Anti-Hizbollah sanctions 'aggression' on Lebanon — speaker

BEIRUT — Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri condemned Wednesday sanctions imposed the day before by Washington against three Hizbollah officials, including two lawmakers, calling them an "aggression" against Lebanon. 

The new sanctions announced Tuesday mark the first time the US has placed elected officials from the powerful Shiite movement on its sanctions blacklist.

Lawmakers Amin Sherri and Muhammad Hasan Raad were accused of "exploiting Lebanon's political and financial system" to benefit Hizbollah, according to a statement from the US Treasury. 

Berri said the sanctions against the officials from Hizbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel and major ally of Iran, constitute "an aggression against parliament and certainly an aggression against Lebanon", according to a statement from his office. 

Berri's Amal Movement is allied with Hizbollah, a major political player that took 13 seats in the country's May 2018 parliamentary elections and secured three Cabinet posts.

Also placed on the blacklist was Wafiq Safa, a top Hizbollah security official close to the movement's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.

Hizbollah lawmaker Ali Fayyad slammed the sanctions on Tuesday, calling them “a humiliation for the Lebanese people”.

Washington has upped sanctions against Iran in recent months, as well as Hizbollah, which the US considers a terrorist organisation.

Hizbollah “threatens the economic stability and security of Lebanon and the wider region, all at a cost to the Lebanese people,” said Sigal Mandelker, the US Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, according to a Treasury statement.

The sanctions brought to 50 the number of Hizbollah individuals and entities blacklisted by the Treasury since 2017.

This “maximum pressure campaign against the Iranian regime... and its proxies has already succeeded in limiting the financial support Hizbollah receives”, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Tuesday.