US, Argentina to tackle Hezbollah funding

The US and the Argentina will work together more closely to tackle Latin American funding networks for Hezbollah, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said yesterday, according to Ynet News.

The announcement was made during a meeting with Argentinian Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie, after concerns were raised about funds being collected for Hezbollah amongst the country’s large Lebanese expatriate community.

“With respect to Hezbollah, we also did speak today in our discussion about all of the region about how we must all jointly go after these transnational criminal organisations – narcotics trafficking, human trafficking, smuggling, money laundering – because we see the connections to terrorist financing organisations as well,” Tillerson said.

“And we did specifically discuss the presence of Lebanese Hezbollah in this hemisphere, which is raising funds, obviously, to support its terrorist activities. So it is something that we jointly agree we need to attack and eliminate.”

Faurie seconded Tillerson’s comments, emphasising the need to tackle international crime networks for the interests of both countries.

“As Secretary Tillerson said, we need to intensify every possible exchange not only in terms of dialogue but also in terms of information on the actions of these groups, which take advantage of transnational crime to foster their interests, which Argentina certainly does not agree with,” he said.

Read: US defends role of Lebanon army as Israel threatens to attack

The US has regularly expressed concern at the continued financing of Hezbollah from benefactors outside the Middle East and in the region. Washington’s Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Acts of 2015 and 2017 aimed to sever the group’s funding routes and a number of people linked to Hezbollah are on sanctions lists.

Last week the US Treasury’s Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Marshall Billingslea urged Lebanon to take every possible measure to ensure Hezbollah is not part of the financial sector.

The US has also accused Hezbollah of facilitating drug trafficking and last week announced the creation of a financing and narcoterrorism team that would launch an investigation into the connections. Hezbollah has denied the allegations.

The Iran-backed organisation is classified as a terrorist group by the US and is considered a critical threat to Israel’s national security, but sits in Lebanon’s delicate national unity government.

Whilst the US has backed the Lebanese army, which took no part in the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel that killed around 1,200 people in Lebanon and 158 Israelis, Israel has frequently condemned Hezbollah’s role in the government.

Last month, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said he is not opposed to Hezbollah’s participation in the country’s politics, stressing the need to keep Lebanon outside of the Iranian-Saudi conflict.

Read: Lieberman threatens ground invasion in Lebanon