Treasury Department Sanctions Hezbollah’s Bogus ‘Environmental’ Organization as Terrorist Front

The US Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed terrorism sanctions on a group that describes itself as an environmental non-governmental organization but in reality is a front for the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

Green Without Borders (GWB), the supposed NGO, was founded in 2013 and is ostensibly dedicated to protecting Lebanon’s natural environment by planting trees in southern Lebanon. According to the Treasury Department, however, those trees in fact protect Hezbollah outposts that the group has constructed along the Blue Line separating Israel and Lebanon. 

The Treasury Department says those outposts are then manned by Hezbollah operatives, serve as cover for Hezbollah’s underground warehouses and munitions storage tunnels, and have been used to impede the operations of United Nations peacekeepers who are in theory tasked with preventing Hezbollah from using southern Lebanon as a base for militant activity.

“The United States rejects Hezbollah’s cynical efforts to cloak its destabilizing terrorist activities with false environmentalism,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement. “We will continue to support the many Lebanese civil society groups protecting Lebanon’s unique and sensitive natural environment while also relentlessly pursuing Hezbollah and their support networks.”

Hezbollah, which is supported financially by Iran, has in recent months significantly ramped up its provocations along the Israel-Lebanon border amid Israel’s ongoing domestic political crisis.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, has repeatedly called out GWB’s militant activities along the Blue Line at the UN Security Council. On Wednesday, he welcomed the new US designation.

“In light of today’s welcomed step by the US, the Security Council must follow suit,” Erdan said. “As Israel presented to UN officials and Security Council members on numerous occasions, Green Without Borders serves as a guise for Hezbollah, an internationally designated terrorist organization. The UN and Security Council must address this Hezbollah arm in the upcoming renewal of [the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon’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.”

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