The United States has hit six individuals and seven businesses linked to Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hizballah militia with terrorism-related sanctions.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on February 2 that the sanctions were the "first wave" in a campaign to pressure the Iran-allied group in the upcoming year.
"We will be relentless in identifying, exposing, and dismantling Hizballah's financial support networks globally," Mnuchin said.
The Treasury Department said it was targeting people and companies with ties to "Hizballah member and financier Adham Tabaja or his company, Al-Inmaa Engineering and Contracting."
Mnuchin added that Hizballah is "Iran's primary proxy used to undermine legitimate Arab governments across the Middle East."
"The administration is determined to expose and disrupt Hizballah's networks, including those across the Middle East and West Africa, used to fund their illicit operations," he added.
Hizballah is both a military and a political organization that is represented in the Lebanese parliament.
The United States and several Sunni Arab countries have accused Hizballah of supporting regional terrorism, and the U.S. Congress has previously placed sanctions on the militia, describing it as Tehran’s “terrorist proxy.”