US sanctions Hezbollah-linked individuals and companies

The United States Treasury Department announced today (Wednesday) that it was sanctioning "three individuals, five companies, and two vessels" for smuggling oil and liquified natural gas to Syria to produce hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues for Hezbollah.

Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith said that "Hezbollah continues to launch rockets into Israel and fuel regional instability, choosing to prioritize funding violence over taking care of the people it claims to care about, including the tens of thousands displaced in southern Lebanon. Treasury will continue to disrupt the oil smuggling and other financing networks that support Hezbollah’s war machine.”

Among the individuals sanctioned are Lebanese businessmen Ali Nayef Zgheib and Boutros Georges Obeid, whose business network Heavy Oil Distribution Company S.A.L. has reportedly been "heavily involved" in Hezbollah energy deals.

The United States also sanctioned two tankers - ALPHA GAS and MARINA - identified as serving to deliver the illicit fuel to Syria to help fund Hezbollah terrorism.