{"id":21142,"date":"2014-10-31T19:09:11","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T18:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/?p=21142"},"modified":"2014-11-01T04:08:54","modified_gmt":"2014-11-01T03:08:54","slug":"21142","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/21142\/","title":{"rendered":"Hezbollah Sanctions?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Juan Pecquet writes:\u00a0 European officials, not the Lebanese, are the ones raising sharp questions about Hezballlah sanctions legislation\u00a0that unanimously passed the House in July.\u00a0 <\/span>European officials are worried about crippling Lebanon’s economy even as Beirut’s bankers say they’re OK with the House-passed Hezbollah sanctions bill.\u00a0 The legislation has stalled in the Senate partly as a result, but the bill’s backers are confident they can address any concerns.<\/p>\n

Lebanese bank officials in\u00a0 contrast have said\u00a0they can live with the new restrictions, especially after a lengthy “findings” section that could have cast the country’s financial sector in a negative light was cut from the bill.<\/p>\n

Concern is not as much with the American financial institutions as it is with some of the European financial institutions \u2014 and the pushback is coming primarily from that entity.<\/p>\n

The EU has been reluctant to break ties with the Shiite militia \u2014 it labeled Hezbollah’s so-called military wing a terrorist organization only last year under rising US pressure \u2014 and has not blacklisted the group’s bank accounts and assets. Countries such as France insist on maintaining open channels with the most powerful political force in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in contact with working-level staffers of Congress on a very regular basis to exchange on many foreign policy issues,\u201d a French diplomatic source said. \u201cLebanon is one of the issues discussed, as are Africa, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq or Ebola to name just a few over the last few months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0British government\u00a0did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Joseph Gebeily, president of the Lebanese Information Center in Washington, said Hezbollah relies on the European financial sector in part because it actively avoids Lebanese banks.\u00a0 “Hezbollah’s image is important to Hezbollah. They don’t want to be seen as doing damage [to the Lebanese banking sector],\u00a0 Even Hezbollah parliamentarians can’t open an account.”<\/p>\n

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Juan Pecquet writes:\u00a0 European officials, not the Lebanese, are the ones raising sharp questions about Hezballlah sanctions legislation\u00a0that unanimously passed the House in July.\u00a0 European officials are worried about crippling Lebanon’s economy even as Beirut’s bankers say they’re OK with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-finance"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t