According to Al Hadath TV, Washington is taking this step to weaken the influence of Iran and the Hezbollah Shiite party.
The United States is preparing to impose sanctions on Friday on former Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Basil, who is the leader of the Christian Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and son-in-law of the President of the Republic. This was reported by the Saudi TV channel Al Hadath, citing sources in the U.S. Treasury Department. According to his information, Washington is taking such a step in order to weaken the influence of Iran and the Hezbollah Shiite party, a political ally of which since 2006 is the SPD.
Basil, who is considered the leading politician in the Christian community in Lebanon, served as Foreign Minister from 2014 to 2020. He previously served in the Government as Minister of Energy and Water Resources (2009-2014) and Minister of Telecommunications (2008-2009). He became SPD leader in 2015, succeeding General Michel Aoun, who was elected President of Lebanon in 2016.
On 8 September the US Treasury Department blacklisted Ali Hassan Khalil (2014-2020), political adviser to the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament and former Finance Minister, and Yousef Fenianos (2016-2020), former Minister of Public Works and Transport, who represented the Christian Party Marada in the cabinet, for his ties with Hezbollah. As US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo argued in connection with the sanctions, Khalil and Phenianos helped Hezbollah win government contracts worth millions of dollars. According to him, the pro-Iranian Shiite party owes its existence to the “corrupt political system in Lebanon”.
On 23 October, the US Treasury Department imposed restrictions on two members of Hezbollah’s leadership, Nabil Kaouk and Hassan al-Baghdadi, as well as Iranian Ambassador to Iraq Iraj Masjedi and three organizations affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, elite parts of the Iranian Armed Forces).
Inclusion on the sanctions list means the freezing of assets in the US and a ban on US citizens or companies from doing business with its defendants.