AhlulBayt News Agency - Lebanese Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh said Wednesday that 100 accounts linked to Hezbollah have so far been closed, in accordance with a U.S. law targeting the group’s finances.
Salameh said that the Central Bank is doing its part to implement the U.S. law, and the “priority is for Lebanon to remain on the international financial map.”
U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act on December 2005, which cam into effect this year.
In March 2016, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control released the names of 99 individuals, social centers, schools, charitable groups and trade firms and media outlets that are connected to Hezbollah, which Washington labels a terrorist group.
All Lebanese and international banks are obliged to freeze or suspend the accounts of all names listed by OFAC or face sanctions if they fail to do so.
“We have taken measures to implement the law, and we have laid the infrastructure necessary to achieve its objectives,” he said, assuring that the access of Lebanon’s Shiite community to banks will be guaranteed.
“Lebanon is a small country and the economy of Lebanon depends on the Lebanese (people), it doesn’t depend on natural resources or exports. We have a good industrial sector, but it doesn’t weigh a lot on our economy so the pillar is to keep confidence in the country.”
Observers say that it is difficult to monitor the cash movement if they don’t go through the legitimate proper channels, such as banks and financial institutions.
Salameh said that the Central Bank is working to preserve the country’s monetary stability amid the political divisions and unrest taking place in the Middle East.
During a cabinet session early last month, high-ranking Lebanese officials exchanged viewpoints on a decision by local banks to close the accounts of at least two Hezbollah lawmakers.
Hezbollah opposed to the pending move, urging Salameh to resist US pressure to implement financial sanctions against the resistance movement.
Lebanese daily newspaper al-Joumhouria identified the two Hezbollah parliamentarians, whose accounts were canceled, as Ali Fayad and Nawwar al-Sahili. The account of former MP Amin Sharri’s daughter was also shut down as well.
On December 18, 2015, US President Barack Obama signed into law the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act.
The legislation says Washington will target those “knowingly facilitating a significant transaction or transactions for” Hezbollah or any individual, business or institution linked to the group.
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