...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...and Israel, Treasury Department claims
The United States imposed sanctions Wednesday on a Lebanese environmental organization it accused of being an arm of the Hezbollah terror group.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Green Without Borders (GWB) and its leader, Zuhair Subhi Nahla, for allegedly providing support and cover to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon along the "Blue Line" boundary between Lebanon and Israel "while operating under the guise of environmental activism."
The Treasury Department said GWB outposts are manned by Hezbollah operatives, serving as cover for the terror group’s warehouses and munitions tunnels. Workers at the outposts have allegedly prevented UN peacekeepers in Lebanon from accessing areas that the United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
is supposed to be able to reach.
GWB was established in 2013, and it claims that it aims to protect Lebanon’s green areas and plant trees. "We are not an arm for anyone," Nahla told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named in January. "We, as an environmental association, work for all the people and we are not politicized."
GWB sites "have been used to conduct Hezbollah weapons training, to provide support for Hezbollah’s activities along the Blue Line in southern Lebanon and to impede the freedom of movement of the UN Security Council-mandated United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)," the State Department said, adding that the sanctions are "part of our efforts to prevent and disrupt financial and other support for terrorist attacks in Lebanon, Israel, and around the world."
Brian E. Nelson, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the US rejects Hezbollah’s "cynical efforts to cloak its destabilizing terrorist activities with false environmentalism."
Already in 2017, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, who at the time was head of the IDF Military Intelligence, revealed Hezbollah’s use of the GWB as a cover for its activities, in violation of the ceasefire with Israel.
In February 2020, the Israeli Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center published a report denouncing the environmental group’s affiliation with Hezbollah’s civilian institutions and the fact that some of the trees it planted near the Israeli border were named after slain Hezbollah fighters.
The US decision to sanction GWB came amid heightened tensions along the Blue Line, as Israeli security officials believe Hezbollah is looking to take advantage of societal schisms caused by the government’s judicial overhaul, including the decision by thousands of active reservists to refuse to report for volunteer duty in protest.
In a Monday televised speech marking 17 years since the end of the Second Lebanon War, the head of the Iran-backed Shiite terror group His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...
claimed that Israel’s military has gradually "weakened" since the "defeat" it allegedly suffered in 2006 and warned that if conflict erupts, the Jewish state "will cease to exist."
| Update from the Jerusalem Post at 8:30 a.m. ET, courtesy of Skidmark: |
“Alleged encroachment on private property by GWB and Hezbollah and propagandizing by GWB have also caused well-documented clashes with locals,” the Treasury said.
"The UN and Security Council must address this Hezbollah arm in the upcoming renewal of UNIFIL’s mandate and demand that the Government of Lebanon immediately remove all military compounds built by Hezbollah under the guise of Green Without Borders along the Blue Line in grave violation of Security Council Resolution 1701. The Government of Lebanon must be held accountable for what occurs on its territory.”
The US step comes as the UNSC is preparing to vote to extend UNIFIL's mandate. Israel is concerned that the resolution that accompanies the mandate's extension will weaken UNIFIL's ability to monitor Hezbollah's entrenchment on the Lebanese side of Israel's northern border.
Related:
Green Without Borders: 2023-01-26 Lebanon environmental group denies it’s Hezbollah, but locals tell different story
Green Without Borders: 2023-01-25 Hezbollah erects new watchtowers on Lebanon border as IDF builds defensive wall
Green Without Borders: 2022-06-09 IDF accuses Hezbollah of gathering intelligence under guise of environmental group
Green Without Borders: 2023-01-26 Lebanon environmental group denies it’s Hezbollah, but locals tell different story
Green Without Borders: 2023-01-25 Hezbollah erects new watchtowers on Lebanon border as IDF builds defensive wall
Green Without Borders: 2022-06-09 IDF accuses Hezbollah of gathering intelligence under guise of environmental group