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US on sanctions spree, eyeing alleged Hezbollah, DPRK-related entities

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
16 Aug 2023 21:26
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One of the entities targeted with sanctions is the Lebanese environmental group Green Without Borders.

The US Treasury Department building shown at dusk in Washington on June 6, 2019 (AP)

Entities in Russia, Slovakia, and Kazakhstan have been sanctioned by the US for alleged ties with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), according to the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

The Office also sanctioned the Lebanon-based organization, Green Without Borders, and its leader, Zuhair Subhi Nahla, for alleged Hezbollah links.

On Wednesday, OFAC sanctioned Limited Liability Company Verus, which is based in Russia, as well as Slovak entity Versor SRO and Kazakh entity Defense Engineering Limited Liability Partnership as they were added to the US Specially Designated Nationals list.

The three entities were found to have had ties with Ashot Mkrtychev, 56 years old, who had been US designated earlier in March. At the time, the Slovak was accused of arranging sales and barter deals for the DPRK to allegedly move weapons and munitions to Moscow between late 2022 and early 2023.

OFAC, also on Wednesday, sanctioned Zuhair Subhi Nahla and his organization Green Without Borders (GWB), in Lebanon, for alleged links to Hezbollah.

The Treasury statement claimed that GWB “provided support to and cover for Hezbollah’s operations in southern Lebanon along the ‘Blue Line’ between Lebanon and Israel over the last decade, while publicly operating under the guise of environmental activism.”

Moreover, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson, noted that “the United States rejects Hezbollah’s cynical efforts to cloak its destabilizing terrorist activities with false environmentalism,” adding that “we will continue to support the many Lebanese civil society groups protecting Lebanon’s unique and sensitive natural environment while also relentlessly pursuing Hezbollah and their support networks.”

How US sanctions backfire, erode the Western order imposing them: FP

In July, a Foreign Policy article revealed that sanctions have become a go-to-foreign policy tool of the West, particularly the US.

Numerous nations, including Russia, China, Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela, all for a plethora of reasons are stacked together in what the authors call a "family photo" of those "named and shamed" by the US.

Databases by Colombia University and Princeton University indicate that the US has more than 20 countries sanctioned, implying that financial and commercial interactions with certain firms, persons, and, in many cases, the governments, are prohibited by US law.

By 2021, according to the US Treasury Department’s report, the United States had sanctions on more than 9,000 individuals, companies, and sectors of targeted country economies. In Joe Biden's first year in office, the administration sanctioned 765 new designations globally, including 173 related to alleged human rights. The countries subject to some form of US sanctions collectively account for a little more than one-fifth of global GDP. China represents 80% of that group.

Sanctions have become a vital instrument of the US, regardless of whether they benefit or harm long-term US interests. They are a form of virtue signaling that allows politicians to demonstrate that they are doing something when confronted with a particular issue.

Worryingly for the US, previous sanctions have simply resulted in a strengthened coalition among targeted governments, as seen in Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela.

Much of this will need a sober willingness on the part of officials from both parties to accept a simple fact: Sanctions do not always work. In many situations, they intentionally undermine US interests.