US congress moves bills on Hizbollah sanctions

The US congress took a step yesterday towards imposing sanctions on the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah.

Two bills relating to Hizbollah cleared the foreign affairs committee of the house of representatives after amendments – in particular the parts of the text targeting Hizbollah’s narcotics trafficking and other illicit activities. Committee chairman Ed Royce said the changes would “strengthen the bill” especially after “alarming reports that Hizbollah and Iran are building illicit missile factories on the doorstep of Israel [in South Lebanon] near mosques, homes, hospitals, and schools”.

These were “game-changing facilities” which could be used against Israel and US allies, Mr Royce said.

The congressman also alluded to Iran’s increased funding of Hizbollah and its vast cash network through cocaine trafficking and other activities, and said the bill would “tighten the screws” on Hizbollah’s financial operations globally and also push back against the group’s “enablers – the Assad regime and Russia”.

The Hizbollah international financing act of 2017 is a strengthened bill from the 2015 law of the same name and calls for sanctions on any foreign person who “assists, sponsors or provides significant financial, material, or technological support” or is determined by the president to be engaged in fundraising or recruitment activities for Hizbollah.

The law also applies to helping any of a list of affiliates, including Bayt Al Mal, Jihad Al Bina, the Islamic Resistance Support Association, the Foreign Relations Department of Hizbollah, the External Security Organisation of Hizbollah, Al Manar TV, Al Nour Radio or the Lebanese Media Group.

The bill also imposes sanctions on foreign states that support Hizbollah, and targets its “narcotics trafficking and significant transnational criminal activities”.

The second bill addresses Hizbollah’s use of civilians as human shields and permits sanctions to be imposed on foreigners who violate internationally-recognised human rights on civilians used or those, or other purposes.

Both bills cleared the committee yesterday and will move to a full vote in the house and thereafter – if it passes – to the senate. It would then fall to president Donald Trump to sign the legislation into law.

Congress has tried to separate its actions against Hizbollah from support and funding that the United States sends to Lebanon, estimated at $70 million a year in military aid since 2006. Last week, the head of the General Security Directorate in Lebanon, Abbas Ibrahim, was in Washington to discuss security and counterterrorism co-operation.