The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Tuesday imposed new sanctions aimed at choking off key financial mechanisms used by Hezbollah to sustain its operations, particularly through revenue generation linked to Iran and the exploitation of Lebanon’s informal financial sector, the Treasury said. 

In a statement, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it had designated a gold exchange company and a regional procurement and shipping network that collectively help the Lebanon-based militant group convert assets into usable funds and access international markets. 

Among those targeted was Jood SARL, a gold exchange company that the Treasury said is overseen by Hezbollah’s U.S.-designated financial arm Al-Qard Al-Hassan (AQAH) and has been used to convert the group’s gold reserves into cash to help sustain its efforts to reconstitute its forces. 

“Hezbollah is a threat to peace and stability in the Middle East,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement. “Treasury will work to cut these terrorists off from the global financial system to give Lebanon a chance to be peaceful and prosperous again.” 

The sanctions were imposed under Executive Order 13224, a counterterrorism authority used to target terrorist organizations and those that support them. The United States has designated Hezbollah as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization under this order since 2001 and as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997. 

In addition to Jood SARL, the Treasury targeted an international procurement and commodities shipping scheme orchestrated by Hezbollah financiers operating from across the Middle East, including in Iran, that the agency said helps facilitate revenue generation and sanctions evasion.

The Treasury said AQAH — which is nominally registered as a nongovernmental organization in Lebanon — has been used to provide financial services functionally similar to a bank despite its limited licensing, creating a mechanism that obscures Hezbollah’s financial activities.

To counteract these schemes, the OFAC designations block all property and interests in property of the targeted entities and individuals that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons. The sanctions also extend to any entity owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by a designated person. 

Violations of U.S. sanctions can result in civil or criminal penalties, and financial institutions may face exposure if they engage in transactions involving designated individuals or entities, the Treasury said.