Congress takes aim at Lebanese politicians with Hezbollah bill
The US House of Representatives is expected to vote this month on legislation requiring the president to publicly report on Hezbollah allies’ net worth.
Congress is moving ahead with a Hezbollah sanctions bill that targets the Iran-backed Shiite militia’s allies in government, sending shock waves across Lebanon’s political elite.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed legislation from Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., last week that tightens the screws on Hezbollah’s illicit funding streams abroad, setting up a vote in the full House later this month. The bill notably calls on the US president to publicly disseminate US estimates of Hezbollah and allied politicians’ net worth, a highly controversial move in a country where corruption is rampant.
“I’ve had long conversations with the government from Lebanon on this [bill],” Royce said at a Capitol Hill panel hosted by the hawkish Foundation for the Defense of Democracies on Tuesday. “These conversations would probably be more impactful to me and my colleagues if we didn’t have an agent of Hezbollah sitting in the room when we have them. And this is one of the greatest misgivings I have about Lebanon allowing Hezbollah into the government.”
Action on the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Amendments Act of 2017 follows last year’s accession to the presidency by Michel Aoun, a Christian politician whose Free Patriotic Movement is allied with Hezbollah and the Shiite Amal Movement. Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terrorist group, also has about a dozen members in parliament.
