US hits Hezbollah with more sanctions, says Iran controls it

Washington announced fresh sanctions on Thursday against an alleged Hezbollah financing network, emphasizing Hezbollah's close ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The US legal designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization has been updated to note its operation in service of the Iranian regime, specifically under the command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force.

This comes as the US enables direct talks between Israel and Lebanon, which are technically at war, a situation Hezbollah rejects. The US has designated Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization since 1997, and in 2001 as a specially designated global terrorist group, specifying that it is an Iranian proxy, not an independent entity.

This new designation underscores Hezbollah's disregard for Lebanese sovereignty, the Lebanese people, or the Lebanese state. The move follows Hezbollah's March involvement in the Middle East war by firing rockets at Israel to support its backer, Iran, with Israel responding with a heavy air campaign and ground invasion that has reportedly killed over 4,300 people.

The new sanctions target 10 individuals believed to be part of a network that transfers cash to Hezbollah, a group that has already faced multiple US sanctions. The network reportedly uses couriers on commercial flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the UAE, and Iran to move hundreds of millions of dollars between jurisdictions, circumventing the formal financial system to obtain foreign currency and evade sanctions.