US designates Hezbollah an Iranian proxy, sanctions funding network

What the report says

The United States has reclassified Hezbollah as an Iranian proxy and imposed new sanctions on what it says is a funding network tied to the Lebanon-based armed group. The move was announced by the US Treasury on Thursday and presented by US officials as part of a broader effort to pressure Iran and disrupt the financial and operational links between Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, especially the Quds Force.

According to the Treasury, the new sanctions target 10 people alleged to be involved in transferring money to Hezbollah. Washington says the network moved cash through commercial airline travel between Lebanon, Turkiye, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, and that the arrangement allowed Hezbollah to access foreign currency outside the formal banking system and avoid sanctions. The report says one person, Turkish businessman Yunus Alper Yilmaz, is accused of leading the network.

Al Jazeera reported that the designation change builds on earlier US sanctions against Hezbollah, which was labeled a foreign terrorist organization in 1997 and later a specially designated global terrorist group in 2001. The new language says Hezbollah is not a stand-alone group but an extension of Iran’s Quds Force. Hezbollah and Iran reject Western policy toward the region.

The announcement comes as US-backed negotiations between Israel and Lebanon remain stalled and Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon continue despite ceasefire understandings. Al Jazeera reported fresh strikes and shelling on Friday in several southern Lebanese locations, underscoring the ongoing insecurity and the wider regional stakes of the sanctions decision.