VOA常速英语:Treasury Designates Four Hezbollah Leaders

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on four members of Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based group which has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997. They are Khalil Yusif Harb, Muhammad Kawtharani, Muhammad Yusuf Ahmad Mansur and Muhammad Qabalan.

These individuals were designated pursuant to Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and their supporters for acting for, or on behalf of Hezbollah. This means that their assets within the reach of the United States will be frozen. No U.S. citizen may engage in business with them.

Since the 1980s, Khalil Yusif Harb has served as a leader within Hezbollah. In 2010, he planned unspecified attacks against Israeli officials in Israel and later served as commander of a Lebanon-based special unit that focused on Israel. He has also been involved in Hezbollah’s finances, last year facilitating the movement of large amounts of currency to Yemen.

Muhammad Kawtharani has worked on behalf of Hezbollah's leadership to promote the group's interests in Iraq, including Hezbollah’s efforts to provide training, funding, political, and logistical support to Iraqi insurgent groups. Kawtharani last year assisted in moving fighters to Syria to support the Assad regime.

Muhammad Yusuf Ahmad Mansur served as an Egypt-based leader of a Hezbollah cell that targeted tourist destinations. In 2009, Mansur’s cell was disrupted and, along with a number of his fellow operatives, he was arrested for planning to carry out terrorist operations against Israeli and other tourists in Egypt. He was sentenced by an Egyptian court to 15 years in prison, but escaped and returned to Lebanon.

Muhammad Qabalan was the Lebanon-based leader of Unit 1800, and Mansur’s superior, coordinating the Egyptian cell’s activities from Lebanon. For his involvement, he was sentenced in absentia by the Egyptian court, to life imprisonment.

“Whether ferrying foreign fighters to the front lines of the Syrian civil war or inserting clandestine operatives in Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere, Hezbollah remains a significant global terrorist threat,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. “So long as Hezbollah spreads instability, conducts terrorist attacks and engages in criminal and illicit activities around the world, we will continue to sanction Hezbollah’s operatives, leaders and businesses, wherever they may be found.”