U.S. Alert against Hezbollah

Finally, the U.S. mind succeeded to present another plea to justify the imposing of more financial sanctions against Hezbollah. This plea can be summarized by the claim of supporting the Syrian regime and accusing the party of carrying out “terrorist attacks”, in a movement translated by the American embassy via warning its citizens from exposure to attacks.

The United States stepped up its policy that aims at promoting the preferred view of U.S. and western mass media that the situation in Syria is merely a war waged by a minority Alawite regime supported by Iran and the Shiite Hezbollah against the Syrian people.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced yesterday the imposing of sanctions against Hezbollah for supporting the Syrian government, charging the party of playing a pivotal role in the continuous violence, the violence which it said that President Assad’s regime is committing against the Syrians.

In a statement, the Treasury said that it classified Hezbollah as an entity subject to sanctions pursuant to the Executive Order 13582 issued on 17 August 2011, which targets the Syrian government and its sponsors, claiming that “Hezbollah has directly offered advice and logistic support for the efforts of Syrian government, the merciless in its fight against the opposition.”

The statement added that Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah is the “supervisor of those efforts in helping the Syrian regime in its violent crackdown against Syrian civilians. Hezbollah directly trained Syrian governmental employees inside Syria and made it easy for Iran to train Syrian forces through the terrorist arm of Iran.. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Forces – al-Quds Corps. Hezbollah also played a great role in the exerted efforts to expel the Syrian opposition forces of Syria.”

Within the context of sustained mobilization against Hezbollah and Iran, a joint telephone press conference between the Undersecretary of the Treasury Department for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, David Cohen, and the counter-terrorism coordinator at the U.S. State Department Daniel Binjamin, Cohen said that “Hezbollah support for the violent repressive practiced by the Syrian government against the Syrian people is of large scale, and shows the real nature of this terrorist organization and its existence which destabilizes the region.”

“After the departure of Assad regime, the Syrian people and the international community will remember that Hezbollah and its sponsor – Iran contributed to the regime’s killing of countless innocent civilians.”

Noteworthy that re-mentioning Hezbollah and Iran on the Executive Order 13582 list adds nothing to the unilateral sanctions list imposed by the United States, since the party is already put on the U.S. State Department list of the so-called terrorist organization and Iran is on the list of the so-called “states sponsoring terrorism.”

A statement of the U.S. Treasury Department said that “over the years, Iran provided Hezbollah with training, weapons and explosives, as well as the diplomatic, political, finance and organizational support. The continuous coordination and cooperation between Revolutionary Guard Forces, Al-Quds Forces and Hezbollah could help the Syrian regime in its efforts to violently crackdown the opposition in Syria and shed the light upon the joint Syrian-Iranian campaign in using the military sources and terrorist followers to inflict violence and suffering on the Syrian people and deprive them from legitimate democratic aspirations.”

The Executive Order 13582 provides for seizing all properties, interests and benefits owned by the Syrian government and its supporters under the authority of U.S. Jurisdiction. It also prohibits the involvement in any commercial activity with Hezbollah or in transactions with the Syrian government and its supporters, alongside the freeze of any assets related the Syrian government and its supporters under the authority of U.S. Jurisdiction.

As for Daniel Binjamin, he warned that Hezbollah could planned for imminent attacks in Europe and across the world.
“We believe that Hezbollah may launch attacks in Europe or elsewhere at any time (…) without any warnings,” he said, adding that “we estimate that Hezbollah and Iran will keep carrying out extensive terrorist acts in the foreseeable future.”

According to Benjamin, Hezbollah started to “intensify its terror campaign” across the world. He said that the party is “interested in launching terrorist attacks in Thailand, where it seems that an attack was foiled early 2012.”

The U.S. official, however, stressed that he has no information suggesting the possibility that Hezbollah is planning attacks on the U.S. territories.

Furthermore, the U.S. embassy to Lebanon warned its citizens yesterday of the risks of “terrorist attacks.”
Political sources noted that the American warning came in the wake of American ambassador Maura Connelly’s visit to the PM Najib Miqati and Army Commander, and in the wake of the rumors on Connelly’s warnings about a possible link between Hezbollah and Bulgaria operation.