Accessibility links

Breaking News

US Designates Son of Hezbollah Leader a Terrorist

update

FILE - Shi'ite rebels, known as Houthis, hold a poster of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah during a rally in support of Iranian-backed Hezbollah, in Sana'a, Yemen, March 3, 2016.
FILE - Shi'ite rebels, known as Houthis, hold a poster of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah during a rally in support of Iranian-backed Hezbollah, in Sana'a, Yemen, March 3, 2016.

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday designated Jawad Nasrallah, son of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, a terrorist and accused him of carrying out attacks against Israel in the West Bank.

The department also blacklisted Al-Mujahidin Brigades (AMB), which it said had links to Hezbollah and had plotted a number of attacks against Israeli targets from a base in the Palestinian Territories.

"Today's designations seek to deny Nasrallah and AMB the resources to plan and carry out terrorist attacks," the State Department said in a statement. It said the actions denied Nasrallah and AMB access to the U.S. financial system.

Later, the State Department announced it was offering up to $5 million each for information leading to the locations of Hamas leader Salih al-Aruri, Lebanese Hezbollah leaders Khalil Yusif Mahmoud Harb and Haytham Ali Tabatabaei under the agency's so-called Rewards for Justice Program.

WATCH: Jawad Nasrallah

US Designates Hezbollah Leader's Son as Terrorist
please wait

No media source currently available

0:00 0:02:41 0:00

​The department said both Hamas and Hezbollah receive weapons, training and funding from Iran. Washington recently reimposed sanctions against Tehran after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a 2015 nuclear deal.

Earlier on Tuesday, Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri blamed Iran-backed Hezbollah for what he called "a big obstacle" in efforts to form a new government.

Hezbollah, a heavily armed Shi'ite Muslim group, has been pressing a demand for one of six Sunni Muslim lawmakers allied to it to get a cabinet position. Hariri has refused to give up one of the seats allocated for his mainly Sunni party.

Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on four people linked to Lebanon's Hezbollah who coordinate the Iran-backed group's activities in Iraq and designated the son of the group's leader as a global terrorist.

The U.S. Treasury added Shibl Muhsin Ubayd al-Zaydi, Yusuf Hashim, Adnan Hussein Kawtharani and Muhammad Abd-al-Hadi Farhat to its Specially Designated Global Terrorists list. Al-Zaydi is Iraqi and the others are Lebanese.

  • 16x9 Image

    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

XS
SM
MD
LG