Hezbollah supporters attend the funeral of a party member killed by Israel in strikes on southern Lebanon, on Oct. 21, 2023, in the southern suburbs of Beirut. (Archive photo: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Hezbollah on Friday denounced sanctions imposed on it by the U.S. administration, which had decided the day before to re-list the group for sanctions for its ties to the Quds Force, the unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for overseas operations. In a statement, the group said it did not need a "certificate" to prove its "belonging to Lebanon" and its patriotism.
This decision by the U.S. Treasury Department "is in reality just a new episode in the policies consistently pursued by U.S. administrations to target the resistance... in order to protect the security of the Israeli enemy, to consolidate its occupation of southern Lebanon, and to pave the way for it to carry out its projects and expansionist ambitions in the region," wrote Hezbollah in a statement. According to the group, Washington "continues to treat Lebanon with a patronizing logic" and "seeks to provoke unrest within Lebanon and to divert the confrontation with the Israeli enemy in another direction," instead of "forcing this enemy to withdraw from southern Lebanon," which its army occupies over nearly 700 square kilometers.
While the Treasury Department explicitly cited Thursday its role "in the service of the Iranian regime," Hezbollah said it "does not await from anyone a certificate proving its belonging to Lebanon or its patriotism," considering that its "resistance" and its "sacrifices" are the "real proof." Regarding its ties to Tehran, Hezbollah mentioned a "close and brotherly relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran," of which the group said it was "proud." Iran "has stood by [our] side throughout every stage and every crisis and was one of the first countries to contribute to the reconstruction of what was destroyed by the Zionist aggression during the July 2006 war," the group wrote, before attacking the United States, which it called "the mother of terrorism in the world."
"The American administration has no moral or legal legitimacy to classify others or to issue certificates of patriotism to them," Hezbollah said, citing "the unlimited [U.S.] support for the genocide in Gaza, its cover for the crimes of the Israeli enemy, and the killings and destruction it commits in Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria, its aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran." "All of these unfair sanctions and designations will not distract us from our commitment to the path of resistance," Hezbollah concluded.
'Undermining Lebanon’s sovereignty'
Commenting on the U.S. Treasury’s announcements, Massaad Boulos, adviser to President Donald Trump, on Friday accused Iran of "using Hezbollah to sow chaos in the Middle East, undermine Lebanon’s sovereignty, and threaten our regional allies." On his X account, he added that the measures taken by Washington on Thursday "confirm our determination to dismantle these terrorist financing networks."
Washington’s unprecedented decision did not, legally, transform Hezbollah into an "Iranian organization" rather than a Lebanese one, but added to its American designation a basis explicitly linked to its relationship with the Quds Force, Reuters noted.
