transactions transiting the United States) that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons."
"Furthermore, engaging in certain transactions with persons designated today entails risk of secondary sanctions pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended. Pursuant to this authority, OFAC can prohibit or impose strict conditions on the opening or maintaining in the United States of a correspondent account or a payable-through account of a foreign financial institution that knowingly conducted or facilitated any significant transaction on behalf of a Specially Designated Global Terrorist."
Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, welcomed the Treasury's announcement and said: “In light of today’s welcomed step by the U.S., the Security Council must follow suit. As Israel presented to UN officials and Security Council members on numerous occasions, Green Without Borders serves as a guise for Hezbollah, an internationally designated terrorist organization. The UN and Security Council must address this Hezbollah arm in the upcoming renewal of UNIFIL’s mandate and demand that the Government of Lebanon immediately remove all military compounds built by Hezbollah under the guise of Green Without Borders along the Blue Line in grave violation of Security Council Resolution 1701. The Government of Lebanon must be held accountable for what occurs on its territory.”