Hezbollah raps US sanctions against Lebanon’s MP Bassil, slams intervention in Lebanon’s affairs

Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement has lambasted the United States for imposing sanctions on Gebran Bassil, the leader of Lebanon’s largest Christian bloc, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), saying the move is a blatant intervention in the Arab country’s domestic affairs.

In a statement on Friday, Hezbollah said the US sponsors and fully supports terrorism, extremism, corruption, corrupt leaders, and dictatorships across the globe, stressing that Washington does not have the right to preach on fighting terrorism.

The statement came hours after the US Treasury Department blacklisted Bassil over accusations of corruption. Bassil, who is the son-in-law of Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun, said he was not intimidated by the US sanctions.

“This decision specifically aims at subjecting a large Lebanese political team to the American conditions and dictates on Lebanon,” Hezbollah further said in the statement, adding that the US employs its internal laws, including its so-called anti-terrorism and anti-corruption Acts, to extend its dominance and influence over other countries.

The resistance movement also pointed out that Washington uses the said laws against any free and honorable country, party, and movement or individual that does not submit to the US policies, obey its instructions and accept its schemes “aimed at sowing sedition and fragmentation and creating internal and regional conflicts.”

In conclusion, Hezbollah said that it “voices patriotic, moral and human solidarity with the Free Patriotic Movement and its head in the face of such unjust decisions and baseless  fabrications.”

Lebanon’s Gebran Bassil downplays US sanctions

The leader of Lebanon’s largest Christian bloc, Gebran Bassil, says he is not intimidated by the sanctions that the United States has imposed against him.

Separately on Friday, a senior US official said Bassil’s support for the Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah had been “every bit of the motivation” for the imposition of the sanctions.

The Free Patriotic Movement has a political alliance with Hezbollah.

Back in September, Washington blacklisted two Lebanese ministers over alleged support for the resistance movement.

The White House targeted former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, from the Shia Amal Party, and former Transport Minister Youssef Fenianos, from the Christian Marada movement, with sanctions, freezing any assets they held in the United States and banning Americans from doing any financial transactions with them.

The US has so far imposed severe sanctions against Hezbollah over terrorism allegations.

Hezbollah was founded in the 1980s following the Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon. The movement waged a long resistance campaign against Israeli forces and pushed them out of southern Lebanon in May 2000. Since then, the group has grown into a powerful military force. Israel also suffered a humiliating defeat from Hezbollah in a war in 2006.

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