Riyadh - Saudi Arabia, the United States and Gulf partners imposed additional sanctions on Lebanon's Hezbollah leadership on Wednesday, targeting its top two officials, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Naim Qassem.
The Saudi State Security Presidency designated 10 Hezbollah commanders on the country’s terrorism list.
Five members of the Hezbollah Shura Council were also designated as terrorists.
The decision on Wednesday comes as part of the seven member nations of the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center (TFTC) which Saudi Arabia co-chairs.
The other TFTC member states -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- designated members of Hezballah’s Shura Council, the primary decision-making body of Hezbollah.
The US Treasury Department said four other individuals were also sanctioned, as was the group ISIS in the Greater Sahara. It was the third round of sanctions announced by Washington since the United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal last week.
Wednesday's sanctions targeted members of the primary decision-making body of Hezbollah, Treasury said in a statement.
«By targeting Hezbollah's Shura Council, our nations collectively rejected the false distinction between a so-called ‘Political Wing’ and Hezbollah’s global terrorist plotting,» Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
In addition, TFTC Member States also designated the following key Hezbollah-affiliated individuals and entities: Talal Hamiyah, Ali Youssef Charara, Spectrum Group, Hasan Ebrahimi, Maher Trading, Hashem Safieddine, Adham Tabaja, Al-Inmaa Group, and Al-Inmaa Engineering and Contracting, all of whom were previously designated by the US.
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of all designated individuals and entities that are in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or in the possession or control of Saudi Arabia must be blocked and reported to competent authorities.
The Law of Combating the Crimes of Terrorism and it's Financing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia generally prohibit all dealings by KSA persons or within (or transiting) the Saudi Arabia that involve any property or interests in property of blocked or designated persons.
Each of the all individuals designated today are subject to sanctions pursuant to the Law of combating the Crimes of Terrorism and it's Financing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia prohibits and imposes strict conditions on opening or maintaining in the KSA correspondent account or a payable-through account by a foreign financial institution that knowingly facilitates a significant transaction for Hizballah, or a person acting on behalf of, at the direction of, or that is owned or controlled by, Hizballah.
In addition, Saudi Arabia has already designated, Hashem Safieddine, Adham Tabaja, Al-Inmaa Group, and Al-Inmaa Engineering and Contracting, according to the Law of Combating the Crimes of Terrorism and it's Financing.