Kuwait In Sanctions Corps On Hezb

As part of Kuwait’s efforts in combating terrorism and drying out its funding, the committee in charge of implementing the UN Security Council’s resolutions which were issued under the seventh article of the United Nations charter, has designated four entities and 10 individuals as terrorist groups, a foreign ministry source said Wednesday.

The source told KUNA, the decision was made in partnership with the United States, the main partner for Terrorist Financing Targeting Centre (TFTC), in addition to GCC member states, namely Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman.

The source noted such procedures come as part of the relentless efforts by TFTC to counter terrorism financing, along with Kuwait’s keenness to strengthen partnership with the US to eliminate financing terrorism groups, which threatens all member countries of the center.

The source added that in implementation of Security Council Resolution 1373 of 2001 under the 7th chapter of UN charter, and decisions made by GCC leaders in their 37th session, which was held in Manama in 2016, measures will be taken in accordance with the Kuwaiti constitution and its laws and through the relevant bodies.

The designated individuals and entities are:

The military wing of Hezbollah, 2. Naim Qasim, 3. Mohammad Yazbik, 4. Hussain Khalil, 5. Hashim Safi Al-Deen, 6. Talal Hamia, 7. Adham Tabaja, 8. Spectrum Al-Taif group, 9. Hasan Ibrahim, 10. Maher Trading, 11. Al-Inmaa Engineering and Contracting, 12. Ali Youssef Chararah, 13. Ibrahim Ameen Al-Said, 14. Husain Ibrahim.

It was the second time the year-old TFTC came together to announce sanctions on groups they call threats to regional peace.

Last October, the group announced joint sanctions on top Islamic State and Al-Qaeda figures in Yemen.

“The TFTC again demonstrated its great value to international security by disrupting Iran and Hezbollah’s destabilizing influence in the region,” said US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in a statement.

“By targeting Hezbollah’s Shura Council, our nations collectively rejected the false distinction between a so-called ‘Political Wing’ and Hezbollah’s global terrorist plotting.”

The move came 10 days after Hezbollah gave a strong showing in Lebanon’s elections, garnering enough seats in parliament to block any attempt by its political foes to make it disarm its militia, which rivals the Lebanese army in size and firepower.

The announcement followed two US moves in the past week to put pressure on Iran’s financial networks, including sanctions announced Tuesday that aimed at an alleged financial pipeline that moved “hundreds of millions of dollars” from Iran’s central bank through an Iraqi bank to Hezbollah.

Coming after the Trump administration withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal on May 8, the Treasury said Wednesdays actions are part of a efforts to go after “the totality of Iran’s malign activities and regionally destabilizing behavior, including that of Hezbollah.”

A number of those targeted by the TFTC had been previously blacklisted by the United States.

Earlier on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Ali Thani, discussed Qatar’s efforts to counter terrorism financing, the State Department said.

Nasrallah last year dismissed the prospect of tougher US sanctions against his group.

“The American administration, with all available and possible means, will not be able to damage the strength of the resistance,” Nasrallah said on Aug 13 in a televised address to mark the anniversary of the end of Hezbollah’s 2006 war with Israel.

Shiite Hezbollah was formed to combat Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation of Lebanon. It and its political allies made significant gains in Lebanon’s parliamentary election earlier this month, boosting an Iranian-backed movement fiercely opposed to Israel and underlining Tehran’s growing regional clout.

 

SOURCE : ARABTIMES

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