by Dana Halawi BEIRUT, (Xinhua) — Lebanese analysts have voiced different views about the reasons behind the sanctions imposed earlier this week by the United States against Hezbollah officials and the impact of this move on Lebanon and its economy. “This move must be put in the context of the escalation taking place between Washington and Tehran and it should not be tackled as a pure Lebanese issue,” Sami Nader, director of Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs in Lebanon, told Xinhua. Nader explained that U.S. sanctions against Hezbollah’s officials are mainly caused by the radical change in the American administration’s policy towards Iran and the Middle East in general. “The U.S. administration has stopped distinguishing between the political and military arms of Iran while pushing the Europeans to stop this contradictory position of standing against Iranian’s policies in the region while dealing with it economically,” Nader explained. “This also applies to Hezbollah,” he added. Meanwhile, Hilal Khashan, chair of the Political Studies Department at the American University of Beirut (AUB), believes that the U.S. sanctions against Hezbollah’s officials aim at applying pressure on the government and its relation with Hezbollah. Likewise, Makram Rabah, a lecturer at AUB’s Department of History, said the U.S. wants to convey a message to Prime Minister Saad Hariri that it is necessary to distance the government from Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. The U.S. Treasury announced on Tuesday that it has slapped sanctions on three key Hezbollah figures, including two members of Lebanese parliament. The Treasury said in a statement that the designated individuals are Amin Sherri and Muhammad Hasan Ra’d, both members of the country’s parliament, and Hezbollah security official Wafiq Safa.
The Treasury accused them of “leveraging their privileged positions to facilitate Hezbollah’s malign agenda and do Iran’s bidding,” according to the statement. All property and interests in property of those sanctioned targets that were subject to U.S. jurisdiction would be blocked, and U.S. persons were generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Former U.S. administrations used to differentiate between the political and military wings of Hezbollah which provided them with a margin of maneuver and justification to maintain dialogue with the Lebanese government even if Hezbollah was part of the government. However, this is the first time that the United States imposes sanctions on the political wing of Hezbollah prompting severe reactions by top Lebanese officials who considered the new sanctions as a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty. President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri have both condemned the U.S. move, with the latter describing it as an “attack on parliament and on Lebanon.” However, Prime Minister Saad Hariri has played down the consequences of the U.S.’s decision, saying it would not affect the work of parliament or government. Rabah warned that the government must be very aware in its way of approaching this issue. “Any attempt by the Lebanese government to defend Hezbollah as being part of the cabinet will risk exposing all of Lebanon to future sanctions not only on the international level but also on the level of Gulf countries,” he said.
Meanwhile, Khashan believes that the government will not do anything about the new sanctions. “The government must show some solidarity though, even if it may not be sincere about it,” he said. Analysts interviewed by Xinhua also expressed different views about the impact of the new sanctions on Lebanon and its economy. Nader strongly believes that the new sanctions will definitely impact Lebanon’s economy. “These sanctions come at a critical economic stage whereby we are in deadly need for international aid in light of CEDRE. The international community may at any time consider that CEDRE will be helping Hezbollah which will impact Lebanon’s capability of accessing CEDRE’s funds,” Nader said. He said that these new sanctions will increase sovereign risk pertaining to Lebanon in the eyes of rating agencies while warning against any further downgrade by Standard & Poor’s which will issue its new report about Lebanon soon. He also noted that foreign companies may be forced not to deal with Lebanon because recent history shows that when the U.S. starts with such measures, other countries follow.
