US sanctions Iran-backed militias under weapons transfer ban

AL-MONITOR Staff

Aug 9, 2021

confiscated hezbollah rocket launcher in Lebanon — Lebanese soldiers stand near a truck carrying a multiple rocket launcher after confiscating it, in the southern village of Shouayya, on Aug. 6, 2021. Lebanon's Hezbollah fired more than 10 rockets into Israel, prompting retaliatory shelling, in a major escalation between the Iran-backed Shiite movement and the Jewish state. Villagers from a Druze town in the south Lebanon district of Hasbaya stopped a truck carrying a multiple rocket launcher used in the attack, a military source told AFP, adding the army had confiscated the launcher. — MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images

The US State Department issued a notice Monday of new sanctions against major Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq for violations of a US law that restricts weapons transfers involving Iran, Syria and North Korea.

The sanctions target Kataib Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Lebanese Hezbollah, all three of which receive backing from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Two Syrian entities, Wael Issa Trading Establishment and Ayman Al Sabbagh Trading, as well as three Russian firms, Charter Green Light Moscow, Asia-Invest LLC and NPP Pulsar LLC, were also targeted. The ban forbids US government departments, agencies and personnel from signing contracts with or from providing licenses or government assistance to the organizations.

The State Department said the organizations were sanctioned July 29 under the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act.

US sanctions Iran-backed militias under weapons transfer ban

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