Hezbollah ducks and dives to beat new US sanctions

BEIRUT: New US sanctions on six individuals and seven companies linked to Hezbollah will have a limited effect on the group because it constantly changes how it operates, experts have told Arab News.
Hezbollah “has expanded its business paths and diversified the individuals with whom it deals, and the process of money transfer,” said Ali Al-Amin, a member of the Independent Shia Personalities group.
He said the new sanctions were a message from the US that there would be no let-up in the pressure on the group, “but they will not disturb Hezbollah because it has adopted a new business approach.”
Lokman Slim, a researcher at UMAM Documentation and Research, told Arab News: “The impact of sanctions on Hezbollah cannot be measured as quickly as breaking news is published — measuring the impact of economic sanctions is done as they contribute to strangling Hezbollah over time.
“The more the US strangles Hezbollah, the more Hezbollah seeks new ways out, which means these sanctions are more political than technical in nature and are merely a reminder of US policy.”
The main aim of the new sanctions, announced by the US Treasury on Friday, is to block the activities of a network of companies in Lebanon, Ghana, Liberia and elsewhere linked to the Hezbollah financier Adham Tabaja, who is already designated a terrorist by the US.
These companies and their executives act on Tabaja’s behalf, forming “conduits” of funding for the militant group, the US said. The sanctions also target Al-Inmaa Engineering Contracting, a company run by Tabaja and based in Hezbollah’s stronghold south of Beirut.
“We will no longer allow corrupt Hezbollah and other Iranian regime cronies to hide their crimes behind front companies,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
“We will be relentless in identifying, exposing, and dismantling Hezbollah’s financial support networks globally,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
Senior US officials said Iran sent Hezbollah about $700 million a year, and the group had become the Iranian regime’s main tool to project its power.
“Hezbollah is a terrorist organization responsible for the killing of hundreds of Americans and is an Iranian tool for sabotaging legitimate Arab governments,” the Treasury Department said.
“Adham Tabaja is from the southern Lebanese town of Kafr Tibnit and was the town’s mayor, but when his name was included in the list of sanctioned individuals, he resigned as mayor,” Al-Amin told Arab News.
“He was an engineering student at the Beirut Arab University, but he dropped out during the 1980s when he became wanted by Amal Movement following the clashes between Hezbollah and Amal. With some colleagues, he founded a construction company, raised capital, and operated in the southern suburb of Beirut during the economic boom between 1990 and 1991.
“He proudly announces that he’s a member of Hezbollah — not simply a supporter or a sympathizer — and his power was evident in his construction violations in Beirut’s southern suburb. His company’s activities expanded to reach several regions, including Iraq during the economic boom between 2008 and 2009.
“Al-Inmaa has been under suspicion since it was first sanctioned along with Tabaja.”
Slim said: “Al-Inmaa’s name gets repeated every time new sanctions are announced, even though it claims to be a holding company that operates across the world.
“The so-called money laundering and illegal trading are, according to Hezbollah, legitimate trade activities carried out by respectable people who Hezbollah defends.”