Hezbollah redesignated by US as terror group in ‘service to the Iranian regime’

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group that has controlled southern Lebanon for decades, “operates with little to no regard for Lebanese sovereignty, the Lebanese people or the Lebanese state,” a U.S. State Department official said on Thursday, as the Trump administration again sanctioned Hezbollah “for service to the Iranian regime.”

“The United States will not relent in targeting Iran’s financial support networks, including those enabling Hezbollah to threaten peace, undermine the sovereignty of the Lebanese state and endanger the security of our regional allies,” Tommy Pigott, State Department spokesman, wrote.

The official said that Hezbollah, which has long been sanctioned as a foreign terrorist organization, is being redesignated “an Iranian proxy, not a stand-alone operation as implied by the previous designation.”

The action on Thursday “builds on years of U.S. designations that have repeatedly documented the operational, financial and logistical integration” between Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, which is Iran’s elite military wing specializing in unconventional warfare, foreign intelligence and management of Iran’s network of terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East.

Thursday’s determination “formally recognizes” Hezbollah’s activities “as an extension of the IRGC-QF” and “not a Lebanese resistance movement.”

Jointly, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned 10 individuals participating in a network helping with hundreds of millions of dollars of sanctions-evading cash transfers between the IRGC-QF and Hezbollah, using commercial flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iran.

“The investigation and disruption of this network are the result of close coordination and collaboration with our Turkish partners,” Pigott wrote.

The State Department official blasted Hezbollah for having “twice dragged Lebanon into devastating wars, subordinating the country’s interests to Tehran’s regional agenda and leaving the Lebanese people to bear the consequences,” calling the terrorist group “the obstacle to Lebanon’s sovereignty, stability and economic recovery.”

The United States, Israel and Lebanon have developed a trilateral framework to help restore Lebanese sovereignty to the southern part of the country, which Hezbollah has long used as a launching pad for attacks on Israel.

As part of that pact, Israel and Lebanon are coordinating on so-called pilot zones, whereby Hezbollah, by choice or force, is to exit from designated areas and relocate further north, in tandem with a takeover by the Lebanese Armed Forces and withdrawal by the Israel Defense Forces.

State Department officials have expressed optimism about the trajectory of ongoing talks between Jerusalem and Beirut to implement the agreement.