By Al-Fassel | 2024-09-13

The United States on September 11 imposed sanctions on a Hizbullah oil-smuggling network that it said has generated millions in illicit revenue for the Iran-backed party and its terrorist activities.

The move is part of an effort to disrupt Hizbullah's illicit revenue generation and isolate its financial network, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Three blacklisted individuals include a senior leader of Hizbullah's illicit finance team, as well as Lebanese businessmen engaged in oil smuggling and procurement of oil installations on behalf of Hizbullah, Miller said.

Five companies are facing censure, and two vessels that smuggle oil to generate funding for Hizbullah have been blocked, he said.

The network has facilitated dozens of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) shipments to the Syrian regime, the US Treasury said.

The profits are channeled to Hizbullah, it said, noting that illicit oil and LPG smuggling operations generate "hundreds of millions of dollars for Hizbullah and support the group's terrorist activities."

Hizbullah continues to "fuel regional instability, choosing to prioritize funding violence over taking care of the people it claims to care about, including the tens of thousands displaced in southern Lebanon," said Treasury official Bradley Smith.

Illicit shipments to Syria

Two prominent Hizbullah officials involved in these efforts are Muhammad Qasir and Muhammad Qasim al-Bazzal, who manage a channel for transporting oil distillates on behalf of Hizbullah and directly receive payment for their sale.

Both were sanctioned by the US in 2018, Qasir for "acting for or on behalf of Hizbullah as a critical conduit for financial disbursements from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) to Hizbullah."

The newly designated network includes another senior Hizbullah finance team official, and two Lebanese businessmen providing a seemingly legitimate front to facilitate Hizbullah's oil smuggling efforts, the Treasury said.

The network has facilitated dozens of LPG shipments to the Syrian regime, working with regime official Yasser Ibrahim, who was sanctioned in August 2020 for his role in corrupt business deals that benefitted President Bashar al-Assad.

Muhammad Ibrahim Habib al-Sayyid, Ali Nayef Zgheib, Muhammad Ibrahim Bazzi and Boutros Georges Obeid are facing censure.

Zgheib and Obeid own and manage Heavy Oil Distribution Company S.A.L. (HODICO) and subsidiaries that have been involved in Hizbullah's energy deals.

Zgheib and Obeid jointly manage Heavy Oil Distribution Company SAL Offshore (HODICO Offshore) and Heavy Industrial Fuels SAL HIF (HIF SAL), which received a $1 million payment in 2022, likely for LPG shipments to Syria.

European Lebanese International Trade S.A.R.L. (ELIT) was responsible for dozens of LPG shipments made by the LPG tankers Alpha Gas and Marina to Baniyas port in Syria for a blacklisted company.