Tension rises between Lebanon's banks and Hezbollah

This went relatively unreported earlier last month, including here, so I thought I would add something to this financial forum.

Congress passed a new round of sanctions against the Hez ballas back in December, and now they sending bombs to the bankers as a warning. Banks don't want to lose their relationship with US banks. The Hez and affiliates claim it is affecting Hospitals and Social programs they fund. Lets hope they can sort this out amongst themselves internally with little violence.

The US Congress passed the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act (HIFPA) in December last year. Its goal was to broaden existing financial sanctions against both Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite group designated a terrorist organization by the US, and Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese television station al-Manar.

Katherine Bauer, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former official at the US Treasury Department, says: "When this legislation came out, Lebanese regulators were already requiring their banks to abide by US regulations when dealing in dollars." But, Bauer continues, tensions mounted when Lebanese banks decided to go above and beyond the US restrictions: "There are anecdotal accounts that banks are cutting off all kinds of accounts related to Hezbollah-affiliated parliamentarians, aspects of Hezbollah’s social support network like hospitals, family members’ accounts."

"Banks in the Middle East," Bauer says, "in places that are perceived to be or are higher risk, are having a hard time maintaining correspondent relationships with US banks. Their risk calculation is, as a bank, and especially a Lebanese bank, where the majority of trade is denominated in dollars: 'I won’t survive if I lose my US correspondent, so I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that relationship is maintained’. And, in this case, even at the risk of violence." The violence happened on the night of June 12, when a bomb exploded outside Blom’s headquarters: "Two were injured, but [it was done] to send a message to the banking sector there," says Bauer.

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These are the kinds of unseen consequences sanctions can have I guess. Perhaps they should branch out into the illegal oil industry that the Turks and Isis share together?

So this scumbag is willing to cut money off to hospitals so he can maintain his relationship with American banks. Has he taken any time to see all the damage that the banks have done to America?

a reply to: buster2010

well, in his defense, all the employees of this institution, and their families, have to eat also. According to them, without the US client relationship, their business is hardly viable. Its like one of those between a rock and a hard place type scenarios for the parties over there. Do they block funds to those associated with a "designated terrorist organization" even if it hurts the social efforts of their own citizens , or do they close up shop and leave the employees and their families without an income?? Not to mention the support staff that they employ locally around the bank such as custodial and maintenance, network IT guys, the dining establishments around that are visited by them.

Globalist policies are just not simple at all. makes things very complicated. The foreign interests end up interfering with local priorities and relationship, turning friends into rivals. A damn shame.