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US sanctions leading Christian political ally of Hezbollah

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Trump administration announced Friday that it has placed sanctions on Lebanon’s ex-foreign minister, a key Christian parliamentary ally of the Lebanese Iran-backed group Hezbollah, PBS reports. The sanctions were placed on current lawmaker Gebran Bassil, who is a son-in-law of President Michel Aoun and head of the largest political bloc in Lebanon’s parliament.

According to PBS, the sanctions on Bassil are part of a concerted US effort to put Iran’s allies under maximum pressure. The measures are a major expansion of the use of sanctions to target Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.

While the US has long placed sanctions on Hezbollah officials, the Trump administration began applying them to individual politicians who are allied with the terrorist organization, PBS reports. In September, the US Treasury sanctioned two former Lebanese Cabinet ministers who are allied with Hezbollah. The move sent what PBS described as a “strong message to Hezbollah and its allies who control majority seats in Parliament.”

Bassil came under attack by fellow Lebanese politicians in 2017, when he said he did not have an ideological problem with Israel and that he was not against Israel “living in security,” the Times of Israel and Reuters reported.

Responding to the US announcement on Friday, Bassil tweeted: “I have gotten used to injustice and learned from our history: It is our fate in this Orient to carry our cross every day … in order to survive.”