Iran oil sanctions to pressure Shi’ite allies

BEIRUT: The Trump administration will resume crushing oil sanctions on Iran early next month, a step aiming to strain Teheran’s funding of its regional allies.

Already, Lebanon’s powerful militant Hezbollah group is starting to feel financial strains, stepping up calls for donations from its Shi’ite followers.

Giant posters in Beirut’s southern Shi’ite suburbs display an armed Hezbollah fighter, holding the group’s yellow banner and Lebanon’s flag, along with phone numbers where supporters can make donations to the Shi’ite group.

Washington has imposed sanctions on Hezbollah for decades but a new wave this year appears to be more serious about targeting its top leadership, as well as businessmen and companies that Washington said were funding the group.

Iran, facing its own financial crises, has also reportedly cut back on funding for Hezbollah.

President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear accord with Iran, although the United Nations has repeatedly acknowledged Teheran was living up to the terms of the deal. Trump said he wanted stricter terms to limit Iran’s ballistic missile programme, curtail its regional influence and forever limit its nuclear technology activities.

Crushing US oil sanctions on Iran will resume in early November and already, American allies in Asia are cutting back on their purchases of Iranian crude.

While European nations say they want the deal to continue, US clout in global financial markets led oil companies and plane manufacturers to withdraw from working in Iran. Iran’s currency, the rial, has plummeted in value, and the downturn has sparked protests.

Another ally of Iran, the Yemeni rebels known as the Houthis, are also preparing for difficult times, especially as their opponents, a Saudiled coalition, besieges the port of Hodeida, a major source of income for the group. The rebels have sharply increased taxes on merchants and businesses.

Iranianbacked militias in Iraq are buffered to an extent from any financial crunch because they also get funding from the Baghdad government, which is nominally a US ally.

The militias are part of the governmentsanctioned paramilitary group known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces, with about 100,000 fighters, who get salaries and equipment from the state.

Many militias profit from businesses they run on the side. — AP